First Snow
Behr's powdery Designer Collection near-white, reviewed honestly: the gray-greige that stops the glare, the brighter trim that makes it look dirty, and what to pick instead.
Jessica has spec'd whites and neutrals for more than 300 rooms and keeps a sample wall of painted drawdowns in her studio. Every color review is checked against real reader rooms in the comments and re-tested when a formula changes. About the testing process →
- 1First Star69
- 2Classic Gray74
- 3First Snow82
- 4Chantilly Lace91
- 5Ultra Pure White97
The Fast Verdict
First Snow is the Home Depot white you mix when Polar Bear would glare and Swiss Coffee would cream. At LRV 82 it is a powdery near-white with a quiet gray-greige cast — warm enough to feel finished, gray enough that it never reads lemon. Behr files it in the Designer Collection and calls it comparable to Snowbound. The comparable part is the job, not the undertone: Snowbound hides a pink-violet; First Snow hides a yellow-beige mute. On ceilings and walls it is the white that stays clean without going clinical.
Ceilings that should stay white without glare · whole-house walls in decent daylight · kitchens with warm wood and brass · anyone who finds Polar Bear too stark
Your room faces north and stays dim · trim stays Polar Bear or Ultra Pure White · your floors are cool grey LVP · you want a crisp gallery white
- Powdery near-white — warm enough to finish a room, gray enough to stay quiet
- One of the better ceiling whites at Home Depot: LRV 82 without the glare
- One-color rooms (walls + trim + ceiling) work beautifully
- Designer Collection short list — mixed next to Gratifying Gray and Tranquil Gray
- Hides scuffs better than Polar Bear or Ultra Pure White
- Reads light grey next to Polar Bear or Ultra Pure White trim
- Goes flat and stone-gray in dim north-facing rooms
- Too soft for crisp, modern, high-contrast looks
- Yellow-beige shows against cool grey marble and grey LVP
What Color Is First Snow, Really?
A powdery near-white with a gray-greige mute over a yellow-beige base — and the mute is the whole trick. Most Home Depot whites either dump the warmth (Ultra Pure White, Polar Bear) or lean into cream (Swiss Coffee, Blank Canvas). First Snow sits in the thin band between them: bright enough to pass as white on a ceiling or a whole wall in good light, grayed enough that it does not go butter. Behr put it in the Designer Collection, the curated short list of about thirty shades, and a staff color stylist pairs it with Gratifying Gray on cabinets for small kitchens. That is the honest fame: a house color on a short list, not a Color of the Year.
At LRV 82 it reflects most of the light that hits it, but it is clearly not a bright white. Put it next to Polar Bear (LRV 94) or Ultra Pure White (LRV 97) and First Snow suddenly shows its body — owners who kept a brighter trim report the walls reading light grey. That gap is the useful part. On a ceiling it holds just enough color to kill the blue-white glare a true white throws against warm walls; on a wall it softens shadows and flatters wood. It shares the same LRV as Alabaster and sits a hair darker than Snowbound (LRV 83) and White Dove (LRV 85).
Undertone in one line: warm gray-greige, yellow-beige underneath — never Snowbound pink, never Swiss Coffee cream. North light and cool bulbs cancel the yellow and leave a flatter stone-white. West sun and 2700K lamps pull the beige forward. If the sample looks green or pink, that is the floor, the lawn, or a tree outside — not the paint.
Where It Shines
Give it real daylight, warm wood, and no brighter white in the same sightline, and it is one of the better ceiling-and-wall whites you can mix at Home Depot. Flat First Snow overhead is the job the color was quietly built for: LRV 82 is high enough to bounce light, low enough that the plane does not glare. Walls in the same gallon keep a house from looking like two different whites. Kitchens are the second home — Behr itself put First Snow on walls next to Gratifying Gray cabinets — and at this depth it hides scuffs a Polar Bear door would broadcast.
Where It Fails
Almost every regret story about First Snow comes from one of three situations, and all three are predictable. None of them are the paint's fault — but if your room matches one, this is not your white, and no amount of coats will fix it.
The most common bad pairing, and the one owners actually report: First Snow walls, Polar Bear (LRV 94) or Ultra Pure White (LRV 97) on the trim and ceiling. The brighter white wins, and First Snow reads light grey — too gray to be white, too pale to be a color. The fix is the one-color rule — walls, trim, and ceiling all First Snow. If you insist on contrast, go darker, never brighter.
North light is cool and grey — it strips the yellow-beige and leaves the gray-greige base exposed. The powdery white goes flat, dingy, stone-gray. The color did not fail; the light did. Step up to Behr Swiss Coffee (LRV 87) if you still want glow, or commit to warm lamps.
Carrara-type stone, grey plank, and blue-grey tile sit at the opposite temperature and shove the yellow-beige into the open. Cabinets that looked softly white on the chip read cream next to grey-veined quartz. With cool stone, pick a cleaner white — Sherwin-Williams Pure White, or Chantilly Lace if you want the gallery version.
