Behr Green Paint Colors: Best Shades Ranked

Green has been the defining paint trend of the decade, and Behr green paint colors cover the whole territory — muted sages, moody olives, deep forest tones, and gray-green chameleons — at Home Depot prices ($30–$60 a gallon across Premium Plus, Ultra, Marquee, and Dynasty). Behr has leaned into the trend hard: Back to Nature was its 2020 Color of the Year and Cracked Pepper’s supporting palettes lean green-adjacent. Below are the shades that actually perform on walls and cabinets, ranked within each family, with numbers, undertones, and the coordinating colors that make them work.

How to Read a Behr Color Number

Codes like S390-3 tell you the family and depth: the letter block is the color collection (S = softer/muted, N = neutral, M = mid, PPU/HDC = curated palettes), the middle digits are the hue family, and the final digit is depth from 1 (palest) to 7 (deepest). Useful shorthand when comparing chips: two colors sharing a prefix usually share undertones — a low-risk way to build a palette.

Best Sage Greens

1. Back to Nature (S340-4). Behr’s 2020 Color of the Year and still its definitive sage — a soft, slightly yellow-warm green that reads calm rather than minty. LRV around 46, so it holds color without darkening a room. Beautiful in bedrooms and on cabinetry with brass hardware.
2. Jojoba (N390-3). The gray-sage — quieter and dustier than Back to Nature, closer to the Scandinavian look. Excellent whole-room green for people nervous about green.
3. Laurel Tree (S380-4) and Roof Top Garden (S390-5). Step-deeper sages for accent walls and lower cabinets when the pale versions feel too light.

Pairings: creamy whites (Behr Swiss Coffee 12, Whisped Green for a tonal ceiling), warm wood tones, unlacquered brass. Sage is the easiest green to live with — it behaves like a neutral. If you are balancing it against beige-gray walls elsewhere in the house, our warm neutral paint colors guide covers the companions.

Best Olive and Earthy Greens

1. Ecological (S350-5). A sophisticated mid-olive with enough gray to stay elegant — arguably Behr’s best kitchen-island green right now.
2. Secret Meadow (S360-6). Deeper, browner olive; gorgeous on exterior doors and mudroom built-ins with black hardware.
3. Avocado Whip (M340-3) / Ryegrass (M360-4). Warmer, yellower greens for sunrooms and craftsman trim schemes — use where natural light is strong, because yellow-greens go acid under warm LED bulbs.

Pairings: camel leather, aged bronze, terracotta, and muddy whites. Olive greens read expensive next to natural materials and cheap next to bright plastic whites — keep the trim warm.

Best Dark and Forest Greens

1. Vine Leaf (N400-7). Behr’s benchmark blackened forest green — the color for library walls, board-and-batten offices, and dramatic islands. LRV in the single digits; it wants either full immersion (walls, trim, and ceiling in one color) or strong contrast.
2. Royal Orchard (PPU11-01) / Dark Everglade (PPU12-20-ish family). Slightly more blue and more saturated than Vine Leaf; the pick when you want the green to stay visibly green at night.
3. Pine Mountain (ICC-87). The classic exterior forest — shutters, doors, farmhouse exteriors against white siding. (Behr’s exterior lines carry it; see our Benjamin Moore exterior paint colors guide if you are cross-shopping brand palettes for the whole facade.)

Pairings: brass and gold lighting, white oak floors, marble-look quartz. Dark greens are the safest “dramatic” color family — deeper than sage, less trend-stamped than navy.

Best Blue-Greens and Gray-Greens

1. In the Moment (T18-15). Behr’s famous tranquil blue-green — a color that shifts between sea-glass green and smoky blue by the hour. Best in bedrooms and baths with good daylight.
2. Riverdale (N430-3). The gray-green chameleon: reads gray in north light, green in sun. The pick for open-plan spaces that need a near-neutral with personality.
3. Dragonfly (PPU12-03). Deeper teal-leaning green for vanities and powder-room drama.

Pairings: cool whites (Behr Ultra Pure White for crisp trim), chrome and nickel, pale oak. Blue-greens fight warm beige — commit to a cool palette or skip them.

Quick-Reference Table

(LRV = Light Reflectance Value, 0–100; under ~15 reads “dark” in most rooms, over ~50 stays airy. Verify current numbers on Behr’s site — palettes get renumbered occasionally.)

Undertones: The Part That Ruins Green Choices

• Yellow-based greens (Ryegrass, Avocado Whip) glow warm and can turn chartreuse under 2700K bulbs.
• Blue-based greens (In the Moment, Dragonfly) cool a room and can go icy in north light.
• Gray-based greens (Jojoba, Riverdale) are the most forgiving across lighting — the beginner-safe lane.
• Always sample: Behr sells 8-oz samples (~$6) and Peel & Stick swatches. Paint two coats on poster board, and view it against the floor and cabinets at morning, afternoon, and lamplight. Green shifts with light more than any other family except gray.

Coordinating Colors That Work

• Whites: Swiss Coffee (creamy) for sages and olives; Ultra Pure White (crisp) for blue-greens; Cameo White as the do-everything soft white.
• Contrast neutrals: Cracked Pepper (soft black) trim or island against pale sage walls; greige mid-tones bridging green rooms to neutral halls.
• Accent families: terracotta and rust with olives; blush and brass with sage; camel, cream, and walnut with forest greens. For a bolder two-color scheme, muted golds sit naturally beside deep greens — our yellow paint colors guide has the well-behaved ones.

Which Behr Line to Buy for Green

The color chip is identical across Behr’s lines; the paint underneath is not, and green is a family where the line choice shows. Deep greens like Vine Leaf and Secret Meadow are heavily pigmented colors that cover poorly from bargain bases — spring for Marquee ($55 to $60/gal) or Dynasty, whose one-coat-capable formulas and better hide save you a third coat that erases the price difference in labor and paint. Mid-tone sages and gray-greens cover well from Premium Plus ($30 to $35) with a standard two coats. For cabinets and built-ins in any green, skip wall paint entirely and use Behr Urethane Alkyd Enamel in the same color — it levels out brush marks and cures hard enough to survive knocks that would chip latex. Primer guidance: going dark over light walls, have the counter tint the primer gray (they will match a shaded primer to the topcoat); going light over an existing dark or red-toned wall, one coat of stain-blocking primer prevents the muddy first coat that makes people doubt their color choice.

FAQ

What is Behr’s most popular green paint color?

Back to Nature (S340-4) remains the flagship — the Color of the Year pedigree keeps it the most-sampled Behr green, with Vine Leaf leading the dark-green surge.

What Behr green is closest to Sherwin-Williams Evergreen Fog?

Jojoba and Riverdale land in the same muted gray-green territory; Jojoba runs slightly warmer. Sample both — the SW shade sits between them.

Are green kitchen cabinets going out of style?

Green has moved from trend to staple — like navy before it, it is now a standard cabinet neutral. Muted sages and olives have the longest runway; bright kellys are the risky end.

What sheen should green walls be?

Eggshell or matte for walls (deep greens especially — sheen amplifies roller marks on dark colors), satin or semi-gloss for cabinets and doors.

Bottom line: pick your family first — sage to live with, olive for warmth, forest for drama, gray-green for safety — then sample two neighbors from the list above in your actual light. With Behr’s pricing, even a Marquee gallon plus samples costs less than one designer-brand gallon, which is exactly why these greens are on half the new islands in America.