Sherwin-Williams Grizzle Gray SW 7068 outside: LRV 12.8, siding, roofs, vinyl and the dark grays next to it

Sherwin-Williams Grizzle Gray (SW 7068) is a dark, nearly neutral gray. Sherwin-Williams publishes an LRV of 12.835, an RGB of 99, 101, 98 (hex #636562), rates it for interior and exterior use and files it in its Neutral family, at 236-C6 on its color strip. On a house it works as a body color on lap siding, board and batten, fiber cement or stucco, with a light trim and a door that carries the contrast. Its green lean is real but very small. It cannot go on vinyl siding in ordinary paint, because the limit is an LRV of 56, but the VinylSafe palette has a swatch with the same screen value: Pepper Shaker, SWVS 435.

Color values below come from Sherwin-Williams' and Benjamin Moore's own pages and data. Color differences and chroma figures are our calculations, and the roof and brick pairings are our reasoning, labeled as such.

Grizzle Gray at a glance: the numbers Sherwin-Williams publishes

These values come from the color's page (Sherwin-Williams, SW 7068 Grizzle Gray) and Sherwin-Williams' public color data, which matches it. Hex and RGB are an approximate digital rendering, not a tinting formula.

The Top 50 tag is a label in the data, with no ranking attached. Grizzle Gray is not among the six swatches on Sherwin-Williams' exterior colors page, whose only dark is Urbane Bronze. HGSW is the prefix of HGTV Home, sold at Lowe's, but we could not open an HGTV Home page for this color, so the numbers in this guide apply to SW 7068 only.

Is Grizzle Gray green? What the numbers say about its undertone

Some color blogs describe Grizzle Gray as a gray with a green undertone. The direction is right, and the size is the part they leave out. In Lab, a −1.40 is a slight lean to green and b +1.42 a slight lean to yellow. Combined, that gives a chroma of about 2 by our calculation, where 0 is a perfectly neutral gray. In RGB, green leads the other two channels by only 2 and 3 points.

At this low chroma, the surroundings do most of the work. What to expect outdoors, as a matter of color logic rather than measurement:

• Next to red brick or a brown roof. Warm neighbors push the gray toward its opposite side, so the green or blue reading gets stronger.
• North wall or overcast sky. Flatter and heavier, closer to Peppercorn in feel.
• Full sun. Noticeably lighter than the chip.

What an LRV of 12.8 means on a house

Light Reflectance Value runs from 0 (black) to 100 (a perfect white). At 12.8, Grizzle Gray reflects roughly an eighth of the light that reaches it. That puts it well above true near-blacks such as Iron Ore (5.55) and Tricorn Black (2.85), and beside the depth of Slate Tile (14.77) and Smoky Blue (14.62). Our guide to reading LRV explains the scale.

For building products, this is plainly a dark color. Simpson Door says any paint under an LRV of 55 is a dark color for its exterior doors, and for dark paint it points buyers to specific designs in Accoya wood, with their own warranty terms. ASTM's standard on heat buildup in PVC building products (D4803) links darker colors to more absorbed energy and possible distortion. Before you paint a door, shutter or window, read its warranty: those limits come from the product's maker, not the paint.

The color page publishes no fade rating for SW 7068, so treat any promise that it will not fade as unsupported. Our dark exterior colors pros and cons page covers the wider trade-offs, and if your community has rules on dark bodies, check the HOA color rules guide before you order.

Strip 236: Grizzle Gray and its light-to-dark ladder

Grizzle Gray sits sixth on Sherwin-Williams strip 236, a ladder of clean grays with almost no color in them. You can stack two or three of its steps on one house without an undertone clash. Values from Sherwin-Williams' color data, all rated for exterior use:

A ready-made scheme: Grizzle Gray on the body, Cityscape on a garage wing or dormers, Peppercorn on the foundation skirt, and Nebulous White on the trim.

Grizzle Gray vs Peppercorn, Iron Ore and other look-alikes

The first three below come from the list of similar colors in Sherwin-Williams' data; the others are common comparisons. LRVs come from Sherwin-Williams; the color difference (ΔE2000) is our calculation from its published Lab values. A value under about 2 is hard to tell apart on a wall; above 5 is clearly a different color.

If a sample looks too green on your wall, Peppercorn is the direct step away, and Web Gray is the cooler choice at the same depth. If Iron Ore felt too black, Grizzle Gray is more than twice as reflective. Our Iron Ore vs Peppercorn comparison and the gray exterior paint colors guide cover the wider family.

Benjamin Moore colors near Grizzle Gray

There is no official cross-brand equivalent. These are the closest by our calculation from the LRV and screen color published on Benjamin Moore's pages. All three are slightly lighter.

Treat all three as starting points for a painted sample, and confirm the color can be tinted in the exterior line you choose.

Grizzle Gray with your roof

With a body this dark, the roof decides whether the house keeps its shape from the street. These notes are our color reasoning, not a manufacturer's rule, so hold your sample board against the actual roof.

Grizzle Gray with brick and stone

• Red or orange brick, unpainted. A near-neutral dark gray gives saturated brick a calm neighbor, but the brick will pull out the gray's green side. Choose the trim from the mortar joint: a light mortar takes Nebulous White well. Siding and brick color combinations shows more pairs.
• Tan or buff brick. The two will not blur together, but check that the gray does not make the brick look washed out.
• Gray or blue-gray stone veneer. The easiest match, because the stone's cool side is close to the paint.
• Painting the brick itself. Think twice. The Brick Industry Association's Technical Note 6 (2024) warns that paint can be very difficult to remove without damage, that acrylic latex is typically vapor semi-permeable and creates a recurring maintenance task, and that mortar's alkalinity calls for an alkaline-resistant primer or a paint made for masonry. Our paint or keep the brick guide walks through the decision.

