I would love to know how a latex paint in a standard finish manages to have a truly metallic quality, but Sherwin Williams Urbane Bronze does just that!
Read on to see Urbane Bronze in real homes, check out a million coordinating colors, and finally, peep some true color twins.
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What Color is Sherwin Williams Urbane Bronze (SW 9170)
Urbane Bronze is equal parts charcoal and chocolate. The result is a deep brown, tempered by heavy gray.
If you have heard of the Sherwin Wiliiams color Pewter Green, then Urbanze Bronze is a pewter brown.
It really does have a bronzey metallic look. Occasionally people also mistake it for a deep green.
Over simplified: It’s a very dark greige.
LRV of Sherwin Williams Urbane Bronze
The LRV of Urbane Bronze is 8.
What does this mean in regular human speak?
The LRV 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.
At 8, Urbane Bronze is a dark paint color. Most black paint colors have LRVs in the 3 – 5 range, so it’s not quite there, but in low light it can occasionally look black.
Some might sell Urbane Bronze as an alternative to a black, but it’s really an alternative to charcoal. You won’t get a solid black effect with this color.
What Are the Undertones of Urbane Bronze
It’s been a while since I reviewed a true chameleon paint color!
Any color with a lot of gray will tend to shift more than a saturated color ever will, and Urbane Bronze is no exception.
At face value, Urbane Bronze is a deep charcoal brown. Depending on lighting and other factors, it can have steely blue or even olive green undertones.
Is Urbane Bronze Warm or Cool
Just like Urbane Bronze, I refuse to be pinned down on this one!
In general, I would say that it is a warm color, but it has sooo much gray that it’s quite a cool brown.
Treat it like a neutral!
Urbane Bronze Color Strip
Urbane Bronze is the darkest shade on the Sherwin Williams color strip that begins with Worldly Gray.
This strip is full of beautiful greiges!
Lighter Version of Urbane Bronze
One shade lighter than Urbane Bronze on the same color strip is Sherwin Williams Porpoise.
Porpoise has an LRV of 13, and it’s a really great option if you want a color just a bit lighter than Urbane Bronze. It has fooled me more than once!
Darker Version of Urbane Bronze
There really isn’t a darker version of Urbane Bronze. If you are after a true black, go for Sherwin Williams Tricorn Black.
Sherwin Williams Urbane Bronze Color Palette
At face value, Urbane Bronze looks like a color that might be a bit finicky, but not so!
This color is amazing! A lot of people regard Benjamin Moore Hale Navy as a go-with-anything color, and I proudly offer Urbane Bronze as another option.
I honestly can’t say that there’s a single color that I think it would clash with. There may be colors that don’t do much for it, but clashing is another story.
Typically I would create a single coordinating color palette, but today i decided to show off Urbane Bronze’s versatility, by putting it with a whole bunch of other colors!
Here is a Southwest inspired color palette featuring Urbane Bronze from my Cavern Clay post:
I have also used Urbane Bronze in my Evergreen Fog color palette:
(Evergreen Fog is the background color in that one.)
If you are into taupes and greiges, check out this palette from my Sherwin Williams Acier post:
I also included Urbane Bronze in this dark and moody palette inspired by Sherwin Williams Jasper:
Urbane Bronze Complementary and Coordinating Colors
Here are some individual darker colors that I think work well:
Urbane Bronze looks amazing with almost any other dark and moody color!
Sherwin Williams Homburg Gray
A deep charcoal with a hint of green.
Sherwin Williams Acacia Haze
Another go-with-anything color.
Sherwin Williams Cascades
A deep moody teal bordering on black.
Benjamin Moore Vintage Vogue
A warm sage green.
Benjamin Moore Hale Navy
The OG navy that you can use like denim.
Officially, a “complementary color” is the color directly across the color wheel. For Urbane Bronze that color is very close to Hale Navy.
Sherwin Williams Iron Ore
I’ve got a lot to say about Iron Ore and Urbane Bronze, so I will cover it in just a moment when we talk about similar shades!
Sherwin Williams Jasper
A deep foresty green with smoky allure.
Benjamin Moore Black Forest Green
Is it black or green? Perfect with Urbane Bronze for a woodsy, mid-century modern, color scheme.
Here is a lighter color palette:
Sherwin Williams Accessible Beige or Agreeable Gray
Two of Sherwin Williams most popular neutrals of all time.
Sherwin Williams Ethereal White
a creamy white with a hint of green.