Room by Room
Flat First Snow overhead is why this color exists in a five-gallon ceiling mix. LRV 82 kills the blue-white glare Ultra Pure White throws against warm walls, and the gray-greige keeps the plane from reading dingy. Same color as the walls if you can. This is the surface where the undertone almost never gets a chance to argue.
With any real daylight it is the calm backdrop that makes wood furniture and art look deliberate — powdery, not stark. Eggshell finish; same color on trim in semi-gloss. This is the whole-house test, and First Snow passes it — hallways and adjoining rooms do not suddenly change temperature.
Behr's own pairing is First Snow walls and Gratifying Gray cabinets, and it earns the listing: airy without going clinical. Satin First Snow on the doors themselves works too — brass, butcher block, and oak all love it. Keep the backsplash and quartz on the warm side; a bright white slab will make the paint look creamy by comparison.
Under warm 2700K bulbs it turns gently cozy at night without going lemon. If the bedroom faces north and stays dim, step up to Swiss Coffee instead, or you will wake up to stone-gray walls.
With warm stone, wood vanities and brass: perfect. With cool grey marble or blue-grey tile: it argues — use a cleaner white. Satin or a bath-rated eggshell for wipe-down either way.
Full sun reads it brighter and crisper than indoors, and with black or charcoal trim it is a quiet farmhouse white. Sample the north elevation: shade will pull the greige and the cream can look faintly dusty from the street. Walk around the house with a board before committing.
Your Light Is the Risk
The powdery white stays clean all day without tipping lemon — the gray-greige holds the beige in check. Whole-house safe. This is the light the color was built for.
Cool grey daylight cancels the yellow-beige and leaves a flatter stone-white. Dim north rooms go dingy. Test first, or plan on lamps.
Quiet and slightly cooler in morning east light; west sun and golden hour warm it and can flash cream for an hour. Most owners like the shift; sample at 6pm if yellow is your dealbreaker.
2700K lamps: creamier, cozier, the beige comes forward. Cool white LEDs: flatter and faintly stone-gray — swap the bulbs, not the paint.
Most complaints about First Snow are a light mismatch. Upload a photo of your actual room and see it on your walls — then ask for the same wall in north light or evening lamps before you buy a single sample.
Need It From Another Brand?
Any paint counter can custom-tint Behr DC-006 directly. If you would rather stay in one brand's own deck, these are the closest stock matches, measured as ΔE2000. Under 2 is a difference you will not see on the wall.
| Brand | Closest color | ΔE | LRV | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sherwin-Williams | AlabasterSW 7008 · Sherwin-Williams | 0.9 | 82 | Color page → |
| Benjamin Moore | Dune White968 · Benjamin Moore | 0.9 | 80 | Color page → |
| Valspar | Paramount White7006-22 · Valspar | 0.5 | 82.4 | Color page → |
| PPG / Glidden | Linen RufflePPG1075-1 · PPG / Glidden | 1.0 | 83 | Color page → |
| Glidden | Mountain Mist10GY 83/050 · Glidden | 1.2 | 83 | Color page → |
| Dutch Boy | Crisped White022W · Dutch Boy | 0.5 | 82 | Color page → |
Similar Behr Colors
The nearest shades to First Snow within Behr's own range, ranked by perceptual color distance — useful when you want the same look a touch lighter, darker, or warmer.
WCAG 2.1: AA is 4.5 : 1 for normal text, 3 : 1 for large text, AAA is 7 : 1.
First Snow vs the Colors You're Also Considering
Every First Snow sample board has the same rivals on it. The numbers show the real lightness gap — then it comes down to which risk you would rather live with.
Pick this when you want the Home Depot version of that soft near-white without the pink risk — First Snow hides yellow-beige, not violet.
Sherwin-Williams SW 7004 · LRV 83SnowboundPick this if you want the official comparable — same job, same depth, but a grayed warmth with a pink-violet edge you must test for.
Pick this for the slightly grayer, more ceiling-friendly version of the same depth, mixed at Home Depot.
Sherwin-Williams SW 7008 · LRV 82AlabasterPick this if you want the famous cabinet white — same LRV, a touch creamier, with a yellow that shows next to anything stark-white.
Pick this when you are shopping Home Depot and want the same calm near-white job without switching brands.
Benjamin Moore PM-19 · LRV 85White DovePick this if you want the designer default — a touch brighter, more grayed, and the safest warm white in the BM deck.
Pick this for walls and ceilings that need a little body — Polar Bear next to First Snow is exactly how the walls start reading grey.
Behr W-F-200 · LRV 94Polar BearPick this for trim and ceilings that should stay a true everyday white — it is Behr's dependable bright, not a White Dove stand-in.
Across brands the matches are unusually tight. Valspar Paramount White 7006-22 at LRV 82.4 has a deltaE of 0.46, and Dutch Boy Crisped White 022W at LRV 82 is 0.47. Both are close enough to swap without anyone noticing. Dunn-Edwards Almond Milk DEHW01 at LRV 83 is 0.52, and Diamond Vogel Cotton White OW3 at LRV 83 is 0.52.