Grizzle Gray as a siding color: wood, fiber cement, stucco

• Lap siding and board and batten. On a dark color, shadow lines show less than on a mid-tone, so the profile looks quieter from the street. As we read it, deeper battens hold their rhythm better. See our board and batten painting guide.
• Cedar and redwood. The Duration data sheet warns that tannin in these woods may stain the first coat, that a second coat evens it out, and that persistent stains need a spot of exterior oil-based wood primer.
• Fiber cement. Duration lists cement composition siding among its surfaces, and asks you to test new boards for pH. New boards can also come with a factory finish: James Hardie's national catalog shows Hardie Plank in a color it calls Iron Gray, and its ColorPlus article describes a baked-on finish with a 15-year prorated limited warranty. That is James Hardie's own color, not an official match for SW 7068.
• Stucco. Duration calls for a 30-day cure on new stucco, or 7 days plus Loxon Concrete & Masonry Primer if you cannot wait, and any surface above pH 9 must be primed with a high pH-resistant coating.

Grizzle Gray on vinyl siding: Pepper Shaker SWVS 435

Vinyl expands as it heats, and a dark coat makes it hotter than its factory color. The Duration, Emerald Exterior and SnapDry data sheets all say the same thing: do not paint vinyl a color darker than the original, or with an LRV below 56, unless you use VinylSafe colors, because the vinyl may warp. Departing from the siding maker's painting guidelines may also void its warranty. At 12.8, Grizzle Gray is far under the limit.

Grizzle Gray is not in the VinylSafe palette, a separate collection coded SWVS that Sherwin-Williams presents as 100 colors formulated to resist warping or buckling on a sound, stable vinyl substrate. But that page draws its swatch for Pepper Shaker, SWVS 435, with the hex value 636562, the same as Grizzle Gray's. Sherwin-Williams does not say they are the same color, and a matching screen value does not prove the paint on the wall will match, because VinylSafe is a separately formulated palette. It is still the obvious first sample.

Two other swatches sit nearby by our calculation from the hex values on that page: Cobweb SWVS 410 (#636760, ΔE 2.7), a little greener, and Gray Jacket SWVS 434 (#5A6468, ΔE 5.1), darker and cooler. Outside VinylSafe, the only step on strip 236 above the limit is Passive (59.89), a very different look. Our VinylSafe guide goes through the palette.

Trim, door and accent colors with a Grizzle Gray body

Sherwin-Williams' own pairings are the first three rows. The gap is the LRV difference against the body.

Because a dark body and a dark door sit close in value, a stained wood door or a saturated color usually reads better from the street than another gray. Our guides to front door colors for a gray house and gray house and white trim pairings compare the options.

Which Sherwin-Williams product, and when to paint

Figures from the product data sheets:

Duration should not be applied if air or surface temperatures may fall below 35°F within 48 hours, or if rain or snow is expected within 2 to 3 hours, and its data sheet says not to paint in direct sun. On a dark color, plan to follow the shade around the house. More detail: SuperPaint vs Emerald, the Duration Exterior guide and the SnapDry vs Emerald Urethane comparison.

If the house was built before 1978, assume the old paint may contain lead. Under the EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting Program, anyone paid to disturb paint in that housing must be certified. The rule generally does not apply to homeowners working on their own pre-1978 home, with exceptions such as rentals and home childcare, but the EPA still recommends lead-safe practices.

How much Grizzle Gray do you need?

Our arithmetic from the coverage figures above. The Duration data sheet asks for 2 coats on new, bare substrates and 1 coat for a repaint; plan on 2 for a real color change.

• Body of a two-story house, two coats. Take 2,000 sq ft of siding after subtracting windows and doors. Two coats make 4,000 sq ft; at 250 to 300 sq ft per gallon that is about 13 to 16 gallons: three 5-gallon buckets, plus a spare gallon for rough siding.

Going from white or a light beige to Grizzle Gray counts as a drastic change: the SnapDry and Emerald Urethane data sheets note that a coat of primer then improves the hiding of the topcoat.

How to test Grizzle Gray before you commit

1. Paint two coats on a 2 by 2 ft board, not a chip.
2. View it on each side of the house, at different times and on an overcast day, from across the street as well as up close, with your trim, roof and any brick in view.
3. Put Cityscape and Peppercorn beside it to see whether you want lighter or darker, and Web Gray if the green bothers you.
4. Try it on a photo of your own house before buying a single gallon.

For the wider Sherwin-Williams exterior range, start with our Sherwin-Williams exterior paint guide.

Sources and references

• Sherwin-Williams, SW 7068 Grizzle Gray: color data.
• Sherwin-Williams, exterior paint colors: featured colors.
• Sherwin-Williams, VinylSafe colors for vinyl siding: palette and swatches.
• Sherwin-Williams, product data sheets for Duration Exterior, Emerald Exterior Gloss, SnapDry Semi-Gloss and Emerald Urethane Trim Enamel Semi-Gloss: vinyl rule, application, coverage.
• Benjamin Moore, color pages for City Shadow CSP-60, Kendall Charcoal HC-166 and Bracken Slate CW-690: LRV and screen color.
• Brick Industry Association, Technical Note 6, Changing the Appearance of Brick Masonry: painted brick.
• James Hardie, national product catalog and ColorPlus Technology article: Iron Gray, finish warranty.
• ASTM International, D4803, Standard Test Methods for Predicting Heat Buildup in PVC Building Products: heat buildup.
• Simpson Door Company, Paint it black: dark door colors.
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting Program: pre-1978 homes.