The Benjamin Moore (and Behr) Equivalent of Dorian Gray

If you love Dorian Gray but need it in another brand, you have run into the same wall everyone does: no manufacturer publishes an official cross-brand equivalent. There is no sanctioned lookup table, and the reason is simple, no brand wants to certify a competitor's formula. Matching is really about finding the color with the closest light reflectance value (LRV) and the closest undertone, then accepting a small, honest gap. Dorian Gray is a deep warm greige at LRV 39, dark enough to anchor a room and give it weight, with a green-taupe base that reads earthy in warm light and can flash faintly green or blue when the light turns cool. Any match has to land close on both counts, depth and cast, or it will look off on the wall even when the chip looked right in the store. We walk through the full method in our guide to how cross-brand paint matching works. Below we apply it to Dorian Gray with one primary Benjamin Moore match, one alternative, and one Behr option.

The closest matches, side by side

A quick read of the table: Cape May Cobblestone 1474 is the pick we would start with, because it lands at essentially the same LRV and stays in the same warm-greige lane, just a hair warmer and a touch richer. Rockport Gray HC-105 is not a tighter match (it is darker), but it is the right call when you want the same green-gray character with more weight, since Dorian at LRV 39 already leans deep and some rooms can carry deeper still. On the Behr side, Still Gray N360-3 goes the other direction, sitting a few points above Dorian in LRV so it reads a touch lighter while keeping the same green-taupe base. None of the three is a clone, and that is the honest takeaway: you are choosing which small trade-off you prefer, not finding a twin.

As approximate digital renderings only (the physical chip is authoritative): Dorian Gray sits near hex #ACA79E, Cape May Cobblestone near #ADA89C, Rockport Gray near #96938A, and Behr Still Gray near #B3AEA3. LRV figures are published-figure approximations, and on-screen hex or RGB values shift with your monitor, your browser, and the room light around you. Never buy off a screen: pull a physical chip or a sample.

Why there is no exact Dorian Gray equivalent

Every brand builds its colors on its own tint bases and its own colorants, then mixes them in proportions it keeps proprietary. Two greiges can share the same LRV on paper and still land in different places on the wall, because one leans a touch more green and the other a touch more brown or violet. Dorian Gray is a warm greige with a green-taupe base: at LRV 39 the brown half dominates in warm light, but pull the warmth away and the green steps forward, sometimes with a faint blue flicker under a cool daylight bulb. A Benjamin Moore or Behr color mixed on a different base rarely flashes in exactly the same way.

Deck size matters too. Sherwin-Williams, Benjamin Moore, and Behr each carry hundreds of near-neutrals, but the gaps between adjacent greiges are not spaced identically from one deck to the next. That is why the honest answer to a match is a small, named delta (a point of LRV here, a slightly warmer cast there) rather than a promise of a twin. Anyone advertising an exact or official equivalent is overstating what the color decks actually allow.

Light does the rest, and Dorian exaggerates it. Because it is darker than a typical warm gray, less light bounces back off the wall, so whatever cast is present has room to land: it can look grounded and earthy in a south-facing room full of afternoon sun and noticeably cooler, even softly sage, in a north-facing space or under an overcast sky. Its Benjamin Moore or Behr counterpart will swing too, just not by the same amount, and flooring, cabinetry, and trim pull it warmer or cooler by contrast. So even a well-chosen match should be judged in context, on your surfaces, under your bulbs. This is exactly where a quick digital preview earns its keep before you spend on samples.

When the Benjamin Moore match works (and when to stay Sherwin-Williams)

The match you want depends on why you are switching brands in the first place. A few concrete calls:

• Choose Cape May Cobblestone 1474 when you are already committed to the Benjamin Moore ecosystem (existing trim, an accent already on the wall) and want the nearest deep greige without rebuilding your whole plan around Dorian Gray.
• Reach for Rockport Gray HC-105 instead when you want the same warm green-gray character but a touch more depth and drama, for a study, a moody powder room, or a lower-light space that can carry it.
• Stay with Sherwin-Williams Dorian Gray when the exact green-taupe cast is the whole point, for example matching an adjoining wall already painted in SW 7017, where even a small shift would show. For how it behaves by room and light, see Dorian Gray undertones and best rooms.
• Not sure Dorian is even the right depth for you? It helps to see it against a darker sibling first: how Dorian Gray stacks up against the deeper Gauntlet Gray shows how much heavier the next step down reads before you switch brands at all.

Related matches

Matching one deep greige across brands and want the rest of your palette to follow? We ran the same LRV-and-undertone method on two of Dorian Gray's lighter warm-greige neighbors: here is the Benjamin Moore match for Worldly Gray, the light warm greige a few rungs up the deck, and the Benjamin Moore match for Perfect Greige, the mid warm greige people often cross-shop against it.

Frequently asked questions