Using the right type of paint around your home is one of the biggest decisions of any home renovation. More importantly, however, it’s crucial to choose the right paint color. Choosing the right paint color is a great way to make specific parts of your home stand out.
If you need a sage green paint that you can use anywhere as a wall, trim, or cabinet paint, October Mist from Benjamin Moore may be perfect. October Mist is a soft green paint that provides warm, soothing tones.
It’s soft enough to serve as a complementary color to other paints, but it’s also bold enough to be the focal point of a room. October Mist is so versatile, in fact, that it won Benjamin Moore’s Color of the Year award in 2022.
Although it’s now more than a year old, October Mist remains one of the most popular colors in Benjamin Moore’s arsenal. If you’re curious and want to know more about this unique color, you’ve come to the right place.
What Color is October Mist?
- LRV: 46.54
- RGB: (182, 184, 165)
- Hex Value: #B6B8A5
October Mist 1495, also known as CC-550 is a soft, sage green color. It’s so soft and subtle that it almost borders on gray but has just enough depth to be unmistakable as green.
The amount of gray that October Mist has mixed into it is part of the reason it’s so popular. It’s not bold or overwhelming enough to stand out dramatically and is as close to a neutral green as you can get without being gray or beige.
October Mist Undertones
Once you really dig into the October Mist color palette, you can start to see the undertones. Gray is the main undertone and is what lends October Mist its toned-down, warm color.
However, October Mist also has a healthy dose of beige worked into the color palette, which further goes to tone down its green appearance. This combination of green, gray, and beige also gives the paint a more earthy, natural appearance than other greens.
Finally, October Mist has a hint of red and yellow undertones, as well, which is what lends it a warmer feel.
October Mist LRV (Light Reflective Value)
Light Reflective Value, LRV, is one of the main criteria that people look at when they’re choosing a paint color. LRV measures how much light the paint color will reflect and is measured on a scale of 0 to 100, with 100 being the most and 0 being the least.
This means that if the paint has an LRV of 0, it will be an extremely dark and toneless color that doesn’t reflect light at all. If it has a score of 100, it will usually be a very bright color that lights up a room when the sun hits it perfectly.
October Mist has an LRV value of 46, which makes it a very neutral, mid-tone color. Because it’s so neutral, October Mist goes great in a bedroom, living room, basement, bathroom, or anywhere else in your home. It does a good job of adding extra light to your home without being so radiant that it’s a nuisance.
Is October Mist Warm or Cool?
How warm or cool a paint color is depends on its base. For instance, reds, yellows, and oranges are considered cool colors, while blues, violets, and greens are considered in the cool color family.
Although October Mist is unmistakable as a green color, it has enough gray, yellow, red, and beige undertones to make it a fairly warm color. While it’s not as warm as other colors with more yellow or red in them, October Mist is one of the warmest GREEN colors available.
How to Use October Mist in Your Home
Because of how versatile, warm, and neutral October Mist is, you can use it in many different places around your home.
October Mist For Bathrooms
October Mist is a great option for many different uses in bathrooms. You can make it the focal point and paint your walls with October Mist from top to bottom.
However, you can also use it for your bathroom cabinets or as a complementary color. A good example of this would be painting the wall directly above your bathroom sink with October Mist. This color will complement white or lighter-tone cabinets and help them stand out.
October Mist For Cabinets
In addition to using October Mist for the walls in your bathroom, you can also use it for your bathroom cabinets. It’s light enough that it will make your cabinets bright and airy, but not so much that it will highlight every blemish on the cabinets.
There are also a lot of people who like to use October Mist for kitchen cabinets for these same reasons. However, to keep from being redundant, most people tend to use October Mist for kitchen cabinets, only if they don’t use it for the kitchen walls.
October Mist For Kitchens
Aside from using October Mist for your kitchen cabinets, you can also use it for your kitchen walls. One of the reasons that people love October Mist in their kitchens is because it has a very calming effect.
Feeling calm is important when you’re busy preparing meals for your family or for a big dinner party. The soft gray-green mixed with red and yellow undertones has an unmistakable calming effect, even if you don’t think about it.
October mist is also easy to pair with backsplashes, cabinets, kitchen appliances, and flooring, which adds to its usefulness as kitchen wall paint. You can use it as the primary color or on an accent wall or backsplash.
October Mist For Living Rooms
Perhaps the most popular use for October Mist is in living rooms and dining rooms. Warm, neutral tones are all the rage right now when it comes to living and dining rooms, and October Mist fits the bill.
With a mid-range light reflective value, it reflects just enough light so that it isn’t dull or darken your living space, but it’s not so bright that it blinds people when they enter the room.
October Mist is also neutral enough to complement furniture, doors, light fixtures, and other amenities in your living space. It does a great job of bringing a room together without having to be the focal point.
October Mist For Accent Wall or Bedrooms
If you don’t want to use October Mist on every living or dining room wall, you can also use it for an accent wall. This is an especially good idea for bedrooms.
It’s becoming increasingly popular to have dark bedroom walls. Dark walls keep your bedroom from getting too bright in the morning, which makes it easier to sleep in. Darker tones also provide a warmer, more romantic aura for the bedroom.
