Muted Color Palettes
Twelve muted palettes with hex codes — generate endless more with the free tool below.
#599b79 · #73b5ab · #85c188 · #ac7fad · #9b6987
#64b49b · #72b3b6 · #5c9d70 · #b875a7 · #9c687a
#95ac8b · #8cb68b · #b8bf9b · #57549c · #87679e
#7cb688 · #628d78 · #679e57 · #8b6397 · #906a8a
#509f95 · #648590 · #8fbca1 · #9b5581 · #b48d93
#9ea26d · #8cab6d · #c8af92 · #6787a2 · #777aa6
#7d9d4d · #719f5b · #928c5d · #717798 · #9988b9
#b295a1 · #bb9590 · #bf97b8 · #569966 · #80a89b
#9c97c3 · #735a96 · #9ba5b5 · #a58a6f · #888763
#975992 · #9b5079 · #8d6f9f · #77955f · #7daa80
#b7c19f · #6ca752 · #9b8650 · #6c82b2 · #a69fc6
#9b90b6 · #b9a5c0 · #7373ab · #928868 · #789550
Want more? Generate unlimited muted palettes, or anchor one on your own base color.
Open the Color Palette GeneratorUsing a muted palette
A muted palette keeps every hue on the table and simply turns the volume down: mid-lightness colors at heavily reduced saturation, so a blue, a rose, and a green can share a layout without any of them claiming it. That distinguishes muted from the neutral themes on either side of it — warm-neutral confines itself to the greige band and cool-gray all but abandons hue, while muted stays genuinely colorful, just quietly. The effect is grown-up and low-pressure, and editorial design, healthcare and therapy brands, and premium apps trying not to oversell all reach for it. The failure mode is mush: with saturation flattened, adjacent swatches need honest lightness gaps or the whole design blurs together. Muted colors also flatter photography of people better than saturated schemes do, receding behind skin tones instead of fighting them.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between muted and pastel colors?
Axis of retreat. Pastels retreat toward white — high lightness, still fairly saturated — while muted colors retreat toward gray, holding mid lightness while saturation drops. Pastels read sweet and airy; muted tones read calm and adult.
How is muted different from warm-neutral or cool-gray?
Muted keeps the full hue wheel in play at low intensity — you can still point at the blue, the rose, the olive. Warm-neutral commits to one warm greige corner, and cool-gray reduces to a blue-tinged monotone. Muted is quiet color; the others are near-absence of it.
Why does my muted palette look muddy?
The lightness values are too close together. Desaturated colors have no chroma contrast to lean on, so they need clear lightness separation to stay distinct — spread your swatches across the 45-70 percent range instead of clustering them mid-field.