Color spec
| Brand | Sherwin-Williams |
| Name | Black Magic |
| SKU | SW 6991 |
| Hex | #1F2127 |
| RGB | 31, 33, 39 |
| HSL | 225°, 11%, 14% |
| LRV | 3 |
| Undertone | near-black with a faint undertone |
| Sheens | walls eggshell · trim semi-gloss · cabinets satin · exterior satin |
| Family | Black |
Black Magic is black with a little more depth than a flat, blunt black. At LRV 3 it gives nothing back, so it frames everything around it: white trim looks sharper, brass looks brighter, wood looks warmer. That same depth is the catch — it shows every roller mark, every patch, every fingerprint, and it will make a small dim room feel like a closed box. Get the sheen and the prep right and it is one of the best blacks Sherwin-Williams sells.
What Color Is Black Magic, Really?
Half the internet calls Black Magic a warm black and the other half calls it neutral, and both camps are arguing about almost nothing. Measured, it leans very slightly cool — a blue-violet whisper at about 11 percent saturation. That is faint enough that on a shaded wall you will never see it, and strong enough that in direct sun on a big surface the color looks inky rather than sooty. The one place the blue is obvious is in the can and on the wet wall: people who have rolled it report it looking distinctly blue going on, then drying black. That is normal. Do not panic on coat one.
LRV 3 is the number that actually runs this color. It means the paint returns roughly three percent of the light hitting it — the wall stops being a wall and becomes a hole in the room. Tricorn Black (SW 6258) sits at the same LRV, so the two behave identically in a dark corner; the difference only shows up in daylight, where Black Magic reads deeper and Tricorn reads flatter. Step up to Iron Ore (SW 7069) at LRV 6 and you have doubled the reflectance, which sounds trivial and is not: Iron Ore still reads black to guests but forgives drywall flaws Black Magic broadcasts.
Undertone in one line: a faint cool blue-violet that shows only in strong direct light — never brown, never green, and in shadow simply black.
Where It Shines
Black Magic is at its best framing things rather than surrounding you. A front door, a run of lower cabinets, an island, a study you use after dark — anywhere the black is the edge of the picture instead of the whole picture. Pair it with white trim and it does the work of two colors.
Where It Fails — the Honest Part
The bad stories about this color are remarkably consistent, and none of them are about the color itself. They are about light, sheen, and what was under the paint. If your project matches one of these three, Black Magic will disappoint you no matter how many coats you roll.
A small room with one window. At LRV 3 there is no light coming back off the walls, so a small bedroom, office, or bath with a single window stops feeling cozy and starts feeling closed in — people describe the room as a box or a cave within a week. If you want dark but still want to breathe, drop to Peppercorn (SW 7674) at LRV 10, which still reads as a deep charcoal but leaves the corners visible.
Flat or matte sheen where people touch. This is the single most common regret with near-blacks. Matte black shows every speck of dust, every smudge, and every handprint — one homeowner with matte black walls put it plainly: touch the wall and there is a mark, and they wished they had used eggshell. Use eggshell on walls and satin on anything hands reach, and if you truly want flat, put it on a ceiling or a high accent wall only. For a lower-maintenance dark, Urbane Bronze (SW 7048) hides marks far better.
Patched drywall or old lap siding in raking sun. Late-afternoon sun skimming across a surface turns every filler spot, seam, nail head, and roller lap into a visible shadow, and at LRV 3 there is no color left to camouflage them. Skim-coat and sand properly, or move to Iron Ore (SW 7069), whose extra reflectance and slightly softer depth are genuinely more forgiving on imperfect walls and siding.
Room by Room
Front door & shutters — its best job
This is where a near-black is nearly foolproof: a small surface, full daylight, high impact. Use satin or semi-gloss so rain sheets off and dust does not settle in. Against Pure White (SW 7005) trim it is crisp; against Alabaster (SW 7008) it is softer and more traditional.
Kitchen island & lower cabinets — yes, with limits
Black on the bottom and white on top is the safest way to use it in a kitchen, because the mass stays below eye level. Satin only — homeowners with black cabinets complain constantly about fingerprints, dust, and nicks on high-touch edges. Pair with Alabaster (SW 7008) uppers and a light counter.
Study or home office — the room it was made for
Walls in eggshell, trim and ceiling in Shoji White (SW 7042), lamps instead of overheads. The darkness reads as focus rather than gloom because you are lighting the desk, not the room. Bookshelves painted the same color make the wall disappear behind the books.
