Benjamin Moore Antique Pearl: The Best Subtle Lilac Paint Color

Antique Pearl 2113-70 by Benjamin Moore is a gorgeous light purple, lilac, lavender paint color that is absolutely beautiful on walls. It can be used as a very neutral color that would look gorgeous in any room.

I used Benjamin Moore Antique Pearl in my tween girls bedrooms - specifically Antique Pearl 2113-70. It is a light and airy pastel that also tends towards a neutral tone, yet provides that hit of lavender to bring out that purple tone. I wanted to use it for a color that would allow it to alternate with another lighter color.

Benjamin Moore Antique Pearl is a beautiful option, especially if you are looking for a more feminine wall color for your space. While it's not one of the most popular paint colors out there like their greige and creamy whites, Antique Pearl can be versatile when properly paired with complementing furniture colors as well as using it as an alternating wall stripe color.

After seeing what it did to our daughters' bedroom, I think that this paint color definitely hit the mark for that feminine, yet not overbearing color palette.

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What Makes BM Antique Pearl Beautiful

Antique Pearl is definitely a designer favorite because it has an airy, and light feel. I also love that it can coordinate and complement other popular paint colors as well. It is also very consistent in varying lights.

One important thing about paint is how it looks at different times during the day. What you want to make sure of is that the furniture you choose along with your paint will look consistent and complement each other during any time of day and any type of light.

This is what Antique Pearl looks like without the alternating stripe and at night (those are chandeliers):

benjamin moore antique pearl alternating lines

Here's what it looks like with some daylight streaming in as well as a light from above on:

benjamin moore antique pearl alternating lines no wall

Here's another view after we changed up the furniture a bit. Notice how that subtle tone of lilac comes out.

I've listed below the paint color as shown on Benjamin Moore's website on what Antique Pearl looks like. However, this is how what the sample looks like at all IN PERSON. I would highly recommend getting a paint sample if you can!

What Makes Antique Pearl Paint A Great Option

Antique Pearl has a gorgeous tone as well as subtle hint of a purple hue. When paired with an alternating grey color, it becomes very neutral in the space that it is used in.

If you have little girls or are decorating a nursery for a girl, Benjamin Moore Antique Pearl is a great option if you are trying to steer away from pinks and go towards more of a purple and grey theme.

When we painted the room, I honestly didn't know what to expect. It turned out more gorgeous that I could have ever imagined.

It's a lighter tone of purple without being too feminine, and has almost an opaqueness to it to make it feel neutral.

We've had this room painted for over six years now, and it has stood the test of time for us, even as the girls are getting older.

Who Sells Benjamin Moore Paint Colors

Antique Pearl is made by Benjamin Moore. What I have found is that Benjamin Moore paints are hard to come by unless you go to a specialty retail store that sells the line.

Check out the Benjamin Moore store locator to find the store nearest you. I've been able to find a few Ace Hardware's around my city that still carry the line. But even within the same metro areas, some stores don't carry them while others do.

Sampling Antique Pearl on Your Walls First

While I have raved about Benjamin Moore Antique Pearl, I would still highly recommend getting a sample on your wall just to see how the paint will look in different parts of the day.

Make sure that you paint a large enough swatch on different parts of the wall so you can see what the color will actually look like. Sure, you will definitely need to prime those parts a little more thoroughly, but it is definitely better to find out you don't like a color before you paint it on all the walls.

What color is antique pearl and what color family does it belong to?

Antique Pearl has a light reflectance value of 73.88. Light Reflectance Value (LRV) is commonly used by designers to indicate the percentage of light that is reflected from a surface, with 0 being black and 100 being pure white.

I would tend to agree with that number in real life because it is a very LIGHT color. The girls' room is actually very bright at night, even with the accent wall that has stripes!

It belongs to the Benjamin Moore Color Preview collection that has over 1200 other hues.

It has light purple undertones with almost a greige tendency. I wouldn't necessarily call it taupe.

The sheen that we used was egg shell, only because we had littles and we knew that there would be times that we would have to scrub crayons and markers off the wall.

While others may think Antique Pearl in egg shell may cause too shiny of a sheen, I felt that the sheen was perfect for their room.

