White Sesame
A Sherwin-Williams off-white with almost no name recognition, reviewed honestly: what it actually is, the room where it goes flat, and the color it's practically a twin of.
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
- 2Balboa Mist66
- 3White Sesame71
- 4Pearly White77
- 5Dover White83
The Fast Verdict
White Sesame is a light, warm off-white with a soft beige cast — competent, easy to live with, and almost completely unknown outside the paint aisle. It landed in Sherwin-Williams' Emerald Designer Edition expansion under the "Warm + Welcoming" palette, a newer designer-curated collection, while an older SW color one shade over does nearly the same job with two decades of track record. Neither fact makes White Sesame bad. It just means you're buying it for what it does on the wall, not for a reputation it doesn't have.
Whole-house neutral in a warm-toned home · oak floors, brass, warm wood · hallways and open-plan rooms that need one color to carry through · anyone who likes Natural Choice or Dover White but doesn't need the famous name
You want it to read as true white, not cream · your room is north-facing and short on daylight · your painter needs to recognize the color by name, not SKU · your floors or counters are cool grey
- Genuinely competent light warm off-white, not a marketing color
- Flatters oak, brass and warm wood without going stark
- Whole-house safe in a house that already leans warm
- Deep enough (LRV 71) to hold some color, unlike a true white
- Newer Emerald Designer Edition formula — full Emerald hide and durability
- Almost no track record — no design-blog reviews, no famous rooms to check against
- Goes flat and grey-beige in dim, north-facing rooms
- Reads as cream, not white, next to any bright trim white
- Close enough to Natural Choice that ordering by memory risks the wrong can
What Color Is White Sesame, Really?
White Sesame is a muted, light off-white with a clear beige-tan cast — soft and earthy rather than stark. Sherwin-Williams placed it in the Emerald Designer Edition, a 200-color expansion of the Emerald line, inside a 40-color sub-palette called "Warm + Welcoming" alongside colors like Cotton, White Sand, and Sanctuary. That is a designer-curated collection, not a legacy color-card classic, which is the honest reason it has almost no search history, no Color of the Year moment, and no viral Pinterest room attached to its name. It is a real, usable formula that simply launched quietly.
At LRV 71 it sits well short of a true white (85 and up) and lands in the same light-cream band as several SW and Benjamin Moore off-whites that ARE well known — Natural Choice (SW 7011, LRV 73), Dover White (SW 6385, LRV 73), and Benjamin Moore's Creamy White (OC-7, LRV 72) are all within a few points of it, and Natural Choice in particular is close enough in hex and LRV to read as a sibling formula. Next to a true white like Alabaster (LRV 82) the body and warmth of White Sesame show clearly; next to those cousins, the differences are hard to see with the naked eye.
Undertone in one line: warm beige-tan, no green or pink pull reported anywhere in the data. If your sample looks grayer or flatter than the chip, that is the light in the room, not a hidden undertone — this is a color that needs daylight to show its warmth.
Where It Shines
Give it a warm-toned room with real daylight and it does exactly what a light warm neutral is supposed to do: recede, flatter wood and brass, and carry the same color from room to room without picking a fight with anything. It is at its best as a whole-house off-white in a house that already leans warm — oak floors, cream trim, brass fixtures — where its quiet, slightly beige cast reads as calm rather than dated.
Where It Fails
There is no pile of one-star reviews to draw complaint patterns from — White Sesame is too new and too under-the-radar for that. But the physics of a light warm off-white at LRV 71 are well understood from its better-known cousins, and they predict three honest trouble spots.
Cool north daylight strips the warmth out of any color in this LRV band and leaves the grey-beige base exposed — the wall reads flat and slightly dingy instead of soft and warm. This is not unique to White Sesame; it is what every light warm off-white does in cold light. Add warm 2700K bulbs or pick a deeper, more saturated neutral for that room.
At LRV 71 with a visible beige cast, this reads as cream next to a bright trim white, not as a matching white. If you want the gallery-clean look, this is the wrong color; step up to Alabaster or Extra White instead and keep White Sesame for the wall, not the trim.
