Sleek White
Behr's sunny bright white, reviewed honestly: the trim and cabinet job it was mixed for, the west sun that turns it yellow, 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 →
- 1Classic Gray74
- 2Alabaster82
- 3Sleek White92
- 4Ultra Pure White97
The Fast Verdict
Sleek White is the Home Depot white you pick when you want bounce, not gallery ice. At LRV 92 it is almost a true white; the yellow in it is a whisper on the chip and a fact on a west wall at 5pm. On trim, cabinets, and ceilings it reads bright and finished. On four sunlit walls it can look like cream you did not order — and the name Sleek is no help, because this is not a crisp modern white.
Trim, cabinets and ceilings that need bounce · north and east rooms · one-color millwork with only a sheen change · kitchens with warm wood and brass
Your main room takes hard western sun · trim stays Ultra Pure White · counters are cool grey quartz · you wanted a crisp gallery white from the name
- LRV 92 — bright enough for trim, cabinets, and ceilings without blue-white glare
- Warm enough to feel finished, not as creamy as Swiss Coffee
- One-color rooms (walls + trim + ceiling) work; the sheen change is enough
- Flatters oak, walnut, brass, and honey oak instead of turning them orange
- Genuinely good in north light, where cooler whites go grey and flat
- Turns visibly creamy-yellow in hard western and late-afternoon sun
- Looks dingy the moment Ultra Pure White or Chantilly Lace sits next to it
- The name Sleek is a trap — this is not a crisp gallery white
- Clashes with cool grey quartz, Carrara-look stone, and grey LVP
What Color Is Sleek White, Really?
A very bright warm white with a milk-cream, yellow undertone — not grey, not peach, not the sleek gallery white the name promises. Most Behr whites either dump the warmth (Ultra Pure White) or lean into cream (Swiss Coffee). Sleek White sits in the thin, sunny band between them: bright enough to pass as white on a ceiling, a door, or a whole wall in north light, yellow enough that designers describe a gorgeous sunny bias and homeowners report a sunshine-y glow. Independent reviews put it next to Benjamin Moore Simply White, with a touch more yellow and a bit more bounce. That is the useful way to think about it. Same job, louder tell.
At LRV 92 there is almost no headroom above it. Polar Bear sits at 94 and Ultra Pure White at 97; those are the only common Behr whites that are clearly brighter. That is why this color is a natural trim, cabinet, and ceiling white — it reflects like the top of the deck — and also why you cannot rescue it with a whiter neighbor. A cooler or brighter trim does not add contrast. It just makes Sleek White look like unwashed cream. The one-color rule is not a style preference here. It is physics.
Undertone in one line: yellow, milk-cream range, never pink and never green. In north light the yellow is mostly cancelled and the wall reads as a quiet bright white. In west sun and under 2700K lamps the yellow is the whole story. If your sample already looks a little yellow on the chip, believe it — several roundups note that this one almost has a yellow look before it even hits a wall. If it looks dingy, look at the trim next to it before you blame the gallon.
Where It Shines
Give it north or east daylight, warm wood, and no brighter white nearby, and it does the rare thing a yellow-leaning white is supposed to do: look white, not cream, while still keeping the room from going cold. Trim, doors, and ceilings are the job it was quietly mixed for. Semi-gloss Sleek White on casings reads as painted woodwork rather than plastic-bright, satin on cabinets brightens a wood-and-brass kitchen, and flat overhead stays high without the blue-white glare Ultra Pure White throws against warm walls. A century-home owner even reached for it as a white-crème and called it so good — that is the room this color wants, not a gallery.
Where It Fails
Almost every unhappy Sleek White story is a Simply White story with extra yellow in the can. The warmth is real, it is small on the chip, and three situations make it loud. None of them are a bad mix — but if your room matches one, this is not your white, and another coat will not hide it.
This is the warning every honest review of this color repeats: south and west light only make a yellow white warmer. From about four o'clock the flood has nowhere to hide, and the wall goes creamy, too warm, almost yellow. Sleek White's yellow is a touch louder than Simply White's, so west light does not care that the chip looked barely warm. If the room you live in faces west, sample at 5pm or pick a cleaner white — Chantilly Lace (OC-65, LRV 90) holds the sun without going cream.
The most common Home Depot pairing mistake: Sleek White walls, Ultra Pure White (W-B-500, LRV 97) on the trim or ceiling. The brighter white wins, and Sleek White looks dingy. Polar Bear (W-F-200, LRV 94) and Chantilly Lace do the same trick — the temperature gap, not just the brightness, is enough. Run Sleek White on walls, trim, and ceiling and let eggshell / semi-gloss / flat separate the planes, or drop it and paint the whole room the cleaner white.
