Benjamin Moore Vintage Vogue 462: LRV, Undertone, Rooms

Benjamin Moore Vintage Vogue 462 is a very dark, smoky green. Its color page calls it an "ultra-dark, smoky green" that can stand in for black or brown, lists a light reflectance value (LRV) of 11.85 and the hex code 565D4F (RGB 86, 93, 79), and files it in the Benjamin Moore Classics collection and the Green family. A wall in Vintage Vogue sends back about 12 percent of the light that reaches it, so indoors it reads as a deep gray-green where daylight hits it and close to charcoal in a dim corner. It suits rooms meant to feel enclosed and calm: a home office or library, a dining room, a bedroom, lower kitchen cabinets or an island, interior doors and built-ins, and small rooms painted top to bottom.

One limit first: the color page names no undertone and labels no trim color. It tags the color by project (bedroom, cabinet, ceiling, kitchen, living room and office indoors) and lists it for interior and exterior use. Undertone readings and room suggestions beyond those tags are ours, built on the published numbers and Benjamin Moore's general guides. This guide covers the interior.

What Benjamin Moore publishes for Vintage Vogue 462

The Vintage Vogue color page gives the number 462, an LRV of 11.85 and the value tag "Dark". It lists four coordinating colors in two pairs: Muslin OC-12 with Beach House Beige 1083, and Dewdrop CC-608 with Tea Light CC-610. Its similar colors are Boreal Forest AF-480, Backwoods 469, Dakota Shadow 448 and Dark Olive 2140-30. The page also shows the rest of its strip, from North Shore Green 456 (LRV 70.62) down through Herb Bouquet 460 (35.37) and Rosepine 461 (20.82): Vintage Vogue is the darkest chip on it. For the wider set of Benjamin Moore interior colors we cover, start with the Benjamin Moore interior paint colors guide.

How dark is 11.85? The Wikipedia entry on light reflectance value describes LRV as a measure of the visible light a surface reflects, from 0 (no reflected light) to 1 (complete reflection). Benjamin Moore's color pages print it on a 0 to 100 basis, with its brightest whites near 90 (Chantilly Lace OC-65 at 90.04, Simply White OC-117 at 89.52), so 11.85 means roughly 12 percent of the light reflected. For scale within the same brand: Fatigue Green 2140-10 is 7.98, Dark Olive 2140-30 is 13.52 and Rosepine 461, the next chip up on the strip, is 20.82.

Screens are approximate. The hex code is a digital rendering: use it to compare shades, and a large physical sample to judge the paint.

The undertone: a smoky green that leans toward olive

Because Benjamin Moore prints no undertone, the RGB values are the best clue. Vintage Vogue has its highest value in green (93), then red (86), then blue (79). Converted to hue, that puts it at about 90 degrees by our calculation. On the color wheel 60 degrees is yellow and 120 is pure green, so 90 sits exactly halfway: a green that leans toward yellow, the olive side, rather than toward blue or teal.

Why "smoky". The gap between its highest and lowest channel is only 14 points, a saturation of about 0.15 on a 0 to 1 scale (our calculation): there is more gray in it than green. That is why it can replace black or brown. In low light, or seen from across a room, the green drops back and the wall reads as a dark neutral; the green shows where light falls directly on it.

Warm or cool? Red sits 7 points above blue, a small warm lean. Under warm bulbs we would expect it to read toward olive and brown-green; under cool daylight, or next to gray stone and steel, it should look grayer and closer to charcoal green. This is our reading of the numbers, so confirm it with a sample in the room.

Light direction: what north, south, east and west do to Vintage Vogue

Benjamin Moore's room orientation guides do not mention Vintage Vogue. The points below apply their general rules to 462.

North-facing rooms. The guide to north-facing rooms describes light that is consistent through the day but muted and cool, rooms that may be a bit darker than south-facing ones, and shadows that look even darker on the wall of a dusky room. It suggests a higher finish, such as semi-gloss or high gloss, on trim to add reflection in darker spaces. Applied to Vintage Vogue: expect a north room to read close to charcoal green most of the day, and use the trim sheen to bring back some sparkle.

South-facing rooms. The guide to south-facing rooms describes strong, warmer light and says a south-facing room is ideal for moodier, darker colors, adding that slightly darker hues keep colors from washing out. It also notes that winter light is sharper and cooler, while summer light can give the same paint an amber cast. For 462 that means the most green and the most olive in a south room on a summer afternoon, and a grayer reading in winter (our reading).

East- and west-facing rooms. Neither guide covers them. Judge the color at the hours you use the room; with an LRV under 12 the wall adds little light of its own, so bulb color decides much of what you see after dark (our reading).

