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Colour guides · White
"Off-white" is the name given to some twenty different colours that all look alike on a colour card — and no longer look alike at all on twenty square metres of wall. One leans to grey, another to yellow, a third to pink; one brightens a north-facing room, another makes it sad.
Here are our ten off-whites side by side, from coolest to warmest, with each one's undertone, its brightness, and the room it prefers.
Updated September 2026 · by the Mylands France colour team
The short answer
Our off-whites fall into three families. The cool, with a grey or green undertone — Charterhouse No.4, Cotton Street No.3, Belgravia No.6 — for south-facing rooms. The balanced, with no marked undertone — Maugham White No.2, Holland Park No.5 — which go everywhere. The warm, with a yellow, pink or sand undertone — Whitehall No.9, Holbein Chamber No.7, Limehouse No.31, Lots Road No.24, St Martins No.37 — for north-facing and dark rooms.
At a glance
| Colour | Family | Tone | Light | LRV ≈ | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charterhouse™ No.4 | White | White | South | 85 % | For south-facing rooms, ceilings, and woodwork beneath cool walls. |
| Cotton Street™ No.3 | White | White | South | 84 % | For bright rooms, kitchens, bathrooms. |
| Belgravia™ No.6 | White | Pale tone | South | 74 % | For south-facing sitting rooms and bedrooms, with Pure White woodwork. |
| Maugham White™ No.2 | White | White | South | 83 % | For everything, everywhere: a house's default white. |
| Holland Park™ No.5 | White | White | West | 82 % | For a whole house of mixed aspects. |
| Whitehall™ No.9 | White | White | West | 80 % | For hallways, corridors and north-facing rooms. |
| Holbein Chamber™ No.7 | White | White | West | 84 % | For bedrooms, evening sitting rooms, and beneath reds or plums. |
| Limehouse™ No.31 | White | White | South | 80 % | For libraries, studies and east-facing rooms. |
| Lots Road™ No.24 | White | White | West | 84 % | For north-facing rooms, windowless hallways, basements. |
| St Martins™ No.37 | White | Pale tone | South | 75 % | For evening sitting rooms, dining rooms, hallways. |
LRV: light reflectance estimated from the on-screen shade, from 0 (absolute black) to 100 (absolute white). Light: the orientation in which the shade looks its best.
10 colours
Cool · the closest to pure white
A faintly grey-green off-white, barely softer than Pure White — the white of those who find pure white too hard but cream too yellow. Its touch of grey keeps it crisp all day in a sunny room, and it never turns yellow under lamps. It is also our most used ceiling white.
Our tip — For south-facing rooms, ceilings, and woodwork beneath cool walls.
Cool · the white without a story
A soft, clean white with no marked undertone, the colour of a cotton sheet. Between Pure White and Charterhouse, it leans neither grey nor yellow: it is simply white, a notch calmer than pure white. It is the white to choose for a whole house when you don't want to think about it, provided the house has light.
Our tip — For bright rooms, kitchens, bathrooms.
Cool · the grey white
A very pale grey white: just enough grey to absorb the excess warmth of south light, and stay a calm white at noon. It has the elegance of the stuccoed façades of the district it is named after. It is the most "colour" of our cool whites — in a north-facing room it becomes a pale grey, which is worth knowing before choosing it.
Our tip — For south-facing sitting rooms and bedrooms, with Pure White woodwork.
Balanced · the reference off-white
Our most used off-white, barely warm, with no marked undertone — neither yellow, pink nor grey. It is the perfect compromise when you fear a cream white will "look yellow" and a cool white will "look cold": it warms by a hair and stays white. On walls, ceiling, woodwork, it never goes wrong.
Our tip — For everything, everywhere: a house's default white.
Balanced · the most versatile of the warm
A warm off-white, balanced between yellow and pink, that goes absolutely everywhere: walls, ceilings, woodwork, furniture. It is our default white for a whole house where some rooms are dark — it stays warm facing north without yellowing facing south. A notch warmer than Maugham White, a notch whiter than Whitehall.
Our tip — For a whole house of mixed aspects.
Warm · the stone white
A warm white with a limestone undertone, a little deeper than Holland Park. It brings something the lighter whites lack: substance. Walls look plastered rather than painted, and the small marks of a hallway or corridor show less on it. In a dark room it brightens without bleaching.
Our tip — For hallways, corridors and north-facing rooms.
Warm · the pinkish white
A warm white whose warmth comes from pink rather than yellow — the colour of old plaster or a shell. It is the most flattering white for faces and the softest at night, and the one to choose for a north-facing bedroom or sitting room when you don't want cream. Under south light it becomes almost a pure white.
Our tip — For bedrooms, evening sitting rooms, and beneath reds or plums.
Warm · the ivory white
Between Maugham White and Lots Road: an ivory white, warmer than the first, less yellow than the second, with the softness of old linen. It is especially handsome with dark woodwork — a library, a study — and with anything in wood. In a very sunny room it can look yellow: keep it for east and north.
Our tip — For libraries, studies and east-facing rooms.
Warm · the golden cream white
Our warmest white: a golden cream that looks as though it has sunshine in it. In a north-facing or windowless room it does what no other white does — it replaces the missing light. The flip side: in a south-facing room it turns frankly yellow. It is a white chosen for an aspect, not for a whole house.
Our tip — For north-facing rooms, windowless hallways, basements.
Warm · the sand white
Our deepest off-white, almost a very pale beige, the colour of dry sand. It doesn't brighten a room as much as the others — it wraps it. It is the white of an evening sitting room, a dining room or a hallway you want warm rather than bright, and it ages well with coats and shoes. Under lamps it turns golden.
Our tip — For evening sitting rooms, dining rooms, hallways.
An off-white is a white to which a touch of another colour has been added — its undertone. That touch is invisible on the colour card and decisive on the wall, because light multiplies it: a yellow undertone turns cream in sunshine, a grey undertone turns blue facing north. So the rule is simple. South-facing room, warm light: a white with a cool undertone, to compensate — Charterhouse No.4, Cotton Street No.3, Belgravia No.6. North-facing room, cold light: a white with a warm undertone, to warm it — Whitehall No.9, Holbein Chamber No.7, Lots Road No.24. Mixed or uncertain aspect: a balanced white — Maugham White No.2, Holland Park No.5.
The LRV column in the table above gives the share of light each white returns. Between Charterhouse No.4 (85) and St Martins No.37 (75) the gap is real: the first brightens, the second wraps. For a dark room you want lighter, stay above 80; for a room you want soft, go lower.
An off-white is not chosen on a screen. Paint two sample pots onto paper, put them on the brightest and the darkest wall of the room, and look at them in the morning, at noon and at night under the lamps. The right white is the one that stays white at all three.
To go further: our warm whites for a dark room, our cool whites for a south-facing room, which white for a ceiling?, how light affects colour and our ideas in white.
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