Aubergine
Behr's darkest purple, reviewed honestly: why it's sold as a cabinet-and-trim color more than a wall color, the light that reveals its violet, and what to pick instead.
Jessica has spec'd whites and neutrals for more than 300 rooms and keeps a sample wall of painted drawdowns in her studio. Every color review is checked against real reader rooms in the comments and re-tested when a formula changes. About the testing process →
- 1Aubergine8
- 2Kendall Charcoal15
- 3Retreat21
The Fast Verdict
Aubergine sits one step above true black in Behr's deck — LRV 8, so dark that most of the time it simply reads as black. Catch it in direct light and a brown-violet, faintly red undertone surfaces; lose the light and the purple disappears entirely. Behr does not push it as a flagship wall color: it is stocked in the Premium cabinet, door and trim enamel, in Dynasty for interior surfaces, and in the exterior paint-and-primer line — a color built for one bold surface at a time, not four walls.
Kitchen islands and cabinetry under real task lighting · A front door against light-colored siding · A single interior door or trim run as a near-black statement · A powder-room vanity with a warm lamp nearby
You want obvious, unmistakable purple in every light · Your room is small, north-facing, or dim · You're covering all four walls of a small room · You want a color that's easy to walk back later
- Genuine brown-violet depth, not flat black, once real light finds it
- Sold ready-mixed in a cabinet-and-trim enamel — no color-matching guesswork on hard surfaces
- Also available in Dynasty interior and exterior paint-and-primer, so one color can run island to front door
- LRV 8 hides scuffs and fingerprints better than a true LRV 2–3 black
- Behr treats it as a neutral, so it pairs with warm whites and woods the way a black would
- In dim or shaded light it simply looks black — the purple you bought disappears
- Not marketed as a flagship wall color; whole-room use is a deliberate, non-obvious choice
- Behr itself warns against all four walls of a small, low-light room
- A near-black on cabinets or a door is hard to walk back without a full repaint
What Color Is Aubergine, Really?
Aubergine (N100-7) sits at the very bottom of Behr's purple range, one step from true black. At LRV 8 it absorbs almost all the light that hits it, which means in an average room it reads simply as "black" until direct light finds it and pulls the brown-violet cast out from underneath. Behr's own site files Aubergine under its Neutral color family, despite the visible violet — the same move the brand makes with its lighter cousin Gothic Purple: desaturate and darken a color enough and Behr will call it a neutral you can pair like a black.
You can see that split-personality in how Behr actually sells it. N100-7 ships in the Premium Cabinet, Door & Trim Enamel (both satin and semi-gloss), in Behr Dynasty's stain-blocking interior formula, and in Premium Plus exterior paint and primer — three product lines built for hard, single-surface use, not a whole-room wall paint pushed the way a beige or greige gets pushed. That is the real story of this color: buy it because you have one surface — an island, a door, a run of trim — that you want dramatically dark, not because you're repainting a room.
Undertone in one line: brown-violet with a red lean, never true blue-black. In warm light the brown surfaces and it can pass for a very dark eggplant-brown; in shade or cool light the violet drains out and it reads as plain charcoal-black. If your sample looks flat black with zero purple in it, that is the room's light doing exactly what LRV 8 does — not a defect in the paint.
Where It Shines
Give it a real light source and one committed surface, and Aubergine earns its name. Under bright task lighting or full sun, the brown-violet is unmistakable — a kitchen island or a front door in this color reads as intentional, expensive drama rather than "we ran out of black." It is at its best in small doses: an island against light cabinetry, a single door in a lighter hallway, a vanity under a warm lamp. Because it ships ready-mixed as a cabinet-and-trim enamel, there's no color-matching guesswork getting it onto a hard surface that needs to survive daily use.
Where It Fails
Almost every disappointed story about Aubergine comes down to one of three things, and all three are predictable before the first coat goes on. None of them are the paint's fault — but if your plan matches one of these, this is not your color.
Behr's own guidance steers away from using it on all four walls of a small, low-light room, and LRV 8 explains why: the room loses almost all reflected light and the space just goes dark. Use it as one wall, a door, or cabinetry instead of a full wrap.
Cut the light and Aubergine goes flat black — no violet, no drama. If you're painting a north-facing room or a hallway with no direct sun, you're buying a black paint that happens to be named Aubergine. Test the sample in your actual light, not the store's.
This is a near-black color on a cabinet or door — reversing it later means a full strip-and-repaint, not a quick recoat. It's a striking choice for one committed surface; it's a real commitment for anything bigger.