White Sesame's closest relative in the SW deck, Natural Choice, is close enough in hex and LRV that a store associate pulling from memory could hand you the wrong can. Both are good, honest off-whites — but they are different SKUs. Order by SW number, not by matching a photo of "that warm off-white everyone uses."
Room by Room
In a room with real sun it is a calm, warm backdrop for wood furniture and neutral upholstery. Eggshell on walls; carry it to the trim in semi-gloss if you want the one-color look.
On cabinets it sits comfortably next to oak, butcher block and brass without the stark edge of a true white. It will not read as a design statement, and that is the point for a lot of kitchens.
Under 2700K lamps it turns gently creamy at night. In a north-facing bedroom with cool LEDs, expect it to look flatter and more grey than the chip promised.
Warm stone, wood vanities and brass pull the warmth forward. Cool grey marble or blue-grey tile will make it look slightly dirty rather than soft — test a sample against your actual counter first.
It works as trim under a deeper warm wall color, but a brighter trim white (Extra White, Alabaster) will read cleaner if crisp contrast is the goal. This is a wall color first.
Nothing in the available color data or field reports speaks to exterior performance specifically. Treat it like any light warm off-white outdoors: expect full sun to read it brighter and slightly less creamy than indoors, and sample it on the actual siding before committing a whole house.
Your Light Is the Risk
Real sun brings the warm beige cast forward without tipping it orange. This is the light the color depends on.
Cool, flat daylight drains the warmth and leaves a dull grey-beige. Sample it in your actual room before painting walls.
Warmer and creamier at sun hours, quieter and more neutral once direct light passes. A normal, gentle shift for this LRV band.
2700K warm bulbs push it creamier and cozier at night. Cool white LEDs flatten it — swap the bulb before repainting.
Most complaints about White Sesame 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 Sherwin-Williams SW 9586 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Behr | Vintage LinenPPU7-16 · Behr | 0.4 | 71 | Color page → |
| Benjamin Moore | SonnetAF-55 · Benjamin Moore | 0.0 | 70 | Color page → |
| Valspar | Asiago6005-1A · Valspar | 0.9 | 72.3 | Color page → |
| PPG / Glidden | Scotch MistPPG14-07 · PPG / Glidden | 1.1 | 70 | Color page → |
| Glidden | Scotch MistPPG14-07 · Glidden | 1.5 | 71 | Color page → |
| Dutch Boy | Dust Flats414-1DB · Dutch Boy | 0.9 | 72 | Color page → |
Similar Sherwin-Williams Colors
The nearest shades to White Sesame within Sherwin-Williams'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.
White Sesame vs the Colors You're Also Considering
Every White Sesame 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're already building a room around other Emerald Designer Edition colors and want the SKU to match; on the wall, expect the two to look almost identical.
Sherwin-Williams SW 7011 · LRV 73Natural ChoicePick this if you want the proven, widely-recognized version of nearly this exact color — same store, two decades of track record.
Pick this if you're staying in the Sherwin-Williams Emerald line for the finish and durability.
Benjamin Moore OC-7 · LRV 72Creamy WhitePick this if your painter or your other rooms are already in Benjamin Moore — the two colors are close enough that switching brands costs you nothing visually.
Neutral Ground SW 7568 at LRV 70 and hex #E2DACA is the closest match in the line, a shade deeper with slightly more yellow. Divine White SW 6105 at LRV 72 is lighter and warmer again. If you want the same brightness with less cream, Natural Choice SW 7011 at LRV 73 and Oyster White SW 7637 at LRV 72 both hold more green-gray and read cooler on a wall.
Across brands the field is tight. Benjamin Moore Sonnet AF-55 has the identical hex #E3DBCD at LRV 70. Farrow & Ball Clunch No. 2009 at LRV 72 comes in at deltaE 1.52, visually identical in normal room light. Clare No Filter PNT100-LT-19 at LRV 72, deltaE 2.01, is very close but worth a sample. Backdrop Cookies and Cream BD-CC at LRV 73, deltaE 3.8, is close but visibly different side by side, running lighter and more yellow.