Sample protocol. Benjamin Moore's guide to paint color samples says to brush out at least two coats for the most accurate color, notes that an 8 oz. sample covers about a 2' x 2' area in two coats, suggests a white foam core board you can move around the room, and recommends looking at it from morning to evening under natural and artificial light. Put the board next to your trim and floor.

Best rooms and surfaces for Vintage Vogue

Benjamin Moore tags 462 for bedrooms, kitchens, living rooms, offices, cabinets and ceilings. How to use it in each is our suggestion.

• Home offices and libraries. Books, wood shelves and a light desk stand out against a smoky green.
• Dining rooms. Used mostly in the evening under warm light, when the olive lean reads richest.
• Bedrooms. Behind the headboard or on all four walls with light bedding.
• Living rooms. A fireplace wall or a wall of built-ins, the other walls in a pale neutral.
• Cabinets, interior doors and built-ins. Depth without repainting the walls.
• Small rooms painted top to bottom. Powder rooms, dens and reading nooks.

If you are still weighing other dark greens for a bedroom or an office, the dark and moody bedroom ideas and the green home office ideas set Vintage Vogue's family beside other options.

Color drenching a room in Vintage Vogue

Benjamin Moore's guide to monochromatic color schemes treats it as another name for color drenching and describes two versions. A single-shade scheme uses one color throughout, which makes trim easy, and the guide suggests changing the sheen on trim and moldings for more impact. A multiple-shade scheme uses several shades of one hue; the guide says this softens the look and can make a small room seem larger. It also suggests sheen in unexpected places, such as a semi-gloss ceiling.

Single shade. Vintage Vogue in matte on the walls and satin or semi-gloss on the trim and doors reads as two close versions of one green.

Multiple shades. The strip printed on the color page gives a ready-made ladder in the same family: Rosepine 461 (LRV 20.82) on the walls with Vintage Vogue on the trim, doors and built-ins, or Herb Bouquet 460 (35.37) overhead. Pairing chips from one strip is our suggestion, not a Benjamin Moore scheme, but it keeps the undertone consistent.

The ceiling question. At night the ceiling bounces lamp light back down. At an LRV of 11.85 it stops doing that, and the room feels lower: fine in a powder room or a den. In a larger room, a pale coordinating color such as Dewdrop CC-608 (LRV 76.96) keeps some light overhead (our suggestion).

Vintage Vogue on kitchen cabinets, doors and built-ins

In a kitchen, a green this dark works best on lower cabinets with lighter uppers, or on an island; a full run of Vintage Vogue cabinets suits a kitchen with good daylight and light counters (our suggestions).

The product matters more than the color. Vintage Vogue can be tinted into Benjamin Moore's interior lines. For woodwork, the Advance Interior Paint product page describes a waterborne alkyd for doors, trim and cabinetry in satin, semi-gloss and high gloss. It lists a recoat time of 16 hours, coverage of 400 to 500 square feet per gallon and an application range of 50 to 90°F, and says it cures to a hard, furniture-quality finish, which is the manufacturer's description. Our Advance cabinet paint review covers the product in detail.

Factory cabinets versus a home finish. The Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Association explains on its quality cabinet certification page that cabinets carrying the KCMA A161.1 seal have their structure, drawers, doors and finish tested to simulate a lifetime of use. A finish you brush or spray at home is not part of that program, so its durability depends on prep, primer and the enamel you choose.

Primer under a dark green. The current Fresh Start High-Hiding All-Purpose Primer 046 data sheet lists a Deep Base (04) tinted with Gennex colorant. The July 2021 edition gave the reason: tinted to the approximate finish coat color, the primer hides best, and the Deep Base gives a hiding base coat for deep and intense colors. In practice: ask the store to tint the primer toward Vintage Vogue.

Older homes. Repainting original cabinets, doors or trim means sanding, and the EPA's lead-safe renovation guidance for do-it-yourselfers warns that a home built before 1978 may have lead-based paint. It advises testing by a certified lead inspector or risk assessor, a contained work area and HEPA cleanup.

Vintage Vogue vs Dark Olive, Pewter Green and its closest neighbors

Dark greens are easiest to judge side by side. LRV, hex and collection come from each color's page; hue and saturation are our calculations from the published RGB values.

Vintage Vogue vs Dark Olive. On Benjamin Moore's site Dark Olive is 2140-30; the darkest chip on that strip, 2140-10, is Fatigue Green (LRV 7.98), so check the number on the chip you buy. Dark Olive is 1.67 points lighter with almost the same saturation, but its red and green values are nearly equal (97 and 98), which puts its hue near 64 degrees, close to yellow, and Benjamin Moore files it in the Neutral family. Dark Olive should read as an earthy olive or khaki-green, while Vintage Vogue keeps a clearer green. Both readings are ours; our Dark Olive review covers that color on its own.