Cool stone and grey plank sit at the opposite temperature and shove the yellow into the open. Cabinets that looked softly white on the chip read cream next to grey-veined quartz and stainless; walls above grey LVP pick up a faint nicotine cast. With cool floors and counters, use a cleaner white — Ultra Pure White on cabinets, or Chantilly Lace if you want the gallery version — and keep Sleek White for a warmer room.
Room by Room
Semi-gloss on casings and doors, satin on cabinets. At LRV 92 it still reads as white woodwork, and the whisper of yellow keeps millwork from looking plastic the way Ultra Pure White can. Kind to oak, walnut, and brass. The rule is the same as for Simply White: do not park a cooler white next to it. One color, two sheens.
LRV 92 is ceiling-bright, and the milk-cream undertone stops the plane from reading blue against warm walls — the exact complaint with builder-grade Ultra Pure White overhead. Flat sheen; same color as the walls if you can. This is the surface where the yellow almost never gets a chance to argue.
On walls or cabinets it brightens a wood-and-brass kitchen without the clinical edge of Ultra Pure White. Warm quartz, butcher block, soapstone, terracotta: all fine. Grey quartz and a wall of stainless: the yellow shows, and you will wish you had sampled a door against the slab.
East and north living rooms are its home turf: bright, quiet, slightly warm. South is lovely until mid-afternoon, when it creams up a step. A west living room is the skip. Eggshell walls; same color on trim in semi-gloss so the room does not grow a dingy halo around the casings.
North and east bedrooms stay clean and restful. Under 2700K lamps it turns creamier at night, which some people want and some people call dingy. 3000K–3500K keeps it closer to white after dark. If the bedroom faces west, this is not the gallon.
Warm marble, cream tile, wood vanities, brass: it looks settled and expensive. Grey porcelain, blue-grey subway, chrome-and-Carrara: it argues, and the wall goes yellow. Satin or a bath-rated eggshell for wipe-down either way.
Your Light Is the Risk
Cool grey daylight cancels most of the yellow and leaves a clean, quietly warm white. This is the exposure the color was built for.
From about four o'clock the yellow lands hard and the walls go cream. Sample this hour or skip the color in a west room.
East rooms glow softly in the morning and settle to a quiet white by noon. South rooms cream up through the afternoon; west rooms make the shift all at once at golden hour.
2700K lamps pull the yellow forward — cozy to some, dingy to others. 3000K–3500K keeps it closer to true white. Cool LEDs flatten it. Swap bulbs before you swap paint.
Most complaints about Sleek White 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 OR-W15 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 | High Reflective WhiteSW 7757 · Sherwin-Williams | 3.2 | 93 | Color page → |
| Benjamin Moore | Crisp LinenCSP-305 · Benjamin Moore | 1.1 | 92 | Color page → |
| Valspar | Gauzy WhiteV152 · Valspar | 1.4 | 91 | Color page → |
| PPG / Glidden | White ChipPPG15-06 · PPG / Glidden | 1.5 | 87 | Color page → |
| Glidden | Linwood Beach White71YY 87/078 · Glidden | 1.5 | 87 | Color page → |
| Dutch Boy | Ultra White002W · Dutch Boy | 3.2 | 91 | Color page → |
Similar Behr Colors
The nearest shades to Sleek White 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.
Sleek White vs the Colors You're Also Considering
Every Sleek White 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 are at Home Depot and want the brighter, slightly sunnier version of that same job.
Benjamin Moore OC-117 · LRV 90Simply WhitePick this if you want the Benjamin Moore formula designers already know — same bright, faintly yellow white, a hair less yellow and two LRV points softer.
Pick this when Ultra Pure White would go blue-cold against warm walls and you still want the millwork to bounce.
Behr W-B-500 · LRV 97Ultra Pure WhitePick this for the brightest possible ceiling and trim — unbeatable there, risky on four walls, and a terrible neighbor to this color.
Within Behr, Ultra Pure White PR-W15 (#F9F9F3, LRV 94) is the cleaner, less warm option and is the standard untinted base white. Crystal Cut PR-W13 (#FBF9F4, LRV 95) matches Sleek White's lightness but reads a touch more neutral. Polar Bear W-F-200 (#F8F9F2, LRV 94) leans very slightly cool by comparison, which is useful if Sleek White looks too creamy in your light.
Across brands, Dunn-Edwards White Heat DEW338 (#FDF9EF) is the closest at deltaE 0.56, effectively the same color, though its published LRV of 87 is well below Behr's 95, a reminder that brands do not measure identically. Sherwin-Williams High Reflective White SW 7757 (#F7F7F1, LRV 93) is deltaE 1.8, visually identical in normal room light but marginally cooler.
Benjamin Moore Snowfall White 2144-70 (#F6F7EE, LRV 90) is deltaE 2.02, very close, sample first. Farrow and Ball All White No. 2005 (#F6F6F2, LRV 92) is deltaE 2.51 and reads flatter and less warm.