Dining room & powder room — yes, at night
Rooms used mostly after dark are where LRV 3 stops being a liability. Candlelight and warm bulbs turn the walls into a backdrop and make brass, glass, and skin tones glow. Eggshell in the dining room, satin in the powder room so splashes wipe off.
Interior doors & trim — quietly excellent
Black doors against a light wall is one of the cheapest upgrades in a house. Semi-gloss, and stick to one white throughout — Pure White (SW 7005) or Alabaster (SW 7008), not both. Black casing on top of black doors gets heavy fast in a hallway.
Exterior body — strong, but do the prep
A black house with white trim still looks deliberate rather than trendy, and Black Magic is deep enough to carry it. Satin, over a properly primed and even substrate. Dark bodies absorb heat and are harder to keep looking clean on a pollen-heavy street, so read the product guidance for your siding first.
The Scorecard
What it gets right
- +Deep enough to read as a real black, not a very dark gray
- +Makes white trim, brass, and window glass look sharper
- +Excellent on small surfaces: doors, shutters, sashes, islands
- +Warm wood and natural stone look better next to it
- +The faint blue lean keeps it from looking sooty in daylight
Where it struggles
- −LRV 3 gives nothing back — small dim rooms feel closed in
- −Shows dust, smudges, and fingerprints, especially in flat sheen
- −Every patch, seam, and roller lap shows in raking light
- −Touch-ups almost always flash unless you re-coat the full surface
Light by Light
Most complaints about Black Magic 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.
TEST IT IN YOUR LIGHT →Black Magic vs the Colors You're Also Considering
Every Black Magic 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.
Tricorn Black (SW 6258) is the obvious comparison. Both sit at LRV 3, but Tricorn's #2F2F30 is a straight neutral black while Black Magic's #1F2127 is deeper in tone and carries the faint blue lean. Choose Tricorn if you want no undertone at all; choose Black Magic if you want a slightly inkier look.
After the Storm (SW 9685), #2A3037 at LRV 3, takes the blue much further and reads as a very dark blue-black rather than a black. Black Emerald (SW 2936) at LRV 1 and Weathervane (SW 2927) at LRV 2 are darker still, one green, one brown.
Across brands, Backdrop Hocus Pocus (BD-HP) at LRV 3 sits at a color difference of 0.8, which makes it the same color in practice. Valspar Tuxedo (8006-8G) at 2.21 is very close and worth sampling first. Benjamin Moore Black (PM-9) and Kompozit Silent Sea (0515) are near 4.6 to 4.8, close but visibly different side by side.
Need It From Another Brand?
Any paint counter can custom-tint Sherwin-Williams SW 6991 directly — but if you would rather stay in one brand's own deck, these are the closest stock matches:
Similar Sherwin-Williams colors
closest in the Sherwin-Williams deckThe nearest shades to Black Magic within Sherwin-Williams's own range, ranked by perceptual color distance — useful when you want the same look a touch lighter, darker, or warmer.
Black Magic Coordinating Colors
Black Magic is the contrast in any scheme it joins, so nearly everything else should be lighter than it. The reliable partners fall into two groups: clean whites that sharpen its edges, and warm neutrals that stop an all-black-and-white room from feeling cold. A single warm accent — a terracotta door, a deep green — is usually all the color a Black Magic scheme needs.
If you want a second dark in the same house, do not put it in the same sightline. Iron Ore on a garage door or a set of shutters reads as a deliberate softer black; Iron Ore on trim right beside Black Magic siding just looks like the paint ran out.
Black Magic on Exteriors
Outside is where this color is easiest to love and hardest to execute. Full sun is the only light strong enough to show the inky lean, so a black facade in Black Magic looks like a considered color rather than a shadow. White trim does the rest: at LRV 3 every window, corner board, and eave line gets drawn for you, which is why the black-body, white-trim house keeps working long after the trend cools.
The failures are all mechanical. Low afternoon sun rakes across lap siding and exposes seams, filler, and any place the previous coat was uneven, and there is no color depth left to hide them — budget the prep before you budget the paint. Dark bodies also run hot, which matters for vinyl and for anything with a manufacturer heat limit, so confirm the product and substrate guidance before a full-house job. Pollen and road dust sit visibly on a black wall, so the sunny street-facing side will need rinsing more often than a beige house ever did.
For a softer version of the same idea, put Black Magic on shutters, sashes, and the front door over a light body instead. It is the cheapest way to get the look with none of the heat or prep risk.
