How to Make Beige Paint? Interesting Ideas

Minimalist or nordic styles are the typical trends nowadays, and one of the most loved colors associated with those two styles is beige. How can you make beige? Is it possible?

Of course, you can make beige! And here’s how you can make beige:

• The easiest way to make beige is to combine brown like Burnt Sienna, Raw Sienna or Raw Umber with white or light pink. 
• Mixing white, yellow, red, blue, and white colors can also give you beige.

Learning how to make beige is a step closer to achieving the minimalist life you wanted, so what are you waiting for? Keep on reading and learn with us!

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What color is beige?

Beige is a minimalist or neutral color often described as pale or light brown. It is also known as pale, greyish yellow, a sandy fawn color.

This color’s name is derived from the French word for natural wool, which means neither dyed nor bleached.

Where is beige in the color wheel?

Before we dive into what beige color really is, let us first explore Beige’s color theory and where we can see Beige in a color wheel.

When combined, the primary colors red, blue, and yellow will result in the secondary colors.

When secondary colors (purple, green, orange) are combined with primary colors will result in tertiary colors (blue-violet, yellow-green, red-orange).

On the other hand, beige isn’t a secondary or tertiary color; that’s why it isn’t included in the traditional color wheel. White, black, and grey are considered earth tones or neutral colors, and beige is one of them. 

Surprisingly, neutral colors, when combined with the colors found in the traditional color wheel (primary, secondary, tertiary), can create neutral colors, which is the concept of RGB (additive color) and CMYK (subtractive color).

Beige is known as #F5F5DC (hex code) in digital arts. In RGB color space, Beige comprises 96.1% red and green and 86.3% blue.

Color conversion

The hexadecimal color #F5F5DC has RGB values of R: 96.1, G: 96.1, B: 86.3 and CMYK values of C: 0, M: 0, Y: 0.1, K:0.04.

Please read my Complete Color Mixing Guide to get any stress from mixing paint out of the way.

Beige Color Meaning

Beige is a warmer and softer form of white, and, in psychology, it perceives serenity and simplicity. It also represents plainness, often used to describe basic, does not demand attention, and is unpretentious.

People who like Beige are typically those who do not want the spotlight.

They get along well with everyone, although they are labeled as afraid to take risks and boring people.

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How to mix colors to make beige?

Here’s how to mix colors to make beige:

• Prepare your mixing palette and palette knife.
• Choose the colors you will combine.
  • For starters, you can use white and brown (titanium white and burnt umber could also work).
  • Use white as your base.
  • Gradually add brown to your white.
  • Mix it.
  • Adjust the colors until you achieve the shade of Beige you like.

• You can also use the following combinations to make Beige, which will be discussed further in the latter.
  • White + Lemon Yellow
  • Raw Umber + Titanium White
  • Black + Red/Cadmium Red + titanium white + Yellow
  • titanium white + Chocolate Brown + Yellow + Light Pink
  • Burnt Umber + titanium white+ Pyrrole Red + Ultramarine Blue + Yellow

You can always make your own brown if you want 🙂

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How to make beige with primary colors?

Here’s how you can make beige with primary colors:

Step 1: Prepare your materials:

• Mixing Palette
• Palette Knife
• Paints: Cadmium Red, Ultramarine Blue, Hansa Yellow (or Cadmium Yellow), and White

Step 2: Mix your primary colors to make the secondary colors:

• Cadmium Red and Ultramarine Blue to create purple
• Ultramarine Blue + Hansa Yellow to create green
• Cadmium Red and Hansa Yellow to create orange

Step 3: Blend your primary colors and secondary colors to make Brown:

• Mix Ultramarine Blue or Cobalt Blue with Orange
• Mix Cadmium Red and Green
• Mix Hansa Yellow and Violet or Purple

Step 4: Once your Brown is ready, prepare your white paint into your mixing palette.

Note: Use your white as your base, or you may use a 3:1 ratio of white to Brown.

Step 5: Mix your white and brown using a palette knife until you achieve your desired shade of beige.

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Making Beige with Different Mediums

Artists, beginners, or experts have different preferences in what medium they are comfortable using.

