Alabaster
Dunn-Edwards Alabaster, reviewed honestly: it is not Sherwin-Williams 7008, it is a darker beige-white cream, and here is where that cream actually works.
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 →
- 1Agreeable Gray60
- 2Pale Oak69
- 3Alabaster75
- 4Dover White83
- 5Moonlit Beach88
The Fast Verdict
Dunn-Edwards Alabaster is not the Alabaster from a decade of kitchen photos. At LRV 75 it is a beige-white cream with a peach cast — darker and more colored than Sherwin-Williams Alabaster — filed in DE's Whites collection anyway. On kitchen cabinets with oak and brass it looks intentional. Next to Warm White trim, or in a dim north room, it looks like you missed the white you meant to buy.
Sunny Western living rooms and bedrooms · kitchen cabinets with warm wood and brass · one-color interiors that skip a brighter trim white · anyone who actually wants a beige-white cream
You wanted Sherwin-Williams Alabaster · the room faces north and stays dim · trim stays Warm White or builder white · cool grey marble or grey LVP · you need an exterior color
- Real cream body at LRV 75 — hides scuffs better than a true white
- Kitchen cabinets with oak and brass look custom, not builder
- One-color rooms (walls + trim + ceiling) read finished, not dingy
- A high-volume workhorse at Dunn-Edwards counters in the West
- Peach-beige warmth flatters terracotta, walnut, and unlacquered brass
- Not Sherwin-Williams Alabaster — darker, more beige, easy to buy by mistake
- Looks dirty next to Warm White, builder white, or any true white
- Goes dingy beige in dim north light; west sun can flash peach
- Interior only — the wrong can for stucco or siding
What Color Is Alabaster, Really?
A beige-white cream wearing a white's name. Dunn-Edwards files DEW310 in the Whites collection and lists it for kitchen cabinetry, which is half-right: on boxes with oak and brass it behaves like a soft cream, not like a white. The hue sits in the yellow-red family at low chroma — beige first, a peach whisper second — so the wall has more body than Whisper, Milk Glass, or Dunn-Edwards Swiss Coffee. Those are the actual whites in this deck. This can is the one people grab because the chip says Alabaster.
At LRV 75 it is a full step darker than Sherwin-Williams Alabaster (LRV 82) and twelve points under Dunn-Edwards Whisper (LRV 87). That gap is the whole product. There is enough pigment to soften shadows, hide scuffs, and make wood look deliberate; there is not enough bounce to pass as white once a true white sits next to it. Put it beside Warm White (LRV 93) — the trim DE itself pairs on the color page — and Alabaster suddenly has a name: beige. Run it walls-and-trim in one color, two sheens, and the cream reads finished instead of dirty.
Undertone in one line: beige-peach, never gray, never green. In south light it is a calm cream. In west sun and under 2700K lamps the peach comes forward and the wall can flash apricot for an hour. In cool north light it goes dingy beige, not cozy. If your sample looks pink, that is the yellow-red base meeting warm light. If it looks dirty, look at the trim white before you blame the gallon.
Where It Shines
Give it real daylight, warm wood, and no brighter white in the room, and it does the job a cream is supposed to do: look expensive instead of unfinished. Kitchen cabinets are the use Dunn-Edwards keeps listing, and it earns the listing — satin boxes against oak, brass, and a mid-tone beige wall, not against grey quartz. Bedrooms and living rooms with south or west light are the other home: the beige-white reads restful, and at LRV 75 it hides the scuffs a 90-LRV white would broadcast. One color at two sheens is the cleanest way to use it.
Where It Fails
Almost every unhappy Alabaster story from this can is a naming story or a pairing story. 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.
The pairing Dunn-Edwards prints on the color page is the trap: Alabaster walls, Warm White trim. Warm White is a true white at LRV 93 wearing a warm name; Alabaster is a cream at LRV 75. The brighter white wins, and the walls look dingy, yellow, even unwashed. Builder white, Chantilly Lace, and appliance white do the same trick. Run Alabaster on walls, trim, and ceiling and let eggshell / semi-gloss / flat separate the planes — do not split this cream against a real white unless you want the beige named.
North light is cool and grey, and this beige-peach has no grey in it to meet halfway. The wall goes dull — not the finished cream from the chip, a faintly dirty beige people describe as nicotine or builder leftover. Warm lamps help after dark and do nothing at 2 p.m. Use Dunn-Edwards Swiss Coffee if you still want cream that glows in a cave, or Whisper if you wanted the white the name promised.