Vintage Vogue vs Pewter Green. The Pewter Green SW 6208 color page lists an LRV of 11.826 and the hex code 5E6259, so the two colors are the same depth to within 0.03 of a point. The hues are close (about 87 and 90 degrees), but Pewter Green's saturation is about 0.09 against 0.15 by our calculation, so it is the grayer of the two. For the cross-brand match question, the Benjamin Moore equivalent of Pewter Green page answers it, and the Pewter Green undertones guide covers the Sherwin-Williams side.

Vintage Vogue vs Dakota Shadow, Boreal Forest and Backwoods. Dakota Shadow is a hair darker (11.6) and its red and blue values are equal, which moves the hue to about 120 degrees: a cooler, truer green with no olive lean. Boreal Forest (12.17) and Backwoods (12.68) are slightly lighter and more saturated, closer to a forest green. For a much deeper green, Hunter Green 2041-10 is listed at 6.39, and our Hunter Green review covers it.

Whites, neutrals and woods that go with Vintage Vogue

The color page labels no trim color, but its four coordinating colors and the brand's common trim whites each have a color page with an LRV. The gap column is our subtraction and the roles are our suggestions.

Benjamin Moore's north-facing guide names White Dove for trim and ceilings, and its south-facing guide names Chantilly Lace for the same job. Every white in the table sits about 70 points above Vintage Vogue or more, so the trim choice is about temperature, not contrast: Chantilly Lace gives the cleanest outline, White Dove and Swiss Coffee a softer one. For more on each, read the Chantilly Lace review, the White Dove review and the Simply White review.

Wood, leather and metal. White oak, maple and pine stand out clearly against 462; walnut is closer in depth and will blend. Cognac leather picks up the warm lean, brass adds a warm highlight, and black iron almost disappears against the wall. These pairings are our suggestions: test them against your real floor and furniture.

Preview Vintage Vogue in your own room

An LRV tells you how dark a color is, not how a smoky green sits next to your floor and window light. Upload a photo of your room and the visualizer shows Benjamin Moore 462 on the walls with the same hex code as this article, so you can see whether it reads as green, olive or charcoal before you buy a sample. The interior paint visualizer works the same way for every color compared above.

Sources and references

• Benjamin Moore, Vintage Vogue 462 color page (description, LRV, hex and RGB, collection, family, project and mood tags, coordinating and similar colors, strip): benjaminmoore.com
• Benjamin Moore color pages for the compared greens (LRV, hex, collection, family): Dark Olive 2140-30, Fatigue Green 2140-10, Backwoods 469, Boreal Forest AF-480, Dakota Shadow 448, Hunter Green 2041-10
• Benjamin Moore color pages for the whites and coordinating colors (LRV, hex): Chantilly Lace, Simply White, White Dove, Swiss Coffee, Dewdrop, Muslin, Tea Light, Beach House Beige
• Benjamin Moore, Best Paint Colors for North-Facing Rooms (muted, cool light, darker shadows, higher finish on trim, White Dove for trim and ceiling): benjaminmoore.com
• Benjamin Moore, Best Paint Colors for South-Facing Rooms (strong, warm light, darker colors, seasonal light, Chantilly Lace for trim and ceilings): benjaminmoore.com
• Benjamin Moore, How to Use Paint Color Samples (two coats, 2' x 2' coverage, foam core board, natural and artificial light): benjaminmoore.com
• Benjamin Moore, Guide to Monochromatic Color Schemes (color drenching, single and multiple shades, sheen on trim and ceilings): benjaminmoore.com
• Benjamin Moore, Advance Interior Paint, Satin (uses, sheens, recoat time, coverage, application temperature): benjaminmoore.com
• Benjamin Moore, Fresh Start High-Hiding All-Purpose Primer 046, technical data sheets, US: current edition (Deep Base 04, Gennex colorant) and July 2021 edition (tinting toward the finish color, Deep Base for deep colors): current, 2021
• Sherwin-Williams, Pewter Green SW 6208 color page (LRV, hex, family): sherwin-williams.com
• Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Association, KCMA Quality Cabinet Certification (A161.1 seal and testing): kcma.org
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Lead-Safe Renovations for DIYers (homes built before 1978, testing, dust control): epa.gov
• Wikipedia, Light reflectance value (definition of LRV only, secondary support): en.wikipedia.org