Sherwin Williams Snowbound
A warm white without any yellow.
Sherwin Williams Sea Salt
A soft green that can be used as a whole-home neutral.
I hate to overwhelm you by not giving any specific ideas, but try to think of it as a positive! You can try Urbane Bronze with almost any color that you are drawn to. Just order your stickers from Samplize, and go to town!
The fastest, easiest, and most affordable way to test your paint colors, is by ordering a peel-and-stick sample!
Samplize will ship you a large “sticker” made of actual paint. You can reposition it to check out the color in every area of your home.
The best part? It often ends up being cheaper than buying the test pots and sampling the old fashioned way. (Plus you can order all the colors you want!)
Canadian? Hello Paint does the same thing, without the expensive international shipping.
What Trim Colors Go With Sherwin Williams Urbane Bronze?
Besides going with a seamless all-bronze look (which could really be quite nice) there are two major trim choices: White or wood.
Let’s take a look at both! (And I added black for good measure.)
Urbane Bronze with Wood Trim
Here is a graphic I created to help you picture how your existing oak, dark wood, or mahogany trim would look with Urbane Bronze:
For once, I don’t know that I have an opinion. I think that any of these could work, but I would want to try Urbane Bronze with my specific trim before I made a decision.
White Paint that Goes with Urbane Bronze
I usually like a clean white trim, but with Urbane Bronze I actually think a soft warm white is the way to go. For all you SW Alabaster lovers out there, this will be music to your ears!
My picks for white trim are:
Sherwin Williams Alabaster
I am pretty sure that Alabaster is Sherwin Williams top selling white paint color. It’s darker compared to bright whites, and definitely creamy.
I cover Alabaster a bit in my post: Sherwin Williams Natural Choice vs Alabaster (Which to Choose?)
Sherwin Williams White Flour
White Flour might be my favorite creamy white. It’s very similar to Alabaster, but a little “brighter.”
(You might also like SW Greek Villa. I would be hard pressed to choose between the two!)
Benjamin Moore White Dove
A really silky creamy white by Benjamin Moore.
Sherwin Williams Shoji White
Shoji White is a bit of a less traditional choice for trim. It’s actually an off-white, but if also used for your ceilings and doors, it will look like a rich creamy white.
This antique white will add an extra softness and warmth to your Urbane Bronze color scheme.
Sherwin Williams Urbane Bronze Home Interior
Finally! Let’s see this baby in action!
Sherwin Williams Urbane Bronze Living Room
First let’s go to Lake Glenville Cottage (@lakeglenvillecottage), nestled in the mountains of North Carolina.
Here Urbane Bronze built-ins provide a stunning frame for the brick fireplace:
The moody atmosphere is enhanced by a deep green accent on the opposite wall.
If you want to really invest in investigating Urbane Bronze, you can actually rent this vacation cottage through airbnb.
This next home belongs to Angela (@ang_forthewin), who chose to spice up her white space with a less traditional use of Urbane Bronze:
Angela’s entrance half wall (actually she specifies: It’s 5/8!) carries Urbane Bronze over the trim and door too.
Instagram feedback was a tad mixed at first, but I happen to love the look!
If you also like this look, the possibilities are endless!
Got a can of a much-loved color lying around? Give it the Angela treatment!
The best part is that you don’t need to cut carefully along the trim! Just tape the top and go for it!
Hate the color? It’s pretty easy to switch it up or paint it back.
The rest of Angela’s walls are Sherwin Williams Pure White, and the door is SW Tricorn Black.
Like the door? Check out my post: 39 Spicy Black Interior Doors (How to DIY & Paint Colors to Use!)
For legal reasons I would never tell you to paint your rental home, but if you were to… this would be the easiest way to go. It would be a great way to inject personality without being a lot of work to paint back when you move.
(I may have done my fair share of move-out painting…allegedly.)
Sherwin Williams Urbane Bronze Accent Wall
Most of what we will see from Urbane Bronze are accent walls, because it’s a bit too dark to be using everywhere, but here is a true accent piece:
This fireplace feature wall was designed by Piper (@piper_stromatt), who is never afraid of a bold color.
Sherwin Williams Urbane Bronze Bedroom
Piper also designed the accent wall in this funky double bedroom:
With the mauve color in the bedspreads, Urbane Bronze might look it’s best ever!
“I took all of my inspiration from my grandmother and grandfathers cattle farm. Every memory we have there is meaningful. I wanted to complete this twin bedroom with a modern Wild West look.”
