Is Sherwin-Williams Sea Salt green or blue?

Both, depending on the light. Sea Salt (SW 6204) is a light green-gray at LRV 63.3 with a neutral undertone, which means it carries green, blue, and gray at close to equal weight and lets the room decide which one shows. In warm, bright light it reads green; in cool north light or artificial light it reads more blue-gray. That color-shifting is why it is the most famous chameleon neutral in the Sherwin-Williams line.

What is the Benjamin Moore equivalent of Sherwin-Williams Sea Salt?

The closest Benjamin Moore match to Sea Salt (SW 6204) is Gray Cashmere (2138-60), a near-identical green-gray. Benjamin Moore's Palladian Blue (HC-144, LRV 61.8) is often called the Sea Salt equivalent, but it reads a shade bluer and cooler — a close cousin rather than a true match. If you want Sea Salt's green side, choose Gray Cashmere; if you want it pushed toward blue, Palladian Blue is the better pick.

What is the difference between Sea Salt and Rainwashed?

Sea Salt (SW 6204, LRV 63.3) is lighter and more balanced; Rainwashed (SW 6211, LRV 59.2) is a step deeper and leans a touch more blue-green. Both have neutral undertones and both sit in the gray family in our database. Pick Rainwashed if you want the coastal blue-green to read more clearly, and Sea Salt if you want it lighter and more flexible. Comfort Gray (SW 6205, LRV 53.6) is the darker, warmer third sibling.

Is Sea Salt a good color for a bathroom?

Yes — the bathroom is Sea Salt's most popular use. At LRV 63.3 it is light enough to keep a small bathroom feeling open, and its green-blue-gray shift reads calm and spa-like under both daylight and vanity lighting. Pair it with a soft white trim like Alabaster (SW 7008, LRV 82.2) rather than a stark white, which would make the green-gray look dingy by contrast.

Sea Salt (SW 6204): Undertones, Coordinating Colors & Cross-Brand Matches

Sea Salt (SW 6204) is a light green-gray at LRV 63.3 with a neutral undertone — and it is the most famous chameleon in the Sherwin-Williams deck, a color that reads green in one room, gray in another, and blue-green by lamplight. That shape-shifting is the whole appeal in a spa-like bathroom or a calm bedroom, and the whole problem anywhere you need a color to hold still. This guide breaks down what Sea Salt actually is, how it behaves by window direction, how it splits from its two sisters Rainwashed and Comfort Gray, and its closest match in every brand you can buy. Every hex, LRV, and undertone here comes straight from our color database.

The Numbers

Sea Salt(Sherwin-Williams) is Sherwin-Williams 6204. Its hex value is #cdd2ca, its LRV is 63.3, and its undertone reads neutral. One detail explains a lot of its behavior: in our database Sea Salt classifies in the gray family, not green — which is exactly why it can drop its green and read as a soft gray when the light goes flat. At LRV 63.3 it is light enough to keep a small room open, but it has enough body to register as a real color instead of a tinted white.

The Chameleon Effect: Why Sea Salt Never Looks the Same Twice

Sea Salt carries green, blue, and gray at close to equal weight, and the room decides which one wins. That is the neutral undertone at work — nothing in the mix dominates, so the light does. In a bright, sun-filled space the green and a hint of blue come forward and it reads coastal and fresh. In flat or artificial light it lets the gray take over and can look almost like a pale greige. Neither is a defect; it is the color doing what a balanced blue-green-gray does. If undertones are new to you, our guide to understanding paint color undertones explains why a neutral mix like this one is the most light-sensitive kind there is.

By window direction: north-facing rooms get cool, indirect light that pulls Sea Salt toward its gray and blue side — spa-like if you want cool, muddy if you were hoping for green. South-facing rooms get warm light all day, which brings the green forward and keeps it lively. East-facing rooms read greener in the warm morning and cooler by afternoon. West-facing rooms lean cool and gray in the morning, then warm toward green as the evening light turns golden. Test a large sample on the actual wall and look at it morning, noon, and night before you commit — with a mover like this one, that step is not optional.