Room by Room
Satin or semi-gloss cabinet-and-trim enamel goes on straight from the can. An island or lower cabinets against a lighter countertop and uppers is the classic use; under-cabinet task lighting is what keeps the brown-violet visible at night.
Use the Premium Plus exterior semi-gloss. Full outdoor sun is exactly the light this color needs — against a light-colored house it reads deliberate and dark rather than muddy.
One Aubergine door in a hallway of lighter walls, semi-gloss, is a strong, contained statement. Painting every door in the house in it is a different, much bigger commitment.
Small room, one warm lamp, big payoff. Satin cabinet enamel on a vanity under a marble or light stone top does the same job that a mid-depth aubergine does in a bedroom, just darker and more compact.
One wall, south- or west-facing, can work as a dramatic headboard backdrop. Skip it in a north-facing or small bedroom — that's the exact situation Behr itself warns against.
At LRV 8 this is not a wall color for an entire room, let alone a house. It was built and packaged as a cabinet, door, trim and exterior color; use it that way.
Your Light Is the Risk
Full sun through a real window, or bright under-cabinet LEDs aimed straight at it, is where the brown-violet shows. This is the light that makes buyers glad they picked Aubergine over plain black.
Cut the light and LRV 8 does what LRV 8 does: it goes flat black. No violet, no drama — just a very dark surface. A dim room is buying black paint under a purple name.
East or west light and any warm-toned bulb pull the brown and red forward. Cool north light or an overcast day pushes it toward a colder, blacker read. Sample both sides of the room before committing.
2700K bulbs and warm under-cabinet LEDs keep the brown-violet visible after dark. Cool white task lighting (4000K and up) flattens it back toward plain black.
Most complaints about Aubergine are a light mismatch. Upload a photo of your actual room and see it on your walls — then ask for the same wall in north light or evening lamps before you buy a single sample.
Need It From Another Brand?
Any paint counter can custom-tint Behr N100-7 directly. If you would rather stay in one brand's own deck, these are the closest stock matches, measured as ΔE2000. Under 2 is a difference you will not see on the wall.
| Brand | Closest color | ΔE | LRV | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sherwin-Williams | MetropolisSW 9575 · Sherwin-Williams | 3.2 | 8 | Color page → |
| Valspar | Bittersweet Molasses8005-12G · Valspar | 3.4 | 8 | Color page → |
| PPG / Glidden | Carob ChipPPG1047-7 · PPG / Glidden | 2.9 | 7 | Color page → |
| Glidden | Deep Raspberry Shadow50RR 08/053 · Glidden | 0.9 | 8 | Color page → |
| Dunn-Edwards | MolassesDE6399 · Dunn-Edwards | 2.9 | 7 | Color page → |
| Magnolia Home | Cut CedarJG-131 · Magnolia Home | 2.7 | 7 | Color page → |
Similar Behr Colors
The nearest shades to Aubergine within Behr's own range, ranked by perceptual color distance — useful when you want the same look a touch lighter, darker, or warmer.
WCAG 2.1: AA is 4.5 : 1 for normal text, 3 : 1 for large text, AAA is 7 : 1.
Aubergine vs the Colors You're Also Considering
Every Aubergine sample board has the same rivals on it. The numbers show the real lightness gap — then it comes down to which risk you would rather live with.
Pick this for near-black drama on a single surface — a cabinet or door — rather than a wall color.
Benjamin Moore 1379 · LRV 11EggplantPick this for a genuine mid-depth aubergine you can actually use on walls in a small, warm room.
Pick this for something closer to black in normal room light, with violet only when the sun finds it.
Sherwin-Williams SW 6286 · LRV 7Mature GrapePick this for a plum that still reads clearly purple most of the day, not just in direct light.
Behr Deep Aubergine 100F-7, hex #46384A at LRV 5, is the closest sibling. It carries slightly more red, so it reads a touch warmer and plummier while sitting at the same lightness. Behr Eclectic Purple PPU17-20, hex #493E45 at LRV 5, is grayer and browner again, so it loses most of the violet.
Behr Black Elegance N570-7, hex #3C3F4D at LRV 5, is the blue-gray option. Pick it if you want a near-black with no purple in it at all. Behr Smooth Coffee 740B-7, hex #473C41, goes the opposite way into brown.