Black Magic on Cabinets and Doors
On cabinetry, Black Magic gives you the expensive-looking kitchen and the maintenance bill that comes with it. Homeowners who painted cabinets black overwhelmingly report the same three things: fingerprints around every handle, dust that shows within a day, and small chips along the door edges that read white against the black. None of that makes it a bad choice — it makes it a choice that needs satin sheen, a hard cabinet enamel, and hardware placed so hands land on metal instead of paint.
Keep the black low. Lowers and an island in Black Magic under Alabaster (SW 7008) uppers keeps the room bright at eye level while the dark base grounds it, and it is far easier to live with than a fully black kitchen. Interior doors are the low-risk version of the same move: semi-gloss Black Magic doors against a light wall change a hallway for the price of a gallon, and the doors get wiped down anyway.
One practical note on touch-ups. At LRV 3 a dab of paint over a scuff almost always flashes because the sheen never matches. Plan to re-coat the whole door or the whole panel rather than spot-fix, and keep a labeled quart from the same batch.
Three Ready Palettes Built on Black Magic
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.
The black body carries 60 percent and the white trim draws every line on the house, which is the whole point of a dark facade. The deep green door is the 10 percent that keeps the scheme from reading as pure graphic black and white.
TRY THIS PALETTE →Shoji White is warm enough to keep the contrast from feeling surgical, so the trim reads as a frame instead of a fence. The terracotta door is the single warm note that stops an LRV 3 room from going cold at night.
TRY THIS PALETTE →Keeping the black below the counter puts the mass where it grounds the room instead of shrinking it, and Alabaster uppers bounce the light back. Accessible Beige walls bridge the two so the kitchen does not read as a black-and-white photograph.
TRY THIS PALETTE →Accessibility (WCAG contrast)
WCAG 2.1: AA = 4.5:1 normal text · AA Large = 3:1 large text · AAA = 7:1 normal text.
The Questions Everyone Asks
Is Black Magic warm or cool?
Faintly cool. It carries a blue-violet lean at about 11 percent saturation, which is why it looks inky rather than sooty in sunlight. Plenty of people describe it as a warm black, and they are not seeing things — at LRV 3 the undertone is so quiet that whatever sits next to it decides the temperature.
Why does my Black Magic look blue while I am painting?
Because it is blue, briefly. Wet paint exaggerates the blue-violet lean and it dries out to black — painters using the vinyl-safe version report the same thing and warn customers ahead of time so nobody panics. Judge the color when the second coat is fully cured, not on the wet wall.
Black Magic or Tricorn Black?
Both sit at LRV 3, so in a shaded room they are the same paint. In daylight Black Magic looks deeper and slightly inky while Tricorn Black stays a flat, neutral black. Choose Black Magic for a richer black on doors and exteriors, Tricorn if you want zero undertone anywhere.
Is it good for kitchen cabinets?
Yes for lowers and islands, with a warning. Black cabinets show fingerprints, dust, and every nick along the edges people grab — that is the number one complaint from homeowners who did it. Use a satin urethane-fortified cabinet enamel, keep the uppers light, and expect to wipe doors more often than you did with wood.
What sheen should I use on black walls?
Eggshell. Flat and matte look incredible in photos and terrible in a real house — dust and hand marks show instantly and touch-ups flash. Eggshell keeps most of the depth and can actually be cleaned. Save flat for a ceiling or a wall nobody touches.
What white trim goes with Black Magic?
Pure White (SW 7005) for the crispest modern edge, Alabaster (SW 7008) when you want the pairing softer and warmer. Do not mix two whites in the same sightline — against LRV 3 the difference between them is glaring. Natural wood trim is the third option and warms the scheme without adding a white at all.
Will a black exterior fade or get too hot?
Dark bodies absorb far more heat than light ones, which matters for vinyl siding and for anything with a heat limit, so check the product and substrate guidance before you commit. Fade resistance depends on the line you buy, not the color name — use a top-tier exterior acrylic and expect the sunniest wall to age first.
Will It Work in YOUR Room?
No page can promise how Black Magic behaves in your light. Upload a photo and see it on your own walls in seconds — before you spend a cent on samples.
TRY BLACK MAGIC ON YOUR ROOM →Ask a Question
Not sure about Black Magic in your room?
Ask Jessica below — every question gets a real reply, usually within a day. Used Black Magic on a door, cabinets, or a whole house? Tell us the surface, the sheen you chose, and how it has held up — real rooms help the next reader more than any chip.