Brown color palette: 30 shades of brown, with hex codes
Every brown in our 12 seasonal color palettes, from warm coral clay to dark warm brown. Tap a color to copy its hex code. Below the list: which browns suit which season, and what to wear them with.
By Jane MitchellCertified color analystPublished
All 30 brown colors, with hex codes
Lightest first. The line under each name says how many of the 12 seasons wear it.
Which brown colors suit you
The brown shades in each season's palette, most first. The neutral beside each is one from the same season to wear with them.
Deep Autumn 10 shades
dark camel, burnt amber, bronze gold, cinnamon and deep terracotta and 5 more. Wear with warm cream (#EDE0C8).
True Autumn 8 shades
warm coral clay, golden brown, terracotta, bronze olive and sienna and 3 more. Wear with warm cream (#F2E7D0).
Soft Autumn 5 shades
soft terracotta, pecan, warm taupe, muted rust and soft olive brown. Wear with soft cream (#F0E8D8).
True Spring 3 shades
golden tan, warm mushroom and warm brown. Wear with cream (#F2E6CE).
Bright Spring 2 shades
warm cocoa and dark warm brown. Wear with bright ivory (#FFFDF5).
Light Spring 1 shade
light taupe. Wear with ivory (#F6EFE2).
Deep Winter 1 shade
cool espresso. Wear with pure white (#FFFFFF).
5 seasons have no brown by our rule. That is data, not a gap: those palettes do not use brown.
Warm and cool browns
A brown is warm or cool by the seasons that wear it: Springs and Autumns are warm, Summers and Winters cool.
Warm only (29)
- Warm coral clay#C97B5C
- Light taupe#9E8C74
- Golden tan#B5854A
- Warm mushroom#A1887F
- Dark camel#A08963
- Soft terracotta#C4705C
Cool only (1)
- Cool espresso#4E342E
Worn by both (0)
None in our palettes.
Brown outfit ideas
Three outfits, one from each of the seasons that hold the most of this color: a main piece, a second color and a neutral, all from that season's own palette.
Deep Autumn
Dark mahogany as the main piece, dark camel as the second color, warm cream for shoes and bag.
True Autumn
Coffee as the main piece, warm coral clay as the second color, warm cream for shoes and bag.
Soft Autumn
Soft olive brown as the main piece, soft terracotta as the second color, soft cream for shoes and bag.
Using this brown palette for a design
For a website, a room or a brand, copy the hex codes from the list above. The shades of one season already work together, so a set taken from one season card reads as a planned palette. For a calmer base, add shades from the red color palette or the neutral color palette. To see one of these colors next to every other color, use colors that go with every color. For ready combinations, see three colors that look good together.
How we picked the shades
We pooled the wearable palette and the neutrals of all 12 seasons on this site, 271 different colors, and measured each in CIELAB: lightness (L*), chroma (C*, how strong the color is) and hue angle. A shade is in this palette when it is a hue angle from 25° to 95° (red-brown to olive-brown) with L* under 60 and C* from 10 to 50, so chocolate, camel, cognac, rust and espresso count.
No shade is typed by hand, and no paint or fashion brand is used. The same shade can be in two palettes, for example a light pink in both the pink and the pastel palette.
What this page cannot do
This page shows which seasons wear each brown. It cannot tell you which season you are: that depends on your own skin, hair and eyes, in good light. Our free analysis reads them from one selfie, in your browser, and gives you your own palette with every brown that suits you.
How this is different from other color analysis tools
- 01
Your photo stays on your device
Many photo apps upload your selfie and read it on their server (see our comparison). Ours measures it in your browser. There is no upload.
- 02
The result is free
Your season and palette, with no account and no email. At least one app in our comparison takes payment before you see any result.
- 03
A close call says so
Every result names the runner-up season and how close the call was. Borderline is a result we print.
- 04
We publish our accuracy
We tuned the method on faces that experts had labelled by season, then tested it on 410 celebrity photos we collected. The results, misses included.
Questions
What colors are in a brown color palette?
Our brown color palette holds 30 shades from the 12 seasonal palettes, among them warm coral clay, light taupe, golden tan, warm mushroom, dark camel and soft terracotta. Each one has its hex code on this page.
Which color season looks best in brown?
Deep Autumn holds the most brown shades of the 12 seasons (10), followed by True Autumn (8) and Soft Autumn (5). By family, Autumn leads. 5 of the 12 seasons have no brown shade by our rule.
What colors go with brown?
Each season pairs its browns with its own neutrals. For Deep Autumn that is warm cream. For a design, red and neutral shades from the same seasons sit well beside it.
What are the hex codes for brown colors?
For example warm coral clay #C97B5C, light taupe #9E8C74, golden tan #B5854A, warm mushroom #A1887F and dark camel #A08963. All 30 are listed at the top of this page, and one tap copies a code.
What you can do on this page
This page is a brown color palette of 30 named shades, each with its hex code and a one-tap copy, taken from the 12 seasonal color palettes on this site by a stated CIELAB rule. It shows which browns each season wears with a neutral to pair, splits the shades into warm, cool and both, and builds three outfits from the seasons that hold the most. The free photo analysis finds a season from one selfie in the browser, with no upload and no account.
More on color palettes
Part of the Color Analysis Encyclopedia: every article on color palettes.