This part of the article will explore how to make beige using different mediums.

How to make beige color with acrylic paint?

Using acrylic paints is one of the best mediums to make beige. For one, acrylic paints are available in local stores and are very affordable.

Here’s how you can make beige using acrylic paints:

1. Prepare your materials:
   1. Acrylic paints:
      1. Yellow/Cadmium Yellow
      2. Burnt Umber/Brown
      3. Alizarin Crimson
      4. Titanium White
      5. Black
      6. Cadmium Red
   2. Mixing Palette
   3. Palette Knife
2. Using Black, Cadmium Red, Titanium White, Yellow, and Brown.
   1. Blend a drop of black into a more significant amount of your Cadmium Red and mix it well until you get brown,
   2. Using white/titanium white as your base, add a part of your mixture into it to get a light shade of beige.
   3. Add a bit of yellow to your light shade of beige.
   4. Add a bit of brown to create another shade of beige into your last mixture.
   5. If you want to make a creamy shade of beige, add a drop of yellow to your previous mixture and mix it well.

In fact, not all combinations suggested online will give you beige. I’ve tried a few that some blogs recommended (without real swatches) and as you can see not all of them work.

It can be difference in brands and pigments, but I believe green is very far from beige, so please do test or stick to proven methods I shared.

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How to make beige with colored pencils?

Here’s how you can make beige using colored pencils:

Step 1: Prepare your materials:

• White paper 
• Color pencils

Step 2: Swatch the colors you need to make beige on your white paper:

• red
• blue
• yellow
• blue
• violet
• brown
• white

Step 3: Color your white paper using your base color and then layer it with the color you need until you achieve beige.

• white + brown
• white + yellow (+ brown)
• white + black + red + yellow +brown

I must say mixing color with pencils is a challenge.

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How to make beige with watercolors?

Here’s how you can make beige paint using watercolors:

Step 1: Wet your brush by dipping it into your water container.

Step 2: If you are using tube watercolors, prepare your white, brown, and yellow into your palette by squeezing the pea-sized of each color. If you use dry watercolor, you can paint white on your watercolor paper.

Step 3: If you use tube watercolor, dab your paintbrush into your brown watercolor and dip it into your water container. If you use dry watercolor, paint your brown over the white paint on your watercolor paper.

Step 4: If you use tube watercolor, dab your paintbrush on your brown paint and dip it in your water container.

Step 5: You can add a bit of yellow into your mixture; layer your painted white and brown with yellow to make your beige creamy.

Step 6: Mix them until you achieve the shade of pink you want.

Read also: Watercolor vs Acrylic: 21 Differences Between Acrylic and Watercolor

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How to make beige with tempera paint?

You can use classic tempera or modern washable tempera and results may be a bit different, as modern so called tempera is closer to poster paint.

Here’s how you can make beige with tempera paints:

• Prepare your white tempera as your base color.
• Using a more significant amount of white tempera, add a few drops of yellow to it
• You can optionally add brown (depending on the shade of beige you want.
  • Using tubed tempera paints, prepare each color into your mixing palette.
  • If you are using bottled tempera paints, ensure to use different brushes so you won’t stain the colors.
  • Make sure to use a small amount of water in your paintbrush to achieve the tone and the amount of paint you want.
• Mix them well until you reach your desired shade of beige.

Read also: Tempera Vs Acrylic Paint: What Are The Differences?

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How to make beige with toners or dyes?

Here’s how you can make beige using toners or dyes:

1. Prepare the colors you will need.
   1. White (as your base)
   2. Yellow
2. Add 30cc to 60cc (maximum) of yellow for every liter of White.
3. Using a paint mixer, mix them well until you get the shade of beige you desire.

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How to make beige with oil paints?

Oil paints can be more challenging than the other mediums, but it is still possible to make beige.

Here’s how you can make beige using oil paints:

• You can combine equal parts of yellow, brown, and red, mix them well and blend them into your white oil paint.
• Straightforward method, blend 4 parts of white into 1 part of brown.

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Mixing Different Shades of Beige

Like other colors, beige, too, have different shades, which we will explore in this part of the article. 