Carrara-look stone and grey plank sit at the opposite temperature and shove the peach into the open. Cabinets that looked softly white on the chip read apricot next to grey-veined quartz; walls above grey LVP pick up a faint salmon cast. With cool floors and counters, this is the wrong can — Warm White or Whisper on the boxes, and save Alabaster for a warmer room.
Room by Room
This is the listing Dunn-Edwards repeats, and with warm counters it is the right one. Satin Alabaster on boxes against oak, butcher block, brass, and a mid-tone beige wall looks custom instead of builder. Cool grey quartz is the sample-first surface. Do not trim the boxes in Warm White — that is the dingy-cabinet photo.
South- and west-facing living rooms are the light this cream was mixed for: beige-white without going yellow-beige all day. Eggshell walls, same color on trim in semi-gloss. A closed, dim living room is the skip — that is where it reads leftover.
A sunlit bedroom stays soft and restful; under 2700K bulbs it turns a step peachier at night, which is the point of a bedroom cream. A north cave will go dingy. If you want the room to feel like a white, Whisper is the Dunn-Edwards can — this one is not trying to be that.
Warm stone, wood vanities, brass: it looks settled. Grey porcelain, blue-grey subway, chrome-and-Carrara: it argues, and the peach comes forward. Satin or a bath-rated eggshell for wipe-down either way.
Semi-gloss Alabaster trim under Alabaster walls is the scheme that works. As a trim white under a mid-tone greige or beige it is softer than Warm White. Do not use it as walls against Warm White woodwork, and do not use Warm White as the snap over these walls — both versions of the split make the cream look dirty.
Dunn-Edwards marks DEW310 interior use only. It is not the Southwest stucco white — that job belongs to Whisper or Dunn-Edwards Swiss Coffee. If a painter offers to put this on siding, pick a formula rated for exterior and a color that is supposed to live there.
Your Light Is the Risk
The beige-white glows without tipping yellow-beige. This is the light where it reads as an intentional cream.
Cool grey daylight strips the warmth and leaves a dull, dirty beige. Sample here before you commit the house.
Quiet cream in morning east light; west sun and golden hour pull a peach-apricot flash for an hour. Most people like it. If peach is the dealbreaker, test at 6pm.
2700K lamps: creamier and peachier, which is the cozy version. Cool white LEDs: dingy beige — swap bulbs before you swap paint.
Most complaints about Alabaster 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 Dunn-Edwards DEW310 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 | DownySW 7002 · Sherwin-Williams | 2.3 | 81 | Color page → |
| Behr | Ballet WhitePPU3-04 · Behr | 0.8 | 81 | Color page → |
| Benjamin Moore | Candle White2164-70 · Benjamin Moore | 0.9 | 79 | Color page → |
| Valspar | Antique White7002-20 · Valspar | 1.6 | 80.4 | Color page → |
| PPG / Glidden | Euro LinenPPG1083-2 · PPG / Glidden | 1.2 | 81 | Color page → |
| Glidden | Euro LinenPPG1083-2 · Glidden | 1.2 | 82 | Color page → |
Similar Dunn-Edwards Colors
The nearest shades to Alabaster within Dunn-Edwards'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.
Alabaster vs the Colors You're Also Considering
Every Alabaster 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 only if you actually want a beige-peach cream, not that white. They share a name and almost nothing else.
Sherwin-Williams SW 7008 · LRV 82AlabasterPick this if you wanted the famous cabinet white from the internet — lighter, still reads as white, superb on boxes.
Pick this when cream is the point and Whisper would read too close to white on the wall.
Dunn-Edwards DEW340 · LRV 87WhisperPick this if you wanted Dunn-Edwards' answer to White Dove or Sherwin-Williams Alabaster — the actual white in this deck.
Alabaster Coordinating Colors
The rule for coordinating with Dunn-Edwards Alabaster: stay on the warm side, and do not park a true white next to it. It wants beige, greige, walnut, brass, and a near-black door — not Warm White millwork, not cool grey stone, not a gallery white ceiling. These are the partners that keep the cream looking intentional:
The Other Alabaster
Alabaster is one of the most duplicated paint names in the country, and none of the famous ones are this color. Sherwin-Williams Alabaster (SW 7008, LRV 82) is the HGTV cabinet white — still a white, with one real trap in cool light. Benjamin Moore Alabaster (876, LRV 85) is a blush-warm white with its own name problem. Behr Alabaster (BXC-62, LRV 82) is a warm neutral hiding behind the Sherwin-Williams fame, filed in Behr's green family. Dunn-Edwards DEW310 sits at LRV 75 with a beige-peach base. It is the darkest of the four, the most cream, and the one most likely to be bought by accident.
