Sherwin-Williams Web Gray SW 7075 outside: LRV 13.118, trim pairings, the VinylSafe limit and how to preview it on your house

Sherwin-Williams Web Gray (SW 7075) is a dark, nearly neutral gray. Sherwin-Williams publishes an LRV of 13.118, an RGB of 97, 102, 105 (hex #616669, an approximate digital rendering), and places it at step C6 of store strip 235. On a house it reads as a charcoal gray with a faint blue lean. It looks best with clean white or cream trim. Before you buy it for a house with vinyl siding, check one point: Web Gray is not on Sherwin-Williams' VinylSafe palette.

Color values come from Sherwin-Williams' own color page and public color data. The Lab values, LRV gaps and hex comparisons are our calculations from those published figures. The house advice is our color reasoning, not a finding from a study.

Web Gray SW 7075 at a glance: the numbers Sherwin-Williams publishes

These figures come from the color's page on the Sherwin-Williams site, SW 7075 Web Gray, and from the public color data behind the brand's color pages, which gives the same values. The LRV is the first number to check. It measures how much of the visible light hitting a paint comes back off it, so a value of 13 means most of that light is absorbed.

Is Web Gray warm, cool or neutral?

Web Gray is a neutral, and its Lab values say it leans very slightly cool. The a value of -1.28 pulls the color a touch toward green, and the b value of -2.37 pulls it a touch toward blue. Taken together they give a chroma of about 2.7 on the Lab scale (our calculation), which is very little color. Most of what you see comes from the darkness itself, not from a hue.

That matters when you pick trim. A warm gray has a yellow or red lean, a positive b value, and it can look muddy beside a cool white. Web Gray has no such lean, so it sits comfortably beside neutral whites and cool trims, and it can look a little flat beside a warm cream. Light changes all of this, so check the color on the side of the house that gets the most sun during the day.

What an LRV of 13 means on a house

An LRV of 13.118 puts Web Gray in the dark range, and Sherwin-Williams' color data flags it as a dark color. Dark paint takes in more of the sun's energy, and that has a practical effect on walls that face the afternoon sun.

Berkeley Lab's Heat Island Group explains that sunlight a surface does not reflect is absorbed as heat, so a dark wall in full sun runs hotter than a light one. The same group says cool surfaces do not have to be white, and that cooler versions of dark roof and wall products exist. The Sherwin-Williams data we checked for Web Gray gives no near-infrared or solar reflectance figure, so we cannot tell you whether this color is one of those cooler darks. Ask for that data before you choose it for a south or west wall in a hot climate.

Visual weight is the second effect, and it is our reasoning rather than a measured result. A charcoal body on a tall two-story facade fills the view from the street, so the trim, the door and the roof carry more of the look than the walls do. That is why the trim choice in the sections below matters as much as the body color.

Web Gray on its strip: the steps around it

Sherwin-Williams places Web Gray at 235-C6. The table lists the seven steps of that store strip, with the LRV and hex from the same color data, so you can see where Web Gray sits between its neighbors.

Web Gray is the second-darkest step on its strip. The step down to Cyberspace is about 6.7 LRV points (our calculation), and the step up to Software is about 9.6 points. Network Gray, three steps up, is about 24 points lighter. If you want the color a little lighter, Software is the nearest step. If you want it darker, Cyberspace is the only step below it.

Those gaps matter because the color you see on a screen or a card is never exactly the paint on the wall. A jump of 6 or 7 LRV points is visible on a whole facade, while a small change in hex can pass unnoticed. Sample the step you think you want, and the one next to it, before you order.

Web Gray vs. Grizzle Gray and the other dark grays

Most readers who look at Web Gray also look at Grizzle Gray SW 7068. The two are almost identical on LRV, but they are not the same color. Our Grizzle Gray exterior guide covers that color on its own terms, and the table puts the two next to the other dark grays people compare them with.

The LRV gap between Web Gray and Grizzle Gray is 0.28 points (our calculation). The hex codes show the real difference. Web Gray's blue channel is 105 against 98 for Grizzle, and its red channel is 97 against 99. The Lab values agree: Web Gray's b value is -2.37 (a touch blue), while Grizzle Gray's is +1.42 (a touch yellow), with its a value of -1.40 pulling it toward green. On a long wall, that small difference is the thing to judge in person, in daylight, next to the trim you plan to use.

Iron Ore SW 7069 sits at the other end of the list, with an LRV of 5.550, and it reads close to black on most walls. Our Iron Ore exterior guide covers that end of the range. If you want something lighter than Web Gray but still a gray, Gauntlet Gray at 17.428 is the next step up in this group.

Vinyl siding: check the VinylSafe palette before you pick Web Gray

This is the point most likely to cost you money. Sherwin-Williams' VinylSafe page describes a palette of about 100 colors for vinyl siding, with a limited selection of darker shades formulated to resist warping or buckling on sound, stable vinyl. The page also gives the reason for the limit: a dark color applied over a lighter vinyl can make the substrate buckle, which is why the darker VinylSafe shades were developed. Before VinylSafe, the choice on vinyl was the same color or a lighter one.

