Urbane Bronze by Sherwin Williams was named the 2021 Color of the Year. As darker and more bold paint color choices become more and more popular, it’s no surprise to see Urbane Bronze moving up in the ranks of popularity.
If you’re ready to transform a room, accent wall or even a front door in your home into something more dramatic, yet warm, Urbane Bronze is the way to go.
What color is Sherwin Williams Urbane Bronze?
Despite its very dark appearance, Urbane Bronze is actually a gray paint color that has deep brown/bronze undertones in it, which gives off an almost black appearance when used on walls, depending on the room’s light.
Where can I use Urbane Bronze?
Urbane Bronze looks amazing on front doors, cabinets, accent walls and even used in entire rooms. Don’t be afraid to use it in a whole room–even though it’s a darker hue, Urbane Bronze is actually considered a pretty neutral paint color.
As you can see from the beautiful photo above, Urbane Bronze works well to pull in black and brown decor, giving everything a very soft look, despite its dramatic color.
What colors pair well with Urbane Bronze?
Given the fact that Urbane Bronze is a neutral color choice, many paint colors will pair beautifully with it, provided they have warm undertones, as well.
Urbane Bronze has a warm brown undertone to it, so paint choices that have warm undertones and are on the warmer end of the color spectrum will look best. Anything that has a cool undertone, like a blue or a purple will result in the color looking too harsh.
For example, when pairing Urbane Bronze with a trim color, look for a trim color that has more warmth to it, like White Dove.
Urbane Bronze front door
If you’re looking for a bold color choice on your front door, Urbane Bronze is a good choice. Not too black and not too brown, Urbane Bronze sits right in the middle. If you want to make this bold color choice with your front door, make sure your home’s exterior paint has warm and balanced undertones, so that the two colors compliment it each other.
Urbane Bronze Cabinets
There’s definitely a movement towards darker cabinets, as some homeowners are growing tired of the all-white kitchen trend. Urbane Bronze looks simply stunning on cabinetry!
To pull off the darker cabinetry color, make sure your fixed elements like your floors and countertops have warmer undertones and are neutral in color. For example, Urbane Bronze cabinetry would not pair well with a countertop that had a cooler tone to it like a gray-blue color.
Decor that works well with Urbane Bronze
Before choosing Urbane Bronze to paint a wall, cabinetry or piece of furniture make sure your decor style can support such a bold color choice. Because of the very “earthy” aesthetic found in Urbane Bronze, you want to pair it with natural elements to truly make it stand out and work well for your space. Think warm wood accents, black matte pottery, a jute rug, etc. Urbane Bronze also works to accentuate warm metallics like gold or copper.
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Dear David and Ashley, Thank you for your informative article, “How to use Urbane Bronze by Sherwin Williams in your home.”
My husband and I are in the planning stages of building a home. Our home’s exterior ( an eclectic mix of a modern chateau with a farmhouse flair’) is a balanced mix of modular stone and vertical board and batten siding. The stone will be laid utilizing the dry-stack method. The palette is naturally blended with pewter grays, jasmine greens, rich coffee-browns, and chamomile gold accents.
We would love to use “Urbane Bronze” on the natural cedar board and batten. However, Sherwin Williams does not carry a wood stain utilizing “Urbane Bronze.” Weighing the pros and cons between paint and wood stain, it seems the latter makes the most sense, especially long-term; nonetheless, we have our hearts set on Urbane Bronze. We would love your thoughts on our design predicament.
Colorless in Colorado,
Cyndee K.
Hi Cyndee,
I would advise you to experiment with stains on scrap pieces of wood. If you really like the look of urban bronze, but want the wood stain look, go to a local paint supply store and they can work to get a stain version of the color, but it will take multiple times and you’ll need to test the color on the scraps from the wood. Don’t buy expensive cedar if you aren’t going to stain it–cedar is too beautiful to have most of the wood’s uniqueness covered up with paint. If you desperately want to use the urban bronze go with a material that’s much cheaper like rough sawn pine. Just my two cents, hope it helps!
Hi,
Love this post! My husband and I are building our forever how. I’m struggling with paint colors. Our home is an open concept farm house with a two story living room wall to ceiling shiplap and full of windows all sides. I want to paint the interior a warm white and my interior doors and accents a black? I was leaning toward alabaster and tri corn black but then ran across urbane bronze. I am torn now! Do you think inane bronze will give a black look without being as bold or harsh as tri corn? Or would you suggest anything different? I do not want start white or yellow tones! If you have a favorite you think would look better as far as a white fir walls and cabinets and a dark for doors, I am all ears!! Appreciate any and all advice
Hi DeAnna,
Yay for building your forever home–how fun! I love shiplap and we have used it throughout our home. We are huge fans of White Dove by Benjamin moore– (here’s a post on our bathroom where we used it on the shiplap so you can see it: https://homelikeyoumeanit.com/modern-farmhouse-master-bathroom-renovation/
I also love Alabaster. It’s more whiter than White Dove, I’d say. White Dove is pretty warm and it’s not yellow at all, I love it. It’s on all of our trim and shiplap throughout our home.
I really like Tricorn black. It’s a true black and doesn’t really have any undertones. If you want a softer black, you can try Iron Ore or even Peppercorn. We just painted a barn door Iron Ore and it’s absolutely beautiful. It’s a softer black made that way by grey undertones. Here’s the post so you can check it out: https://homelikeyoumeanit.com/iron-ore-by-sherwin-williams-a-colour-review/
I do like urbane bronze a lot, it just wouldn’t be my cup of tea for all the doors/window trim in my home–I’d prefer it here and there. I don’t think you could go wrong with black doors/window trim though. Start with Iron Ore and see how you like that. If it’s too soft, go back to tricorn black. If it’s still too dark, try peppercorn. Also, Wrought Iron is beautiful, too.
I’d just get a bunch of samples and live with them for a while before making decisions…that’s what I do!
Hope this helps!
Ashley