If a Pinterest photo made you type Alabaster at a Dunn-Edwards counter, you probably wanted Whisper — DE's actual White Dove analog, LRV 87, the can Western designers reach for when the brief is a soft white. DEW310 is the right can only when the brief is cream. Honest obscurity is fine: this is a regional workhorse, not a famous launch, and Dunn-Edwards has no Color of the Year to pin it to. Buy it for the beige-white it is.
Alabaster With Wood Tones, Floors, and Why It Stays Indoors
Warm wood loves this cream. Oak — red, white, and even a lot of honey — walnut, butcher block, and cedar all sit comfortably against the beige-peach because the wall meets them halfway instead of going icy. If your floors are orange-leaning builder oak, Alabaster will not fight them the way a cool white would; it can still amplify the orange a little, so sample above the actual floor. The one flooring that needs a hard no is cool grey LVP or grey-washed wood: the floor pulls the peach into relief and the wall reads salmon.
Metals are easy: unlacquered brass, antique bronze, and matte black all work. Polished chrome is the one that leans cold against it. Dunn-Edwards marks the formula interior use only, so this is not a stucco or siding color — Whisper and Dunn-Edwards Swiss Coffee own that job in this deck. Keep Alabaster on walls, cabinets, and interior millwork, and let an exterior-rated white take the sun.
Three Ready Palettes Built on Alabaster
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.
Stonish Beige is the Southwest's default wall beige, so Alabaster boxes sit in the same warm family instead of flashing peach against a grey. The espresso island is the single dark note; brass hardware and butcher block finish the argument.
Try this palette in your roomOne cream at two sheens is the only trim pairing that does not make Alabaster look dirty. Hale Navy supplies the single dark note a whole-house cream needs, and it still needs a room with light — the navy's own rule.
Try this palette in your roomAccessible Beige and Alabaster share a warm, yellow-beige family, so the wall-to-cabinet handoff stays quiet instead of naming the cream. Keep the bulbs warm; cool light is the one situation that turns Accessible Beige gray and leaves Alabaster looking peachy beside it.
Try this palette in your roomAlabaster FAQ
Is Dunn-Edwards Alabaster the same as Sherwin-Williams Alabaster?
No. They share a name and almost nothing else. Sherwin-Williams Alabaster (SW 7008, LRV 82) is a superb cabinet white that still reads as white in most rooms. Dunn-Edwards Alabaster (DEW310, LRV 75) is a beige-peach cream a full step darker. If you walked into a DE store holding a photo of the Sherwin-Williams color, ask for Whisper, not this can.
Is it warm or cool?
Warm — beige first, peach second, no gray to cool it down. In south light it is a calm cream. In west sun and under 2700K bulbs the peach comes forward. It never reads icy; the risk is dingy or apricot, not blue.
What trim color goes with Alabaster walls?
Alabaster itself, in semi-gloss. Dunn-Edwards pairs it with Warm White on the color page, and that split is the most common way this cream looks dirty — Warm White is a true white at LRV 93. If you insist on contrast, go darker (a greige or beige wall, Alabaster on the millwork), never brighter.
Is it good for kitchen cabinets?
Yes — that is the job Dunn-Edwards lists, and with oak, brass, and warm stone it earns it. Satin hides knuckle marks better than a brighter white. Cool grey quartz and stark white appliances are the sample-first surfaces; they will make the boxes look peach. Do not pair the cabinets with Warm White walls or trim.
Can I use it on the exterior?
No. Dunn-Edwards marks DEW310 interior use only. For Southwest stucco, Whisper or Dunn-Edwards Swiss Coffee are the whites this deck actually built for sun. Do not put an interior formula on siding and hope.
Will it look yellow or peach in my room?
In south light, mostly no — it reads as beige-white cream. In west sun and at golden hour, yes, a peach-apricot flash for an hour. In a dim north room it goes dingy beige, not pretty yellow. Cool LEDs do the dingy version at night; 2700K does the peachy-cozy version. Sample on the actual wall at 8am, 2pm, and 6pm before you buy gallons.
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