Sea Salt vs Comfort Gray: Color Comparison Guide

In this article, you will learn about Sea Salt and Comfort Gray colors including a side-by-side comparison. If you are considering either of these colors, the following information will help you make the right decision.

Gray tones offer decorators a lot of flexibility when choosing a basic wall color both inside and outside their home. However, it’s important to note whether the gray has a yellow or a blue base.

Both Sea Salt and Comfort Gray are yellow-based grays and have a very slight green tint.

Definitions

Hex Code

The attributed hex codes for each color is a hexadecimal method of determining the combination of red, blue and green that goes into creating a color.

The important thing about a hex code is that it is shorter; being able to lose the three digits of each of the RGB code allows coders and designers to more efficiently note which colors they want to be included in their web pages and layouts.

RGB Code

While the use of hex codes really didn’t blossom until it was necessary to create efficient HTML coding, the RGB scale stretches back into the early 1900s and was popular in coloring in print media, from cartoons to advertisements.

When considering paint colors vs. digitally produced colors, it’s important to remember that the primary paint colors are red, blue, and yellow. In the light spectrum, you’re working with red, green, and blue.

When you combine all the colors in paint, you get black. If you split white light in a prism, you will get all the colors broken out.

LRV

LRV, or Light Reflectance Value, is a measurement that indicates the amount of light a paint color reflects. It is expressed as a percentage, ranging from 0% (absolute black, which absorbs all light) to 100% (absolute white, which reflects all light).

Sea Salt vs Comfort Gray

Sea Salt (CSP-95) – Benjamin Moore

Sea Salt is a slightly lighter shade of gray-green but within the same family as Comfort Gray. It is more inclined to go chalky as the light fades; you may not be happy with this in a bedroom if you struggle to fall asleep.

When you put yellow or warm sunlight on a gray-green wall, the green will stand out a bit more.

To encourage this even more, use warm tones in the space.

Your brown leather sofa will work well in this space, as will cream throws, tan armchairs, and maple bookcases.

The green in this shade is quite subtle. Take care not to overpower it. For example, a strong red oak or cherry floor may not work as well with this shade, but it will coordinate beautifully with a pale maple or a yellow finish oak.

This is a great color if your home is a work in progress. For example, you may have dated yellow oak cabinets that you really want to repaint at some point in the future. Using either of these colors in the space will brighten the cabinets with a slight green nudge.

Do take care with your trim choices when using this paint color. If you prefer to paint every room its own color but only want one trim color, avoid bright white. Bright white is bright because it has a slight blue tint.

This gray-green against blue-tinted white will just read gray; too much blue in the ceiling paint or trim paint may make the gray rather dingy and drab.

Go for a very pale cream trim paint. Other colors that will go with such trim include warm pastels, such as pale peach or a warm tan.

Peel-and-Stick Paint Sample – Sea Salt (CSP-95) – Benjamin Moore

Your Sea Salt gray green walls will add a touch of cool elegance in a home with such warm colors and may be most effective in a large room or a space with a high ceiling.

Luckily, Sea Salt is light enough to work both as a ceiling paint and a wall color. If your ceiling is textured, you’ll need to keep separate tools going to avoid mixing texture into your wall paint. If you plan to remove the texture at some point, don’t paint it.

EXTRA TIP: If you plan to scrape the popcorn, do your best to finish this before you update the flooring and, if possible before you move in. The mess can be unimaginable if you’re trying to live in the space. It can also be very hard on your back and neck if you’re doing it on your own. Allow plenty of time so you can take a break.

RGB: 204, 209, 200
Hex Code: #d4cfc3

LRV: 61.09

Paint Color Samples

Would you like to sample these paint colors? I recommend using a peel and stick paint sample from SAMPLIZE. Peel and stick paint samples are very affordable and easy to use. They are also clean and environmentally friendly!

Comfort Gray (6205) – Sherwin-Williams 

Comfort Gray is a bit smokier and richer than Sea Salt. If you like classic colors, such as those in the Queen Anne color palette, you may want to incorporate this shade into your exterior paint scheme.

This gray offers a lot of flexibility. You can use this tone as a base for a warm, relaxing living room by adding deep olive room darkening shades, a wine-toned armchair and a rich brown suede sofa.

If you put pale colors against this gray, the green will read more effectively.

In a bright and sunny space, ivory drapes and a warm tan sisal rug can be an ideal choice.

This color can also offer an outdoor feel; if you have a breezeway or a 3-season room, put this color on the walls and add a limestone yellow tile floor with a terra cotta grout for the feel of a breezy beach.

Don’t be afraid to use bright tones against this gray-green. For example, if we look at where gray green falls on the color wheel, the opposite is not red but purple.

Got a decadent smoky purple pillow? Add it to a warm maple rocker with a sage green throw to really stretch the available green in this wall color.

Another wonderful option in a bright, sunny space is to use a hanging chair, securely mounted, of ivory or tan mesh with a rugged canvas cushion. Add plants and let the breezes blow through!

If you choose to do a whole house paint job with this color, keep the trim very simple. The same creamy ivory colors that will work with sea salt will work effectively with Comfort Gray.

Even better, it will work with the dated oak cabinets that you are hoping to cover up over time.

You may not want to bring out the green. With Comfort Gray, you have options! Your teenager’s bedroom can have a charcoal or navy blue bedspread or a bright white desk and this gray-green will just be gray.

This is not a color that is inclined to be cantankerous. You have to coax out the green if you want it.

Either of these gray tones would be a wonderful color to serve as a foil for an accent wall. You could add a rich olive paint to one wall in the space, or you could warm things up with a wine, burgundy, or purple.

Peel-and-Stick Paint Sample – Comfort Gray (6205) – Sherwin-Williams

If you’re not ready for the accent wall plunge, look for accessories in these tones to keep the wall paint from fading into the background.

Another option for an accent wall could be to add texture. For example, if you find a tile that works well in a room, run the tile up the wall and mount an electric fireplace over it.

No matter what you do on your accent wall, let the wall be the accent. Don’t overload it with furniture, bookcases, or too many mounted items.

RGB: 190, 195, 187
Hex Code: #BEC3BB

LRV: 54

Gray can be surprisingly complicated. Do make sure you buy a sample and either paint it on the wall or put it on a blank canvas and hang the canvas.

Carefully study what this color does as the light changes in the room. If you love one gray in full sun and another in the evening, consider swapping out your light sources to enjoy that sunlight color all day long.

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