The famous names are also near. Sherwin-Williams Alabaster SW 7008 at LRV 82 sits at deltaE 0.91, and Benjamin Moore Dune White 968 at LRV 80 is also 0.91, so both are practical stand-ins. PPG Linen Ruffle PPG1075-1 at LRV 83 is 1.01, visually identical in normal room light.
The two that actually differ are Clare Classic PNT100-LT-12 at deltaE 2.86 and Farrow and Ball Wevet No. 273 at 2.88. Both trade the yellow for a cooler gray lean, so sample first.
First Snow Coordinating Colors
The rule for coordinating with First Snow is simple: stay on the warm-grey side of the fence, and never park a brighter white next to it. It flatters Designer Collection greiges, warm woods, gray-leaning navies, and near-blacks — and it argues with icy blues, cool grey stone, and Polar Bear trim. These are the partners that keep showing up in rooms that work:
Designer Collection, Not a Famous White
First Snow is not a Color of the Year and it does not have a viral room. What it has is a slot in Behr's Designer Collection — the short list of about thirty whites, greiges, and accents the brand treats as house colors — and a comparable note that points at Snowbound. That is useful context, not a match. Snowbound's real risk is a pink-violet flash in dim rooms and warm lamps. First Snow's real risk is the opposite temperature: yellow-beige that shows against cool stone, and a gray-greige body that looks dirty the moment Polar Bear trim walks in.
The other honest use is the ceiling. Home Depot stocks this number as a ceiling flat, and that is the job most people should consider first: a white that stays white overhead without the glare of Ultra Pure White. Behr's own kitchen recipe — First Snow walls, Gratifying Gray cabinets — is the second documented use, from a 2022 Color of the Month feature. Neither is fame. Both are reasons the gallon keeps getting mixed.
First Snow With Wood Tones and Floors
Warm wood loves it. Oak — red, white, honey — walnut, butcher block, and pale white oak all sit comfortably against First Snow because the gray-greige mute meets the wood halfway instead of amplifying orange the way a cream white can. If your floors are orange-leaning builder oak, this is one of the few Home Depot whites that softens the orange instead of lighting it up.
The one flooring that needs a sample first is cool grey LVP or grey-washed wood. Grey floors pull the yellow-beige into relief, and the wall can read slightly creamy or dingy against them. It is not always a dealbreaker — warm rugs and brass fix it in most rooms — but test a big sample above the actual floor before painting the whole room. Metals are the easy part: unlacquered brass, antique bronze, and matte black all work; polished chrome is the one that leans cold against it.
Three Ready Palettes Built on First Snow
A color is never alone on the wall. These are complete combinations in the 60-30-10 pattern, with the reason each one holds together. Every one opens in the visualizer.
One color at two sheens is the pairing that actually works — no brighter trim to turn the walls grey. Midnight Blue is the navy that leans gray, not purple, so the door sits in the same temperature family instead of arguing.
Try this palette in your roomThis is Behr's own small-kitchen recipe: First Snow walls, Gratifying Gray cabinets. Gratifying Gray is the Home Depot twin for America's favorite greige, so the handoff stays quiet; Hale Navy on the island supplies the one dark note and loves brass.
Try this palette in your roomTranquil Gray is the warm greige workhorse sitting one chip over in the same Designer Collection, so First Snow trim and ceiling read like the same house getting brighter, not a color change. Iron Ore is the near-black that stays current on a door — give it real light so it does not collapse to flat black.
Try this palette in your roomFirst Snow FAQ
Is First Snow warm or cool?
Warm — but the quietest kind. A gray-greige mute keeps the yellow-beige from reading cream, which is why it works on ceilings as well as walls. In cold light it drifts toward stone-white; it never reads icy, and it never goes Snowbound-pink.
Is it good for ceilings?
That is its best job. Home Depot sells it as a ceiling mix for a reason: LRV 82 is high enough to bounce light, low enough that the plane does not glare the way Ultra Pure White (LRV 97) does against warm walls. Use flat. Same color as the walls if you can.
What trim color goes with First Snow walls?
First Snow itself, in semi-gloss. A brighter trim white — Polar Bear or Ultra Pure White — makes the walls look light grey. That is the most common mistake with this color. If you insist on contrast, go darker (a greige or a near-black), never brighter.
Is First Snow the same as Snowbound?
No. Behr lists it as comparable, and the job is the same — a soft near-white at about LRV 82–83. The undertones are not. Snowbound hides a pink-violet edge that comes out in dim rooms and warm lamps. First Snow hides yellow-beige under a gray-greige mute. Sample both if you are deciding; do not treat the comparable note as a match.
Does it work with grey floors?
Cool grey LVP and grey-washed wood pull the yellow-beige into relief, and the wall can read slightly creamy or dingy against them. Warm oak, walnut, and pale white oak are the easy yes. If the grey floor is staying, test a big sample above the actual plank before painting the room.
How many coats does it take?
Two over any light existing color. Going over a dark or saturated wall, prime first with a grey-tinted primer — three finish coats of a near-white over red or navy is the expensive way to learn this.
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