Sleek White Coordinating Colors
Stay on the warm side of the fence and never introduce a brighter, cooler white. Sleek White flatters warm greiges, easy sages, deep navies, and near-blacks — and it argues with icy greys, blue-grey stone, and any trim white that out-brights it. These are the partners that keep showing up in rooms that work:
The Name Says Sleek. The Paint Says Yellow.
Sleek White is not a Color of the Year and it does not have a viral kitchen. It sits in Behr's regular OR-W line as a very bright, barely warm white that people actually buy for trim, cabinets, and ceilings. Independent reviewers put it next to Benjamin Moore Simply White: same bright-white job, a touch more yellow, a bit more bounce at LRV 92. Home Depot's own chip copy calls out a milk-white undertone that can read creamy on the wall. That is the honest product, and it is a good one if you wanted sun.
The name is doing real damage. Sleek sounds like a crisp, modern, almost-cool white — the kind you put in a gallery kitchen next to grey quartz. This can is the opposite of that. If you already ruled Simply White out because of western windows or grey stone, do not expect OR-W15 to behave differently. If you already loved a yellow-warm white in a north kitchen, this is one of the closest Behr gets without crossing brands. Sample it against Ultra Pure White on the same board so the yellow is obvious before you buy gallons.
Sleek White With Wood Tones and Floors
Warm wood is the easy yes. Oak — red, white, honey — walnut, butcher block, and cedar all sit comfortably against it because the yellow in the paint meets the yellow in the wood halfway. Icy whites make honey oak look aggressively orange; Sleek White softens that orange instead of amplifying it, which is why it is kinder to a 1990s trim-and-floor package than Ultra Pure White will ever be.
The floor that needs a sample first is cool grey LVP or grey-washed oak. Grey plank pulls the yellow into relief, and the wall can read faintly nicotine against it. It is not always a dealbreaker — a large warm rug and brass lamps pull it back — but tape a big sample above the actual floor and look at 5pm before you paint the room. White oak and natural maple are safe; orange builder oak is safer here than it is next to a true bright white.
Metals are straightforward: unlacquered brass, antique bronze, and matte black all agree with it. Polished chrome and stainless are the ones that lean cold and make the yellow show, which is why a stainless-heavy kitchen is a skip.
Three Ready Palettes Built on Sleek White
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 white at three sheens is how you use LRV 92 without inventing a dingy halo around the trim. Cracked Pepper on the door is the single dark note the scheme needs — Behr's chameleon black, not a second white.
Try this palette in your roomClary Sage is an easy, slightly greyed sage that stays calm next to a warm white; Sleek White on the cabinets keeps the kitchen bright without the blue hit of Ultra Pure White. Hale Navy on the island grounds the room and loves brass.
Try this palette in your roomAgreeable Gray is the safest greige in decent light, and a warm ceiling white is what keeps it from going cold overhead. Even Better Beige next door stays on the warm side without adding yellow, so the handoff between rooms does not fight.
Try this palette in your roomSleek White FAQ
Is Sleek White warm or cool?
Warm — the sunny kind. The undertone is yellow, but at LRV 92 it is spread thin enough that north and east rooms still read as a finished white rather than cream. North light cancels the yellow; west sun and 2700K bulbs put it back. It is never icy and never grey.
Is it the same as Benjamin Moore Simply White?
It is the closest Home Depot analog, not a match. Both are bright whites with a delicate yellow; Sleek White is a touch more yellow and two LRV points brighter (92 vs 90). They share the same west-sun problem and the same rule about cooler trim. If Simply White is the target and Home Depot is the store, this is the gallon — just sample it at 5pm, because the extra yellow is real.
What trim white goes with Sleek White walls?
Sleek White itself, in semi-gloss. Ultra Pure White, Polar Bear, or Chantilly Lace next to it makes the walls look dingy — the most common mistake with this color. There is almost no brighter white that still matches its temperature. If you want contrast, go darker on the door, never brighter on the casing.
Is it good for kitchen cabinets?
Yes, when the stone and wood are warm. Satin Sleek White on shaker doors brightens a brass-and-butcher-block kitchen without going hospital-white. Sample a door against grey quartz or stainless before you commit the boxes — that is where the yellow shows. Use a urethane-fortified cabinet enamel.
Will it look yellow?
In west afternoon sun, yes. Under 2700K lamps, a little. Next to a cooler white, it will look cream even if the light is fine. In north or east daylight on its own, most people never call it yellow. The chip itself can already look a hair sunny — believe that, and sample a big board at 5pm in the actual room.
Is it good for ceilings?
That is one of its best jobs. LRV 92 is ceiling-bright, and the whisper of warmth keeps the overhead plane from going blue-white against warm walls, which is the usual complaint with Ultra Pure White on the ceiling. Use flat. If the walls are also Sleek White, even better — one color, two sheens.
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