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How it reads
Great Barrington Green is one of Benjamin Moore's Historical Colors, and it has the settled, slightly dusty quality the collection is known for — an olive with grey in it and a little yellow warmth, the green of lichen on a stone wall. At LRV 21 it is a mid-dark, strong enough for a full room.
On panelling and built-ins it looks like it has been there for a century. It flatters botanical prints, worn leather and gilt frames, and it deepens handsomely under lamplight. In cool light expect it to lean grey-olive.
How Great Barrington Green behaves in different light
Benjamin Moore describes Great Barrington Green as 'a deep mossy green with a warm finish', and Amelia Lawrence Style explains where the warmth comes from: 'slightly yellow undertones which helps to tone down the green from being too bright'. Amelia Lawrence calls it 'a deep mossy sage' — it sits at the deep end of sage, far deeper than the pale sages it is often grouped with.
At LRV 21.39 it is, in Amelia Lawrence's words, 'on the mid-tone to darker side', and it needs good light to keep its color; without it the moss goes flat. In a bright room it reads as a warm, soft green that, as designer Jordan Connelly says of it on her own house, 'changes beautifully throughout the day as the light shifts'.
One caution from Amelia Lawrence: although it is a warm color, 'in certain lighting it can feel cool'.
Walls, trim, cabinets and ceilings
Great Barrington Green is used on bedroom and den walls, on cabinetry and furniture, and outdoors. Jordan Connelly chose it for the louvered shutters on a Simply White house in Charleston and calls it possibly her favorite color on the entire exterior: 'It's soft without feeling muted, never overly saturated.'
Indoors it suits studies, dining rooms and dens — rooms that can carry a deeper color and are used in the evening.
It is a committed color at this depth, best on all four walls or on a substantial piece of cabinetry rather than as a single accent.
What it sits next to
Benjamin Moore's coordinating colors for Great Barrington Green are White Heron OC-57, Crown Point Sand HC-90, Essex Green HC-188 and Beneath the Clouds 2131-50. Jordan Connelly pairs it with a Simply White OC-117 house body, and Amelia Lawrence suggests creamy off-whites, Hale Navy HC-154, Edgecomb Gray HC-173 and Revere Pewter HC-172 as companions, with New London Burgundy HC-61 and Wisp of Mauve for a different depth.
Outdoors it sits well beside Simply White siding and a Charleston Green fence, and indoors with dark brown trim and warm wood.
Benjamin Moore lists Galápagos Green 475, Cambridge Green 468, Tate Olive HC-112 and Home on the Range 483 as similar. Its Historical Colors neighbor Kennebunkport Green HC-123 is lighter and grayer.
Where Great Barrington Green fails
It fails in low light. At LRV 21.39 it needs good light; in a dim room it goes flat and reads as a dark, characterless green.
It fails as a pale sage. People choose it from roundups of sage greens and get a deep moss; if you want a soft, light sage, look several steps lighter.
And it can read cool. Amelia Lawrence notes that in certain lighting it can feel cool, even though it is a warm color; sample it under your own light.
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Settled, side by side
Questions
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