Sharp Cheddar
What Sharp Cheddar Actually Looks Like
Sharp Cheddar is a full-throttle, saturated orange, the color of a ripe Valencia orange or a warm autumn sunset at its peak. It is deeply pigmented, not pastel, not muted. In bright daylight it radiates warmth and reads as a clear, punchy orange. In lower light or artificial incandescent light it can deepen toward a burnished amber, holding its warmth but gaining a bit more weight. It is not a terracotta and not a burnt orange. It sits squarely in the vivid, mid-tone orange range.
Sharp Cheddar Undertones
The RGB values place this color at very high red, moderately high green, and low blue. That means the primary read is orange with a yellow lean rather than a red one. There is no perceptible gray, brown, or pink. What you get is essentially pure warm orange, which means it will amplify any yellow or gold already present in a room and push against cooler blues and greens with strong contrast.
Where Sharp Cheddar Works Best
Sharp Cheddar is an interior color built for moments, not whole-house saturation. It earns its place on a single accent wall behind a sofa or bed, on a front door visible from a hallway, inside a bookcase or cabinet, or as a kitchen island color where you want real personality. A small powder room is a classic use case because the intensity becomes theatrical rather than overwhelming. Use it where you want a room to have a clear point of view.
Where to put Sharp Cheddar
A small powder room can handle Sharp Cheddar on all four walls because the exposure is brief and the impact is the whole point. Pair it with a dark-veined marble or simple white fixtures and keep the trim bright white to frame the color cleanly.
In a living room or bedroom, limit Sharp Cheddar to one wall, ideally the one behind a sofa or headboard, and keep the remaining three walls a warm neutral. This lets the color anchor the room without overheating the space.
Sharp Cheddar on a kitchen island with white or pale gray perimeter cabinets is a bold but functional choice. The color reads energetic in a cooking space, and the contrast with cooler surroundings keeps it from feeling chaotic.
Painting an interior door or the interior of a bookcase in Sharp Cheddar gives you the color's personality in a contained, low-risk way. The surrounding wall color does the grounding work and the orange becomes a deliberate surprise.
What to Pair With Sharp Cheddar
No Benjamin Moore coordinating colors are listed in our database for this color. As a general pairing principle, Sharp Cheddar 2017-20 works best alongside deep navy or charcoal blues, which give it a complementary contrast, and with warm off-whites or creamy neutrals that let the orange breathe without competing. Crisp white trim reads clean and modern next to it. Avoid pairing it with warm reds or pinks, which create visual competition rather than balance.
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Colors that clash with Sharp Cheddar
If adjacent rooms or furnishings carry warm red tones, Sharp Cheddar will compete rather than coordinate. The two warm hues fight for dominance at their boundary.
A sharp transition from a blue-gray room directly into a Sharp Cheddar room can feel jarring because the two colors sit nearly opposite each other on the color wheel.
Very warm incandescent or amber LED bulbs can push Sharp Cheddar toward a heavier, more closed-in amber that loses some of its lively orange character.
Common questions
The LRV is 39.05, which puts it in the mid-tone range. It reflects a moderate amount of light, so it will make a room feel warmer and more enveloping but will not make a small space feel like a cave the way a deep dark color would. It is not a light color, so plan your lighting accordingly.
Benjamin Moore lists this as an interior color. You can typically have it tinted into any of their interior finish options, from flat to high-gloss. For accent walls a matte or eggshell finish keeps the color from looking plastic. For a front door or cabinet application a semi-gloss or gloss finish is more practical and durable.
North-facing rooms receive cooler, indirect light, which can make saturated warm colors appear slightly darker and more muted than they look on the chip. Sharp Cheddar's intensity means it will still read as a clear orange in most north-facing conditions, but it may tip toward a richer amber rather than a bright citrus orange. Sample it on the wall and look at it throughout the day before committing.
The Benjamin Moore code is 2017-20. The hex value and RGB breakdown are displayed in the color spec block on this page.