Behr Antique Pearl - Marquee Paint & Primer

You might find that Antique Pearl 210E-2 by Behr come up in your research. but this is an absolutely DIFFERENT color all together. This sheen actually as more of a pink/blush color to it.

If you have a hard time finding Benjamin Moore at your store, you could aways use Behr paint at Home Depot and have them color match Benjamin Moore's Antique Pearl color and be SURE that you specify you want it matched to Benjamin Moore and not Behr.

I mean, look at the difference!

When we paint, we absolutely love the Benjamin Moore Advanced Line. I feel like the paint goes on really well. However, we also love the Behr Marquee line just as much. Not only that, it's easier to find because we have a Home Depot only a few miles from us.

What does Benjamin Moore Antique Pearl Look Like in a Real House?

As you can see in my girls bedroom, the alternating stripes make Antique Pearl look amazing as an accent color!

benjamin moore antique pearl horizontal ruler

The accent color is Behr Marquee Classy MQ5-4. It was a contrasting color that paired nicely with Antique Pearl.

I absolutely loved how the alternating colors turned out on this accent wall. The larger horizontal gaps on the accent wall made a huge difference on taking a bland space and turning it into the focal point of the room.

Matching BM Antique Pearl with Carpet

If you had the opportunity to also replace your carpet to match your walls, I would consider you very lucky! I would say that it would match with cream or grey carpet.

In our home, we have a shag carpet that is a brown color that I absolutely despise. We're waiting until the kids are older to replace the carpet. While we wouldn't replace carpet to match a single room, I would tend to choose more creams over brown carpet, which would be perfect with Antique Pearl.

what undertones does Antique Pearl have?

BM Antique Pearl has light grey undertones. Again, it does have lilac hues, so you'll definitely see those in any light!

What trim colors go with Benjamin Moore Antique Pearl?

I would say that white trim goes well with Antique Pearl. We actually have khaki trim in our entire house. At first, I absolutely hated it, but realized that it was a unique feature in our house. In suburbia America, your trim color is typically builder grade white or wood trim.

Having trim that is a color other than the typically white trim or wood trim is rare. I'm trying to see that as a positive, but I do tend to learn towards white trim because I feel like it's a lot cleaner (and the fact that it matches really well with Antique Pearl).

Is Antique Pearl Gray, Lavender, or Purple?

Antique Pearl by Benjamin Moore is more of a lilac. If I had to pin point a color that everyone recognizes, it would definitely be lilac.

Why I love Benjamin Moore Antique Pearl

In short, I love Antique Pearl because of its soft undertones and the fact that it's not such a dark hue of purple. It's subtle enough to provide the sweetness as well as a classic and sophisticated color for any room, but especially a girls' room.

While I don't think I myself could use this in any public space in our home other than a bedroom, I think if your design style can use this color, then use it!

Antique Pearl Paint Coordinating Paint Colors

I tend to coordinate light paint colors with dark paint colors. With Antique Pearl being more of a light grey, I would pair it with a darker grey like Behr Marquee Classy MQ5-4.

Bedroom with Antique Pearl

Here are a few more images of a bedroom with Antique Pearl. The drab and boring wall was transformed with our alternating horizontal colors between Benjamin Moore's Antique Pearl and Behr Marquee Classy.

My Favorite Supplies for Your Next Room Painting Project

Now that we've painted pretty much every room in our entire house, here are some of my favorite products for get going on painting your space. Trust me, the right tools will save you so much time!

Purdy or Wooster brushes. We don't buy any other type brushes. These are hands down some of the best paint brushes a small budget can buy.
Frog Tape. Seriously, this stuff is amazing. Check out our playroom renovation when I taped up one of the doors to see the before and after using blue painter's tape versus Frog Tape. Hint: Frog Tape wins.

I do hope that this lilac color sticks around for a few more years, just until the girls move out of the house. Antique Pearl by Benjamin Moore has stood almost a decade for me.

What do you think of this lilac color? Would you use this in another space other than a bedroom?

Get Inspired with Other Paint Colors

Here are some of the paint colors we have used in our home that we have absolutely loved.