Discontinued paint colors
A color you chose gets pulled from the fan deck and suddenly the store can't mix it. This page tracks the 243 discontinued colors in our catalog and links each one to its closest current equivalent in every major brand.
Short version: Paint Color HQ tracks 243 discontinued paint colors — retired shades from Sherwin-Williams and Farrow & Ball that no longer appear in current fan decks but that people still search for by name. If a color you chose has been pulled, you have options. A paint store can often custom-mix it from the original formula, and every discontinued color on this page links to its closest current match in each major brand, calculated with the CIEDE2000 color-difference standard. Find your color in the list below to open its matches.
Why paint brands discontinue colors
Discontinuation is routine, not a sign that anything was wrong with the color. Brands revise their palettes on a schedule to reflect changing tastes, and a fan deck holds a finite number of chips — adding new colors means retiring older ones. Formula and colorant changes force it too: when a pigment is reformulated or a raw material is no longer available, the recipe behind a color can shift, and a brand may retire the old name rather than ship a chip that no longer matches its own standard.
Some colors were only ever part of a limited or historic collection that rotates out by design. Farrow & Ball, for example, keeps selected retired colors in a named archive rather than removing them entirely, so a color can leave the main card and still have a documented recipe.
None of this means a discontinued color is gone for good. The recipe usually still exists, and a close current match almost always does too.
What a discontinued color still gives you
Every color in our catalog — active or retired — carries a hex code, an RGB triplet, and pre-computed cross-brand matches. A discontinued color keeps all of that. Its detail page is still a working bridge: it shows the closest current color in each of the 13 brands we track, so you are not limited to the brand that dropped it. If your discontinued Sherwin-Williams color has a near-identical current color at Benjamin Moore or Behr, the page will show it.
Match closeness is labeled in plain language — near-identical, very similar, or same family — rather than a raw score, so you can judge at a glance which options are true swaps and which are only in the same neighborhood.
What to do if your color was discontinued
- 1. Open your color below. Each discontinued color has a full detail page showing its closest current match in every major brand, ranked from near-identical down to same-family.
- 2. Take it to a paint store. Bring the match, or the original color name and number, to a paint counter. Most stores can custom-mix from a stored formula, or scan a physical sample — an old chip, a lid, a cut-out from the wall — and mix to it.
- 3. Confirm with a physical sample. A close match on screen can read differently on a wall once sheen, lighting, and the coat underneath come into play. Paint a sample in the actual room and check it at a few times of day. The methodology page explains what the match labels mean and where they have limits.
Browse discontinued colors
Grouped by brand. Open any color to see its closest current match in every brand we track.
Sherwin-Williams
220 discontinued colors
Farrow & Ball
23 discontinued colors
Frequently asked questions
Can I still buy a discontinued paint color?
Often, yes. Discontinuation removes a color from the current fan deck, but the formula usually still exists. Many paint stores can custom-mix a retired color from its stored recipe, or color-match a physical sample you bring in. Where that is not possible, the closest current color — shown on each color's page here — is the practical substitute.
How do I find the closest match to a discontinued color?
Find the color in the list on this page and open it. Its detail page lists the closest current color in every major brand, matched with the CIEDE2000 standard and labeled in plain language — near-identical, very similar, or same family — so you can see how close each option really is.
Why do paint brands discontinue colors?
Palettes are refreshed on a cycle, fan decks hold a limited number of colors, and formula or pigment changes can retire a recipe. Some colors were only part of a limited or historic collection to begin with. A discontinued color is usually still recoverable through a custom mix or a close current match.