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Utilitarian Teak

#b8a770
Notes

Utilitarian Teak (#B8A770) is a true amber with a warm character. It leans warm, pulling light toward red, orange, and yellow. Naturally inviting, it suits editorial and hospitality contexts. Its HSL profile (46°, 34%, 58%) places it in the balanced band at a mid lightness. It works across type, buttons, and borders, saturated enough to feel deliberate but balanced enough to not fight the rest of the palette. For a confident two-color system, pair it with its complementary blue. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#b8a770
RGB
rgb(184, 167, 112)
HSL
hsl(46, 34%, 58%)
HWB
hwb(46 44% 28%)
OKLCH
oklch(73.0% 0.076 92.9)
P3
color(display-p3 0.7103 0.6573 0.4657)
HSV
hsv(46, 39%, 72%)
LAB
lab(68.75% -1.84 30.70)
LCH
lch(68.75% 30.75 93.42)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 9%, 39%, 28%)

Etymology

Utilitarian
adjective

Latin ūtilitās, usefulness — adjectival suffix -ian. As a color modifier, utilitarian implies a clear-and-purpose-fit-and-stripped-down quality, the crisp color of Shaker-and-Quaker anti-ornamental functional-and-no-frills craft tradition. Sits at the crisp-and-functional end of the grid, parallel to functional and workmanlike in usage.

Teak
noun

Tectona grandis, the Southeast Asian hardwood prized for its weather-resistance and used in shipbuilding, decking, and the colonial-era furniture of British India. The color refers to a freshly oiled Burmese teak deck: a saturated, slightly warm deep gold-brown with the satin finish of natural-oil-rich hardwood. Warmer than oak, drier than mahogany.

Closest matches

The nearest named color in three reference sources, ranked by perceptual distance (ΔE76 in CIELAB). ΔE < 1 is imperceptible to most viewers; ΔE > 10 is clearly different. When two sources point to the same hex they’re merged into one tile; click any to open that color’s page.

Variations

Click any swatch to explore

Harmonies

Accessibility

Color-vision simulation

How this color appears to viewers with the four major color-vision-deficiency types. Computed via the Machado (2009) physiologically-based model. If a tile matches the original, the color reads the same to that viewer.

#b8a770
Original
#b2a56c
Protanopia
#b7aa72
Deuteranopia
#c39f99
Tritanopia
#a7a7a7
Achromatopsia
WCAG contrast

The color used as foreground text against pure white and pure black, with the contrast ratio and WCAG 2.1 grade. Aim for AA (4.5:1) for body text and AA Large (3:1) for 18 pt+ headlines; AAA (7:1) is the gold standard for long-form reading surfaces.

The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
Failon White
2.39:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AAAon Black
8.80:1

Wide gamut

Display P3 representation

The CSS Color 4 wide-gamut form of this color. Both swatches render the same color on every display — the P3 form only diverges from sRGB when a designer pushes channels outside sRGB's reach.

sRGB hex
sRGB hex
##B8A770
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.7103 0.6573 0.4657)
Inside sRGBOKLCH chroma 0.076

This color sits well within the sRGB cube. P3 and sRGB share the gray axis and most desaturated tones, so a P3 display renders this identically to an sRGB display.

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