White Sesame Coordinating Colors
Coordinate with White Sesame the same way you would any warm off-white: bright trim whites for contrast, warm darks for a grounding accent, and muted greens or tans for a softer layered look. These are the partners that make the most sense with its beige-tan base:
Where White Sesame Actually Comes From
White Sesame is not a legacy Sherwin-Williams color and it has never been a Color of the Year — it belongs to the Emerald Designer Edition, a 200-color expansion of the Emerald paint line organized into curated palettes rather than the traditional color-card fan deck. Its specific palette is called "Warm + Welcoming," a 40-color set built around cozy, layered warm neutrals, sharing shelf space with colors like Cotton, White Sand, and Sanctuary. That framing matters more than it sounds: this is a color chosen by Sherwin-Williams' own design team to do a specific job, not one that clawed its way to popularity through design blogs.
The honest comparison is Natural Choice (SW 7011), an older, well-established SW off-white that sits within a couple of LRV points and a near-identical hex. Practically, White Sesame gives you the same wall color with a newer formula and none of the name recognition. If you want a warm off-white and don't care which SKU gets you there, either works; if you want a color your painter, your neighbor, and every design blog already recognizes, Natural Choice has the track record and White Sesame doesn't — yet.
White Sesame With Wood Tones and Floors
This is a warm color, so it wants warm company. Golden oak, honey oak, walnut and butcher block all read comfortably against it — the beige undertone in the paint meets the wood roughly halfway, and neither side amplifies the other the way a cool white can amplify orange in oak.
Cool grey LVP or grey-washed wood floors are the pairing to sample before committing. Against grey flooring, White Sesame's warmth becomes more obvious by contrast, and the wall can start to read yellow rather than cream. It is rarely a dealbreaker with warm rugs and brass in the room, but a large sample above the actual floor will settle it faster than guessing.
Three Ready Palettes Built on White Sesame
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.
The LRV gap between the warm wall and the crisp trim (71 to 86) is wide enough to frame the room cleanly without either color fighting the other. Urbane Bronze supplies one warm-dark note that keeps the palette from feeling flat.
Try this palette in your roomAccessible Beige and White Sesame share the same warm-tan base, so the wall-to-cabinet handoff is seamless; Iron Ore grounds the room and pairs cleanly with brass or matte-black hardware.
Try this palette in your roomA muted sage against a warm off-white is a quiet, restful combination that doesn't need a bold accent to feel finished. Extra White trim keeps the edges crisp without competing with either color.
Try this palette in your roomWhite Sesame FAQ
Is White Sesame the same color as Natural Choice?
Not officially, but on the wall the two are close enough to pass for siblings — White Sesame is #E3DBCD at LRV 71, Natural Choice is #E3DED0 at LRV 73. If you already know and like Natural Choice, White Sesame will look extremely familiar. They are different SKUs, so order by number, not by memory.
Is White Sesame warm or cool?
Warm — a beige-tan off-white with no green, pink, or blue pull reported. In cool, indirect light it can look flatter and greyer, which reads as "less warm," but it never shifts toward a genuinely cool undertone.
Why haven't I heard of this color?
Because it's genuinely new to the market relative to Sherwin-Williams' classic color card — it's part of the Emerald Designer Edition, a 200-color expansion released under curated palettes like "Warm + Welcoming." That means little search history and no famous rooms yet, not that the color itself is unproven chemistry — it's built on the same Emerald formula as SW's established colors.
What trim color goes with White Sesame walls?
A true white with real lift — Extra White or Alabaster — gives clean contrast without looking mismatched. Using White Sesame on both walls and trim works too, in different sheens, if you want the softer one-color look instead of contrast.
Does it work with oak floors?
Yes — warm oak, walnut and butcher block all sit comfortably with it, the same way they do with Natural Choice and Dover White. Cool grey or grey-washed floors are the pairing to sample first; they can pull the warmth into relief and make the wall read slightly yellow by comparison.
Is it good for a whole house?
Yes, if the house already leans warm — warm wood, brass, cream trim. In a cooler, more contemporary home with grey floors and chrome fixtures, a true gray or greige from the Neutral family will feel more intentional than this beige-leaning off-white.
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