– Piper Stromatt
If you’re wild for Piper’s designs, you can see more from her in my Shoji White post, AND she has a podcast called “The Building Blonde.“
Speaking of cattle-themed Urbane Bronze bedrooms (specific much?) I actually happen to have one more!
This bedroom was put together by @built_frm_scratch:
The clay colored curtains complete the soft white and bronze look.
I believe the other walls here are Behr Whisper White.
Not quite done with bedrooms yet! The final one is by Samantha from @oliveandoakhome.
The main reason that I really wanted to show you this bedroom, is because of how much Urbane Bronze changes with the light and minimal decor adjustments.
In that first photo I would say that Urbane Bronze looks very true-to-tone. If you are wondering how it looks most of the time, that is it.
This next photo you can see it looking that touch of green:
Between the warm artificial light, the touch of Christmas greenery, and the olive throw, I actually think the color changed a lot!
Sherwin Williams Urbane Bronze Office/Lounge and Dressing Room
Now for my all-time favorite photo of Urbane Bronze:
Isn’t that room dreamy?
Brandi (@brandeyehome and brandeyehome.com) calls this her reading nook.
Urbane Bronze is the perfect backdrop for Brandi’s plant collection.
Pops of mustard and clay also complement the color well.
Brandi also used Urbane Bronze on the trim in her dressing room.
You can see from the background that other parts of the house also have the dark beams and trim, but Urbane Bronze is just a close color match, the rest of it was already there.
Turquoise and orange is one of Brandi’s favorite color combinations, and it happens to look great with Urbane Bronze!
The walls in this room are Sherwin Williams Marshmallow.
Sherwin Williams Urbane Bronze Kitchen Cabinets
Now for Urbane Bronze on cabinets!
This is the one area where I would have liked to have a few more kitchens to show you, but I do have a couple.
In this first kitchen by The Finishing Room (@thefinishingroommke) Urbane Bronze looks much closer to SW Iron Ore. This is as charcoal and not brown as it ever looks.
The other kitchen that I have is by Headwaters Painting.
In this particular case, my personal choice would be to refinish the floors to a more neutral tone. I find the yellow reflection off of Urbane Bronze to be too intense.
The actual color of the cabinets falls a bit flat (at least in photos).
Here I used my very poor photo shop skills to change the floors to a more subdued color:
You can still see a heavy yellow reflection, particularly in the island.
This is not meant as a criticism for the painters or the homeowners. It could look great in real life! I just wanted to try and show a more accurate picture of the color as it would appear on cabinets.
Here is one more picture from the same kitchen:
Sherwin Williams Urbane Bronze Exterior
Let’s head back to the designs of Piper briefly while we take a look at this Urbane Bronze exterior:
That first picture you can see that the stone is just being added to the front of the home.
Here is the finished product:
Gorgeous!
I have one more exterior, this one is by Heiler Painting (@heiler_painting):
Urbane Bronze is a smart choice with the more brown brick.
Urbane Bronze Exterior Accent
Well, it’s not exactly trim, but Wesley (@uapiti) did use Urbane Bronze as an accent color with his Benjamin Moore Dark Teal exterior. It is the color on his porch!
Sherwin Williams Steamed Milk is the trim color, and it was absolutely the right choice!
The pop of red in the windows is Sherwin Williams Chinese Red, which doesn’t sound like it would work, but it certainly does!
I haven’t covered Dark Teal before, but it’s very similar to Benjamin Moore Aegean Teal.
Urbane Bronze Compared to Other Sherwin Williams Paint Colors
Urbane Bronze is a very unique color, but maybe not as unique as I thought. Sherwin Williams does have a few similar shades that we will compare, but first, let’s take a look at the famous chameleon Iron Ore vs Urbane Bronze.
Sherwin Williams Urbane Bronze vs Iron Ore (SW 7069)
Iron Ore is a dark moody charcoal color by Sherwin Williams. Sound familiar?
Iron Ore should also be a warm charcoal based on where it is on the color wheel, but it actually tends to look cool, and is definitely cooler than Urbane Bronze.
Iron Ore most often looks like a deep charcoal with a subtle blue undertone, or it looks black. That being said, it can sometimes look a bit greenish like Urbane Bronze.
Let’s see them side by side in real life scenarios:
This first photo of built ins is the most accurate visual of the difference. This is how each color most often appears in real life.