Across brands, Hirshfield's Plum Island H0066 at deltaE 1.71 is visually identical in normal room light. Benjamin Moore Plum Royale 2070-20 at LRV 6 and deltaE 2.31 is very close, but sample it first, since the extra point of LRV shows on a big wall. Farrow and Ball Titmouse Blue No. W24 at deltaE 3.67 is close but visibly different side by side, reading cooler and more slate.
Aubergine Coordinating Colors
The rule for coordinating with Aubergine is simple: give it a light, warm partner so its own undertone has something to bounce off, and keep any second dark color close to its own near-black weight rather than fighting it. These are the partners that keep it looking deliberate instead of just dark:
Aubergine, the Near-Black Behr Files as a Neutral
Behr's own color pages put Aubergine in its Neutral family, which sounds odd for a color that is visibly violet the moment real light hits it. It isn't a mistake — it's how Behr handles color at this depth and this low a saturation. Gothic Purple, a lighter blue-violet in the same deck, gets the identical treatment: dark and grayed-down enough that the brand decides it behaves like a neutral rather than a statement color, and prices and markets it that way.
That classification lines up with how N100-7 actually gets sold: not as a hero wall color pushed the way a beige gets pushed, but split across a cabinet-and-trim enamel, a stain-blocking interior formula, and an exterior paint-and-primer. Three specialty products for hard, single-surface use is Behr's way of saying this color's job is an island, a door, or a trim run — not a room.
Aubergine With Wood Tones and Metals
Warm wood is the easy partner: walnut, butcher block, and honey-toned oak all sit comfortably against the brown side of Aubergine's undertone, and the pairing looks intentional rather than accidental. Cool, gray-washed wood is the harder call — it can push the violet forward and make the wood look colder by comparison, so sample the two together before committing a whole kitchen to it.
Metals split cleanly by warmth. Brass and unlacquered bronze pick up the red-brown undertone and look expensive next to it; matte black hardware reads as a near-match rather than a contrast. Polished chrome and stainless are the coolest option and the one most likely to make Aubergine look flatter and blacker than it is — fine if that's the look you want, worth testing first if it isn't.
Three Ready Palettes Built on Aubergine
A color is never alone on the wall. These are complete combinations in the 60-30-10 pattern, with the reason each one holds together. Every one opens in the visualizer.
The dark island anchors an otherwise light kitchen instead of fighting it. Warm Swiss Coffee walls keep the room bright enough for Aubergine's brown-violet to actually show, and crisp Pure White uppers frame the island without adding a second dark color to compete with it.
Try this palette in your roomLight siding gives the door the full sun exposure Aubergine needs to show its brown-violet instead of reading as plain black from the curb. Extra White trim frames it cleanly without introducing a second dark tone to the facade.
Try this palette in your roomA small room takes deep color well, and White Dove walls keep enough light bouncing around for the vanity's undertone to survive. Wrought Iron on the mirror frame is a near-black that reads as a deliberate near-match, not a second competing color.
Try this palette in your roomAubergine FAQ
Is Behr Aubergine purple or black?
Functionally both, depending on the light. At LRV 8 it is close to true black on paper, but it carries a genuine brown-violet, faintly red undertone that direct or warm light reveals. In a dim room it will simply read black — that's what LRV 8 does, not a flaw in the paint.
Does Behr classify Aubergine as a purple?
No — Behr's own site files it under its Neutral color family, even though the undertone is clearly violet. It's the same move the brand makes with the lighter Gothic Purple: dark and desaturated enough that Behr treats it as a neutral you can pair like a black.
What paint line should I buy it in?
Depends on the surface. Behr sells N100-7 in Premium Cabinet, Door & Trim Enamel (satin or semi-gloss) for cabinets and doors, Behr Dynasty (matte, stain-blocking) for interior walls and trim, and Premium Plus exterior paint and primer for doors, shutters and siding accents. It's the same color matched across all three — ask the store to tint whichever base fits your surface.
Can I use it on kitchen cabinets?
Yes — it's one of the more common uses, especially on an island or lower cabinets against lighter uppers and countertops. Use the cabinet-and-trim enamel rather than a wall paint for the durability a kitchen surface needs.
Will it work on a front door?
Yes, especially against light-colored siding — full exterior sun is exactly the light that brings out the brown-violet instead of leaving it flat black. Use the Premium Plus exterior semi-gloss.
Is it too dark for a small room?
Behr's own guidance steers away from using it on all four walls of a small room with small windows, and LRV 8 backs that up — the room loses almost all reflected light. It works far better as one wall, a door, or cabinetry than a full small-room wrap.
Have you painted with Aubergine?
Rate it — one tap helps the next reader decide.
Ask a Question