Sherwin Williams Cast Iron is a complicated deep green paint color, with shifting undertones from earthy, to charcoal.
Today we will see it in real homes, get coordinating color ideas, compare to similar shades, and dupe the look with Benjamin Moore and other brands.
What Color is Sherwin Williams Cast Iron? (Undertones and More!)
Cast Iron is an interesting gray green paint color that has surprising earthy brown undertones.
It can range in appearance from almost completely charcoal, to a warm olivey green that verges on brown. You will see some great examples of the various looks that Cast Iron can have, when we get to real homes in just a minute!
Cast Iron LRV
The Light Reflectance Value of Sherwin Williams Cast Iron is 12.
What’s an LRV anyways?
The LRV (Light Reflectance Value) of a color indicates on a scale of 0 – 100 how much light a color reflects (or doesn’t reflect). True black has an LRV of 0 and pure white has an LRV of 100.
In the paint world, we are working in a range of about 3 – 93 because no paint color is purely black or completely white.
My rule of thumb is that truly dark paint colors typically have LRVs of 10 or less. At 12, Cast Iron wouldn’t fall under that umbrella, but I do find that this color tends to read a bit darker, probably because it is so gray.
Cast Iron in the Sherwin Williams Color Strip
The color strip that contains Cast Iron is full of truly stunning Sherwin Williams shades!
The other colors in this collection are:
- Aloof Gray
- Sensible Hue
- Rare Gray
- Cornwall Slate
- Link Gray
- Thunderous
Speaking of Thunderous, a lot of people compare these two colors. (Perhaps not realizing that Thunderous is one shade lighter than Cast Iron on the exact same color strip.)
Thunderous is very much a lighter version of Cast Iron. It is also a true chameleon and runs the full range of cool gray to warm olive undertones.
Sherwin Williams Cast Iron in a Color Palette
Here are the coordinating colors that I recommend for Sherwin Williams Cast Iron:
Could I have been a bit more flavorful? Perhaps. It’s hard to incorporate much “color” if we want Cast Iron to remain the star, and I believe it deserves the spotlight.
Coordinating White Paint Color for Cast Iron
I incorporated both a true white and an off-white into this color palette, because both have their place. For walls I recommend going with the off-white of Sherwin Williams Ethereal White.
Ethereal White is truly one of my favorite off white colors. It is a creamy white that stays very neutral thanks to some green and gray in its undertones. In fact, it acts quite similar to a very VERY light version of Cast Iron.
Sherwin Williams Snowbound is a true but soft white with a warm undertone that is complementary to the green in Cast Iron. I recommend this color for trim and doors.
Try Cast Iron with Sherwin Williams Landmark
Landmark is on my list of favorite brown paint colors. This mid-toned brown typically appears somewhere between earthy and chocolate. It does still have some gray in it like Cast Iron, and it can also have an earthy green undertone.
Neutral Paint Color to Use with Cast Iron
While everything in this palette is neutral, for a traditional neutral choice, I recommend Sherwin Williams Shiitake.
For this pairing because I was inspired by this real life home:
So you don’t have to take my word for it! You can see that Shiitake and Cast Iron look great together.
Sherwin Williams Cast Iron for Your Home’s Interior
Speaking of real homes, let’s get to it, shall we?
First we will revisit this kitchen by the team @btbuilderstx, which you will have already spied throughout this article!
I am loving the drama of Cast Iron on these cabinets!
Shiitake brings the perfect amount of light to this combo. I believe the walls here are Sherwin Williams Gossamer Veil.
The Cast Iron cabinets continue into other areas of the house, both in the living room:
…and in the walk in pantry.
People don’t actually use Cast Iron on their walls that often, but here is an example in the dining room on an accent wall:
Here is one more example using Thunderous:
You may recall that Thunderous is one shade lighter than Cast Iron, so I would expect walls to look just a little darker than this. I also find the color a little cooler here, so Cast Iron could look like this, but it more often looks like the color towards the top of the photo.
Cast Iron on an Exterior
To picture Cast Iron on an Exterior, we will have to use our imaginations a little bit.
Here is Sherwin Williams Porpoise, looking very much like Cast Iron outside:
This is what you should expect from Cast Iron at its warmest on an exterior.
I also have Thunderous outside, which will be just a little lighter than Cast Iron.
Try to picture the color at its darkest, as something in between this photo, and this next home (Sherwin Williams Night Owl):
I also have a photo of what may actually be Cast Iron, because they didn’t say and it looks about right to me:
Sherwin Williams Cast Iron Compared to Other Neutral Paint Colors
Here is how Cast Iron stacks up against other popular neutral and deep green paint colors that you may be considering. (click to expand)
Sherwin Williams Iron Ore and Cast Iron look totally different on paper, but there is some overlap when it comes to real life.
Iron Ore is a charcoal paint color that most often has a cool blueish undertone. However, Iron Ore can have a green undertone on occasion, which does look similar to Cast Iron’s.
Night Owl and Cast Iron are both gray-green paint colors at the darker end of mid-toned.
Night Owl is cooler toned than Cast Iron and it has the potential to look all the way gray or even blue-charcoal on occasion.
That being said, these colors are very similar and many times they look quite alike.
Sherwin Williams Pewter Green and Cast Iron are very very similar colors:
Pewter Green is a little darker, cooler, and more gray than Cast Iron. More often than not, Pewter Green looks like a dark cool-toned sage. It doesn’t ever look brownish like Cast Iron can.
Sherwin Williams Rosemary and Cast Iron are both gray green paint colors at the darker end of mid-toned, and they have similar LRVs.
Rosemary is a bit more “true green” and it typically looks like a sage paint color. It does not have the olivey-brown undertone that Cast Iron does, and it is less gray.
Like Iron Ore, Sherwin Williams Urbane Bronze and Cast Iron are not alike at all on paper, but they do have some similarities in real life:
Urbane Bronze is roughly equal parts brown and charcoal, so at its most brown, Cast Iron can start to look similar to Urbane Bronze.
Urbane Bronze in turn can have a slightly green undertone, which starts to look similar to Cast Iron:
Urbane Bronze is darker, more gray, and more brown than Cast Iron.
Dupes for Sherwin Williams Cast Iron from Other Brands
Can’t get down to a Sherwin Williams store? I’ve got some colors to help you get the look in other brands!
Cast Iron in Benjamin Moore
The best color match for Cast Iron over at Benjamin Moore is the shade Randolph Gray.
Randolph Gray is darker than Cast Iron and a tiny bit more saturated.
I would have liked to get a little bit closer, but the next best color was Benjamin Moore Sharkskin, which is lighter than Cast Iron, and it was already my dupe for Thunderous.
Cast Iron Equivalent in Valspar (Lowe’s)
Over at Lowe’s, the best alternative to Cast Iron is the color Valspar Wetlands.
Like the Benjamin Moore dupe, Wetlands is darker and a little more saturated than Cast Iron, but the lighter shade was a better match for Thunderous.
Best Behr Color Match for Cast Iron (Home Depot)
At Home Depot, I was forced to use the same dupe for Cast Iron that I used for Thunderous, which is the shade Behr Bonsai Trunk.
Bonsai Trunk is a little lighter than Cast Iron, but otherwise a good color match.
Here is another look at each of these dupes:
Thank you so much for reading until the end! That really helps my blog. I hope this post helped you decide if Cast Iron is the perfect sort of green, sort of gray, sort of brown!
Still undecided? Gray greens are sort of a special interest of mine!