However, having a bedroom that’s too dark can get eerie and depressing. Therefore, it’s a good idea to have an accent wall painted with October Mist to keep light and brightness in the mix.
October Mist For Exterior Use
In addition to being useful in every part of your home, you can also use October Mist on the outside of your home. This makes it one of the most versatile paint colors on the market.
October Mist for exterior purposes is best utilized on your siding as the main color people will see when they look at your home. You can complement it with white trim and fixtures, the same way you would on the inside of your home.
Black or darker-colored roofing provides excellent contrast for October Mist, especially if you want to embrace the idyllic, enchanting look that October Mist provides.
It’s also toned down enough that you can make other parts of your exterior the highlights of your home. This could include a bold blue or yellow front door, red or violet shutters, or other features.
What Colors Go With October Mist?
While October Mist is a great paint color for parts of your home, you likely won’t want to use it throughout your entire home. Therefore, it’s important to have a list of great October Mist coordinating colors.
Bold Colors That Go With October Mist
In general, most people like to use October Mist as the main color for the inside or outside of their homes. They do this, because, as a neutral, warm color, October Mist does a great job of complementing bolder colors that are meant to stand out and shine.
- Wild Flower is an orange/red color that’s great for bathroom and laundry room cabinets outlined by a wall of October Mist.
- Venetian Portico is another great Benjamin Moore color that’s a toned-down reddish clay.
- Hale Navy is a dark navy blue that’s perfect for bedroom walls when combined with an accent wall of October Mist.
- Bold Yellow is also an option if you want cabinets or walls to stand out.
Essentially, most colors in the red, blue, or yellow family can pair with October Mist if they aren’t too overpowering or outlandish.
Neutral Colors That Go With October Mist
Even though October Mist is fairly neutral and toned-down, it still goes great with other neutrals, including the following.
- Yellows – Heirloom Gold and Pale Moon
- Reddish/Orange – High Park
- Creamy White – Cloud White, White Dove, and Chantilly Lace
You can also pair October Mist with similar green tones, such as Raintree Green, Rolling Hills, Springfield Sage, and Saybrook Sage.
Trim Colors to Combine With October Mist
If you want to use October Mist for walls, it’s best to complement it with white trim. Soft white is the best color, specifically White Dove from Benjamin Moore, Cameo White from Behr, or Alabaster from Sherwin Williams.
How Does October Mist Compare to Similar Colors?
As with most paint colors, it can be tough to differentiate October Mist from other soft, sage-green colors. This is especially true for the untrained eye. Here’s how October Mist stacks up against similar colors that it often gets confused with.
October Mist vs Evergreen Fog
Evergreen Fog by Sherwin Williams is very similar to October Mist. However, while Evergreen Fog is a neutral soft-green color, it’s slightly darker than Evergreen Fog. It also has more blue incorporated into the color, making it slightly cooler and less warm than October Mist.
You can quickly tell the difference between October Mist and Evergreen Fog on a grand scale. Evergreen Fog will darken and tone down a room, whereas October Mist slightly brightens it.
October Mist vs Saybrook Sage
To the naked eye, it can be very difficult to tell the difference between October Mist and Saybrook Sage. They’re both a silvery-green color with subtle hints of blue and gray. They’re both made by Benjamin Moore, which adds to their similarities.
However, upon closer examination, you can tell that Saybrook Sage is slightly darker and has less silver and gray than October Mist. Additionally, because of these extra silver and gray undertones, October Mist looks more like a sage-green than Saybrook Sage!
October Mist vs Vale Mist
As with Saybrook Sage, it’s almost impossible to tell the difference between October Mist and Vale Mist, especially to the untrained eye. If you look closer, however, you can see that October Mist is ever so slightly darker than Vale Mist.
It also has more of a gray undertone, whereas Vale Mist appears more silvery or beige. These differences make October Mist slightly greener than Vale Mist, although they’re both good options from Benjamin Moore.
October Mist: FAQs
What Color Is a Shade Lighter than October Mist? What About Darker?
Morning Dew and Vale Mist from Benjamin Moore are slightly lighter than October Mist and are great options if you want a higher light reflective value.
Saybrook Sage, on the other hand, is slightly darker than October Mist and is a good option for a lower LRV.
What Sherwin Williams Paint Is Similar to October Mist?
While October Mist is a great paint color, it isn’t available at all stores. If you only have access to stores that sell Sherwin Williams products and you want something similar to October Mist, SW Grassland 6163 is your best option.
Conclusion
As you can see, there’s a lot to love about Benjamin Moore’s 2022 Paint of the Year, October Mist. It’s a lovely soft-green color with gray and silver undertones that give it a natural, earthy look and feel.
You can use October Sage throughout your home for walls, cabinets, accent walls, and even for exterior use. No matter how or where you decide to use October Mist, it’s important to choose the right complementary colors and apply it properly.
You should also be careful not to overload your home with October Mist. While it’s a great color, some people might find it too light, dark, or neutral to use everywhere. Instead, you should combine it with other colors to make your home stand out and shine.