Web Gray is not in that palette as the page lists it, which we checked on 4 November 2026. That does not prove a Web Gray repaint on vinyl will fail. It means Sherwin-Williams does not offer the color in its vinyl palette, so a repaint on vinyl falls outside the vinyl guidance the manufacturer publishes.

If the house is vinyl, choose a color from the VinylSafe palette, or ask your Sherwin-Williams dealer for a written answer before you buy. Our VinylSafe exterior guide walks through the palette. If the siding is wood, fiber cement, stucco or masonry, the VinylSafe limit does not apply to that surface, but read the product data sheet for that surface before you paint.

Before you repaint a pre-1978 house: the lead rule

The color choice does not change the lead step. If the house was built before 1978, the repaint has to follow the EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting rule, which covers homes and child-care facilities built before 1978. Anyone paid to perform work that disturbs painted surfaces must be certified, and the EPA page says that includes sole proprietorships. Their employees must also be trained. The work must use lead-safe work practices that minimize occupants' exposure to lead hazards.

Homeowners who work on their own home are generally not covered, unless they rent out all or part of it, run a child-care business there or flip the house for profit. If you hire a painter, ask for the firm's EPA certification before work starts, and ask how they will limit dust and debris from the old finish.

Trim, door and accent colors for a Web Gray body

Sherwin-Williams' color page lists three coordinating colors for Web Gray: Greek Villa SW 7551, White Raisin SW 7685 and Site White SW 7070. Their LRVs run from 57.311 to 84.223, which gives you a light trim, a warm white and a golden accent that all sit in a range that contrasts with a dark body.

Reading those color values (our reasoning): Site White is a near-neutral white with a very slight warmth (Lab b +0.73), so it sits quietly beside a dark body and is the calm choice for trim. Greek Villa is a warm white (Lab b +5.30), and it softens a dark body without the stark edge of a bright white. White Raisin, at #e5c28b, is a golden tone that works better as an accent on a door or shutters than as trim against a dark wall.

For the front door, a black or near-black door stays inside the dark family and reads as a deliberate outline. A white or cream door gives the most contrast. Our Tricorn Black exterior guide covers a near-black door color in more detail, and the contrast question is the same for both.

Which houses suit Web Gray, and which do not

Our reasoning, not a finding from a study, points to three kinds of house where Web Gray tends to work:

• Two-story houses with clear white or cream trim, where the trim gives the dark body its edges.
• Farmhouse, craftsman and transitional facades with a stone or brick base, where the lighter base balances the dark walls.
• Houses with large windows, which break up a dark wall and give the eye places to rest.

It is less suitable in three cases. A small one-story house with little trim becomes one flat dark block. A house in deep shade for most of the day can make Web Gray read close to black. A house beside darker neighbors may blend into the street, so look at the whole block before you commit.

If you want a lighter body with a similar calm, our Wool Skein SW 6148 guide covers the other end of the scale. For the full set of Sherwin-Williams exterior colors we cover, start with our Sherwin-Williams exterior paint guide.

Which exterior line and sheen to choose

The line you choose sets the sheen and the product's build, and that matters as much as the color for a dark body. This article does not restate line data. Our guides to Emerald Exterior and to Duration set out what each line is built for. Confirm the sheen, the coverage and the recoat details on the product data sheet before you buy, because those are the numbers that change from line to line.

How to sample Web Gray on your own house

A dark color changes the most with the light, so sample it before you commit. Put a large sample on the sunniest wall and another on the shadiest one. Look at each in the morning, at midday and in the evening. Keep the sample up for at least a week, and compare it with the trim you plan to use, not with a white card from the store.

The illustration in this article shows Web Gray on a tan vinyl house. It is a visual check of the color, not a prediction of how the paint will look on your siding. Your material, your light and the paint line you pick all change the result.

Preview Web Gray on a photo of your house

Upload a front photo taken in daylight. The tool applies the color to the surface you choose, so you can compare Web Gray with two or three candidates on the same photo. A dark body only shows its character next to the trim you pick, so judge the pair, not the walls alone.

Sources and references

• Sherwin-Williams, SW 7075 Web Gray color page: LRV 13.118, RGB, hex, strip location 235-C6, coordinating colors.
• Sherwin-Williams, public color data behind its color pages: LRV, Lab values, strip neighbors and LRVs of the other colors compared in this guide.
• Sherwin-Williams, VinylSafe paint colors for vinyl siding: palette size, the limited selection of darker shades, and the buckling reason.
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting Program: pre-1978 housing, certification of paid firms, lead-safe work practices.
• Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Heat Island Group, About cool surfaces: sunlight that is not reflected becomes heat, and cool colors do not have to be white.