Sea Salt vs. Rainwashed (and Comfort Gray)

These three Sherwin-Williams greens get cross-shopped constantly because they are close relatives, so here is the split. Sea Salt(Sherwin-Williams) (SW 6204, LRV 63.3, neutral) is the lightest and the most balanced — the safe middle. Rainwashed(Sherwin-Williams) (SW 6211, LRV 59.2, neutral) is a step deeper and leans a touch more blue-green; it reads a little more obviously colored and a little less gray. If you want the coastal blue-green to be clearer, pick Rainwashed; if you want it to whisper and stay flexible, pick Sea Salt. The third sibling, Comfort Gray(Sherwin-Williams) (SW 6205, LRV 53.6, warm golden undertone), is the darkest and the only warm one of the three — it grounds toward a green-gray sage rather than staying cool, which makes it the right call when Sea Salt reads too pale or too cool for the room.

Sea Salt in Every Brand: The Closest Cross-Brand Matches

Sea Salt is a Sherwin-Williams color, but the same green-gray exists under a different name in almost every line — matched by how close it actually looks, not by name. The single closest is White Rapids(Dutch Boy) from Dutch Boy, which shares Sea Salt's exact hex for a dead-on match (Delta E 0.0). In Benjamin Moore, Gray Cashmere(Benjamin Moore) (2138-60) is the near-identical equivalent. In Behr it is Silver Setting(Behr), also near-identical, and PPG Bay of Fundy, Valspar Three Wishes, and Hirshfield's Pale Loden are all close enough to swap in. The one to watch is Farrow & Ball Skylight — it is in the same family but visibly different on the wall (Delta E 2.6), so treat it as a cousin, not a substitute.

The match people ask about most is Benjamin Moore Palladian Blue(Benjamin Moore) (HC-144, LRV 61.8) — the famous blue-green that gets pitched as the Sea Salt of Benjamin Moore. They are close cousins, not twins. Palladian Blue reads a shade bluer and a hair cooler than Sea Salt, and its own closest Sherwin-Williams match is Waterscape (SW 6470), not Sea Salt. If you love Sea Salt's green side, the honest Benjamin Moore equivalent is Gray Cashmere; if you want the same idea pushed further toward blue, that is when Palladian Blue is the better call.

Coordinating Colors: Trim, Companions, and What to Pair

For trim and ceilings against Sea Salt, reach for a soft white rather than a stark one — a bright white makes the green-gray look dingy by contrast. Alabaster(Sherwin-Williams) (SW 7008, LRV 82.2) is the standard partner: warm enough to flatter Sea Salt without competing with it. For a tonal, layered scheme, Silver Strand(Sherwin-Williams) (SW 7057, LRV 59, warm golden) is Sea Salt's closest cabinet-and-trim companion — a hair warmer and slightly deeper, so it grounds a room built on Sea Salt walls. And when you want more color weight in the same family, Comfort Gray(Sherwin-Williams) (SW 6205, LRV 53.6) steps the green-gray up for a vanity, island, or accent wall. Sea Salt's most common home is the bathroom — see our best bathroom paint colors guide for where it lands against the field, and if you are deciding between it and a true sage, our best sage green paint colors post covers the greener end of the family.

Testing Sea Salt in Your Own Room

Because Sea Salt moves so much with the light, testing it where it will live matters more than it does for a stable neutral. Drop a photo of your actual room into the room visualizer to see the green-gray on your own walls before you buy a sample. To check exactly how far Sea Salt sits from Rainwashed, Palladian Blue, or any match above, put them side by side in the color comparison tool. The full Sherwin-Williams range lives on the Sherwin-Williams color chart, and you can browse the neighbors in our green paint colors and gray paint colors families — Sea Salt sits right on the line between them.