Here are some shades of beige that you can get when you try to play with the color combinations that we will discuss:

• Shades of beige with yellow undertones (white + yellow)
  • Death Valley Beige (#f8d77f)
  • Pencil Yellow (#e19526)
  • Gnocchi Beige (#ffeebb)
  • Termite Beige (#ddbb66)

• Shades of beige with pink undertones (pink + brown)
  • Paper Beige (#dcbfa6)
  • Bare Beige (#e8d3c9)
  • Unbleached Silk (#ffddca)
  • Desert Sand (#edc9af)

Although these colors will be best achieved in graphic design, this can be achieved with the proper ratio of colors, and experimentation is the key.

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How to make beige without brown?

Blending white with a few drops of lemon yellow can give you a creamy shade of beige.

Although making beige without brown is a bold move for a beginner, it is possible and fun,

Here’s what you can use to make beige without brown:

• Cadmium Orange + Cerulean Blue + Titanium White
• Black + Red/Cadmium Red + White + Yellow
• Yellow + Grey
• Titan buff + Yellow Ochre or Raw Umber
• Yellow Ochre + Buff + Magenta

How to make beige without white?

To make beige without white, use pink and gradually add brown until you get your desired shade of beige.

You can also substitute white with Buff and then you don’t need white at all!

Mix Yellow ochre with Buff and Magenta and you can adjust the brightness of the beige color by adding more Buff to the mix.

How to make beige color with chocolate?

To make beige color with chocolate, blend white, chocolate brown, yellow, and light pink. 

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How to make beige paint darker?

The straightforward and easiest way to make a darker shade of beige is to add a bit of brown to your beige mixture.

What colors make light beige?

If light beige is your aim, use white as your base and add a small amount of yellow or lemon yellow to it. 

You can also use other colors like champagne, ivory, or off-white to create a different and lighter shade of beige.

What colors make dark beige?

The best colors to use to make dark beige are a combination of white and brown. 

Add a bit browner to your mixture than usual to achieve a darker shade of beige.

Another trick you can do is to add brown to your white + yellow mixture.

What colors make creamy beige?

To achieve the creamy shade of beige, blend white and brown and add a bit of burnt umber to it. 

Mix them well until you reach your desired creamy beige.

If you do not have a burnt umber on hand, you can use a bit of yellow and red.

How do you make a rose beige color?

To make a rose beige color blend of titanium white, chocolate, brown, yellow, and light pink.

You can also blend pink and brown to achieve rose beige.

How to make beige paint look less pink?

To make the beige look less like pink, I suggest using a mixture of white and yellow and not the combination where you will be using red or pink.

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Best Beige Paints

If making beige isn’t on your list, or time cannot permit, you may directly purchase a beige paint.

 My personal choices of ready-to-use beige paints will be:

• Liquitex is the most popular and best value-for-money acrylic paint brand
• Winsor & Newton is a solid runner up
• cheapest would be Apple Barrel
• sometimes Buff can work as a very light beige

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FAQ

Is beige a dark color?

No, beige is not a dark color. Even though it has different shades, most beige is light colors.

What color makes light brown darker?

Adding a bit more brown or black can make the light brown darker.

Which color is closest to beige?

The closest color to beige is tan.

Is khaki and beige the same color?

Khaki and beige are not the same colors. Khaki is a pale brown, darker than beige. Surprisingly, khaki isn’t just a brown undertone; there are different khaki hues, which could be a yellow or green undertone.

Is beige and tan the same color?

Beige and tan are often interchangeable, but they are not the same. Beige and tan are two different shades. 

Tan is darker than beige and is closer to brown.

Is beige and cream the same color?

Beige and cream are not the same. Beige is darker and somewhat in the brown family, whereas cream is closer to off-white.

Is beige white?

Beige is not white. Although it is pale and has a base of white, they are not the same. 

Beige is a product of blending white and yellow and/or brown.

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Summary

Learning how to make beige is one for the books. It is a new learning that opens another art door.

Mixing two colors to make beige or primary colors to make beige is both challenging and satisfying.

It is something that you can experiment with, with your loved ones. 

I hope you’ve learned another interesting color mash-up. See you on our next adventure!