You can see that Urbane Bronze looks like a bronzey almost-black, and Iron Ore looks like a smoky almost-black.
This next photo muddies the waters:
Iron Ore looks warmer here than Urbane Bronze does! Guessing from the shadows on the wall, I think it could be the golden hour in the Iron Ore house, but the room is certainly not drenched in yellow sunlight!
The moral of the story is: Both are chameleons, choose based off of how you want the color to look most often.
On an exterior I would go with Iron Ore siding and Urbane Bronze trim. I think that would look amazing!
The LRV of Iron Ore is 7, so it is just a touch darker than Urbane Bronze.
Sherwin Williams Urbane Bronze vs Black Fox (SW 7020)
Black Fox is similar to Urbane Bronze, but more overtly brown. It doesn’t have the gray metallic quality that Urbane does.
Black Fox is darker than Urbane Bronze with an LRV of 7.
I will say that the difference is more subtle in real life.
Sherwin Williams Urbane Bronze vs Thunder Gray (SW 7645)
These colors are soooo similar! Thunder Gray has an LRV of 9, so it’s a bit lighter than Urbane Bronze. It is also the tiniest bit cooler.
Sherwin Williams Urbane Bronze vs Sealskin (SW 7675)
Sealskin is darker than Urbane Bronze, with an LRV of 6. It is also warmer and less gray.
Sherwin Williams Urbane Bronze vs Forged Steel (SW 9565)
Forged Steel is a fair shake lighter than Urbane Bronze, and completely gray.
The LRV of Forged Steel is 10.
If you were here because you saw Urbane Bronze looking green every once in a while, you might like Sherwin Williams Greenblack better. You can read about Greenblack in my Best Dark Green Paint Colors post.
Urbane Bronze Dupes
I was surprised with just how good the dupes are for Urbane Bronze! You would think that with such a popular color the dupes would be popular too, but it’s really not the case.
Here are the shades that I came up with from other brands:
Benjamin Moore Urbane Bronze Equivalent
To get yourself some Urbane Bronze in Benjamin Moore, check out Dragon’s Breath.
Benjamin Moore Dragon’s Breath (1547)
Dragon’s Breath is just the tiniest bit cooler than Urbane Bronze, but I really can’t see the difference, I am just going off of color codes.
Benjamin Moore says that the LRV for Dragon’s Breath is 9.18, but it certainly doesn’t look any lighter than Urbane Bronze.
Benjamin Moore Kendall Charcoal (HC-166)
Kendall Charcoal is not really a dupe for Urbane Bronze, but it is a very popular similar color from Benjamin Moore, so I wanted to show the two side by side anyways:
You can see that Kendall is a much lighter charcoal with an LRV of 14.61. While it is still a warm brown charcoal, it is much more gray than Urbane Bronze.
Valspar (Lowe’s) Equivalent to Urbane Bronze
I found one solid equivalent for Urbane Bronze in Valspar paint: Dark Oasis.
Valspar Dark Oasis (6011-4)
Dark Oasis is in the yellow color family, compared to the deep orange base of Urbane Bronze.
Valspar says the LRV of Dark Oasis is 5.431, but their numbers are always very different from the other brands.
Valspar does provide hex codes, just like Sherwin Williams, so we can assume the actual appearance of the color is accurate.
Urbane Bronze Behr Equivalent (Home Depot)
The closest color match that Behr offers for Urbane Bronze is Berry Brown.
Behr Berry Brown (PPU24-02)
Even though these two colors are very close, I do feel like you can plainly see the difference when swatched together.
Berry Brown is a warmer more red charcoal. The LRV of Berry Brown is 8.
Urbane Bronze Final Moody Musings
I feel like I already went on and on about this color, so how does one even recap?
- Give Urbane Bronze a chance with almost any color
- Definitely consider this shade for your exterior or exterior trim
- Want a dark neutral that’s not black? Urbane it up!
I always share colors at the end of my posts that are related, but in this case I definitely would recommend checking out Thunderous or Pewter Green if you are looking for something similar to Urbane Bronze.
Don’t Forget Your Supplies!
This little brush might look funny, but it’s my absolute ride or die!
Rollers like these hold the most paint and make the job faster. Get a metal roller cage for easy on and off.
DryDex is the fastest (and funnest!) way to make chips and dents disappear. (Make sure you get a small spackling tool that actually fits in the container, and a sanding sponge.)
This tool will save your back and limit time on a ladder.