Most commercial buildings get painted in one of seven color families: white, gray, black, tan, brown, green or red. Our Sherwin-Williams commercial palette holds 6 colors in each of them, 42 in total. Pick the family first and the single color gets easy.
Whatever you choose sits on the building for the next 7 to 10 years, so it is worth an hour of thought.
Below are the families, the colors in each one, what the surface underneath will let you use, and where Sherwin-Williams’ 2026 color of the year actually fits. If you want the job itself rather than the colors, our commercial painting page covers how it gets priced and run.
The seven families, and the 42 colors in them
The whole sheet is below. Every color is a Sherwin-Williams number you can order at any store, so you are never locked into one contractor to get it. The same 42 colors are on our printable palette sheet if you want one to carry around.
White
Gray
Black
Tan
Brown
Green
Red
2026 marks Universal Khaki SW 6150, Sherwin-Williams’ color of the year. These hex values are sampled from the printed sheet and are a guide only. Screens shift color, so always look at a real sample on the building before you order.
Two families do most of the work on a building shell. Whites and grays go on the large flat areas.
Blacks, browns and reds go on the parts you want people to look at: the entry, the trim, the sign band. Greens and tans sit in between and read as softer.
Pick one family for the body. Then take a second family for the accent. What your walls are made of narrows both lists before you start. Mixing three families on one building is where it starts to look busy.
The 2026 color of the year, and the catch
Sherwin-Williams named Universal Khaki SW 6150 its 2026 color of the year. It comes from their Colormix forecast, Anthology Volume Two. They describe it as a mid-tone neutral with a slight yellow undertone.
You already have it. Universal Khaki is one of the six tans on the palette above, and it has been on that sheet since we printed it.
Almost nobody points this out. Sherwin-Williams’ own pages for this color talk about interiors. Their page for architects and specifiers names hotels, restaurants, wellness spaces and modern offices, and it talks about wall finishes, flooring and branded elements.
Their main 2026 page does not mention exteriors at all.
So a color of the year is not an exterior recommendation. It is a forecast, aimed mostly inside. I would use Universal Khaki on a lobby or a corridor before I put it on a building shell. If you want something deeper outside, read what dark colors cost you first.
If you do want it outside, these are the nine colors Sherwin-Williams pairs it with:
Sherwin-Williams also says Universal Khaki sits well next to matte black and brushed bronze. That is useful if your sign band or your railings are already dark.
What the surface decides before the color does
What your building is made of narrows the list before you open a fan deck. When I walk a building I check all four elevations first, before anybody opens a color chart. The south and west walls take the afternoon sun. They fade years ahead of the north one.
- Stucco and masonry. Porous, and they drink paint. Expect to buy more of it. A flat or low sheen acrylic suits them, because any shine shows every trowel mark and every patch. Where a wall moves or hairline cracks keep coming back, an elastomeric coating is the usual answer.
- Siding. Takes the widest range of color and sheen. It is also the surface where a dark color shows lap marks if the crew works in direct sun.
- Metal. Slick, so nothing sticks without a bonding primer made for metal. Rust has to be dealt with before color is even a question. Doors and railings usually get a semi-gloss, because it wipes clean and it takes knocks.
Whatever the surface, ask to see the data sheet for the product going on it. Sheen, spread rate and recoat time are all on there, and those three shape the finished wall as much as the color does.
Dark colors outside, and what they cost you
Black and deep red buildings look sharp. They are also the hardest to keep looking that way.
Deep colors carry more pigment and less white base, so sun works on them harder. Reds fade first, dark blues and blacks next.
A pale gray wall can go ten years and still read as the same color. A deep red sign band on the same building can look tired in five.
How often you repaint depends on the same things. A light body color on a sheltered elevation can go a decade. A deep accent on a west wall is on a much shorter clock, and you should budget for it as a separate job rather than a surprise.
Dark walls also run hot in a St. Louis July, and heat on a wall is what opens up the problems underneath. If the south and west faces of your building take full afternoon sun, that is the side to be careful on.
None of that means avoid dark. It means put the dark where you can reach it. Use it on the entry, the trim, the doors and the sign band, and keep the large elevations lighter. When the accent fades you repaint a small area instead of the whole building.
What tends to work, by building type
- Office. A light gray or white body with a dark entry. Agreeable Gray 7029 or Repose Gray 7015 on the body, Black Of Night 6993 or Tony Taupe 7038 at the door.
- Strip retail. One neutral body across every unit, and let the tenant signs carry the color. Greek Villa 7551 or Sand Dollar 6099 keeps a row of different signs from fighting.
- Warehouse and industrial. Mid gray hides dirt and scuffs at loading height better than anything lighter. Mindful Gray 7016 or Worldly Gray 7043.
- Restaurant. This is where color earns its keep. A warm dark body with one bright accent gets remembered. Rookwood Red 2802 or Black Bean 6006 with a lighter trim.
- Apartment and multifamily. Two or three tones from one family, so the blocks read as one property rather than a row of separate buildings. The tan and brown families do this well.
Where to put the accent color
You can absolutely pick the colors yourself, and plenty of owners do. What trips people up is the sampling, not the choosing.
A two inch color chip cannot tell you how a wall will read at forty feet. It is too small, and the light is wrong.
Paint a sample board at least two feet square and screw it to the actual building. Look at it in the morning, at noon and at dusk before you order anything.
Color will not fix a wall that is failing underneath. If the stucco is cracked or the metal is rusting, paint is the wrong answer and it needs repairing first. No color hides that for long.
An accent works when it lands on something the building already has.
- The entry door and its surround, because that is where you want people to walk.
- The sign band, if your signage does not already carry a brand color.
- Window frames and mullions, which reads as intentional rather than decorative.
- Canopies, awnings and column wraps.
- Bollards and railings, where a coat of color doubles as a safety marker.
The building type section above gives you a starting pair for each. Is a second color worth it at all? On a plain shell, yes: an accent is the cheapest way to make a building look deliberate, and it covers a small area.
What does not work is an accent painted onto a blank stretch of wall with nothing behind it. It reads as a mistake rather than a choice.
One thing I would check before anything else. If your business already has brand colors, bring the actual brand guide to the walkthrough, not a printout. Paper and screens both lie about color, and matching a logo by eye across a 40 foot wall does not go well.
Questions building owners ask
What to do next
Two limits on everything above. This is a starting point and not a specification, because your elevation, your light and your existing materials all move the answer.
And a repaint is not always the job. You do not need one at all if the wall itself is the problem. When replacement is genuinely the better decision, a fresh color over the top only hides it until next year.
In order:
- Pick the family that suits your building type and your surface.
- Choose the body color from that family.
- Choose one accent from a second family.
- Put sample boards on the building itself, not on a desk.
- Look at them in morning, midday and evening light.
- Then order the paint.
HBP has painted commercial exteriors around St. Louis and St. Charles County since 1983, and the crews are our own employees. We are BBB accredited, and have been since 2012.
Every color on the sheet above is a Sherwin-Williams product. Finished buildings are in the gallery, and the case studies take you through a whole project from the first walkthrough.
Want someone to bring sample boards out and hold them against your building? Book a free on-site consultation.
Someone walks the building with you, checks the surfaces, the light and which way each elevation faces, then tells you what will hold up there. It costs nothing and there is no obligation. Or call 636-544-1254.
