Sherwin-Williams Ivory Lace SW 7013: LRV, Undertones, Rooms

Sherwin-Williams Ivory Lace (SW 7013) is a light, warm off-white: Sherwin-Williams publishes an LRV of 78.79, an RGB of 236, 229, 216 (hex #ECE5D8) and rates it for both interior and exterior use. In plain terms, it is a cream-leaning white with a soft yellow-beige undertone and low saturation. It reads as a gentle ivory in most rooms, close to white in strong sun, and closer to pale beige in north light or under warm bulbs at night. It is a few LRV points deeper than Creamy, Alabaster and Dover White, which is exactly why people choose it: it is the one of the four that never looks stark.

Every LRV and RGB value below was read on the maker's own color page: Sherwin-Williams for Sherwin-Williams colors, Benjamin Moore for Benjamin Moore colors.

Ivory Lace at a glance: the numbers Sherwin-Williams publishes

These are the values on the maker's own color page (Sherwin-Williams, SW 7013 Ivory Lace). Third-party swatch sites quote figures anywhere from 74 to 79; the maker's figure is the one to use when you compare colors. Hex and RGB describe how the color is drawn on a screen, not a mixing formula, so treat them as an approximate digital rendering and judge the final choice on a physical sample.

The fan deck location is a practical detail. Strip 254 also holds Shoji White (254-C4) and Oyster White (254-C7), so if you pull that strip in a store you see Ivory Lace next to its two deeper, more muted relatives. Creamy and Dover White sit on a different strip (261), and Alabaster and Pure White on strip 255.

What an LRV of 78.79 means on a wall

Light Reflectance Value runs from 0 (absolute black) to 100 (a perfect reflector). Ivory Lace at 78.79 reflects a large share of the light that reaches it, so it brightens a room, but it sits clearly below the bright whites: Extra White SW 7006 is 85.86 and Pure White SW 7005 is 83.96 on their Sherwin-Williams pages. A gap of five to seven points is usually visible where two colors meet, which is why Ivory Lace walls next to Extra White trim show a soft, visible edge instead of blending together. Our guide to LRV and how to use it when comparing paint explains the scale in more detail.

Two consequences follow. First, Ivory Lace is light enough for small or dim rooms: it will not close a room in the way a mid-tone beige can. Second, it is not a "clean white". If you want a white that disappears behind art and furniture, Ivory Lace is the wrong choice, and a higher-LRV, lower-warmth white such as Extra White SW 7006 or Pure White SW 7005 will serve you better.

The undertone: yellow-beige, low saturation

The RGB values tell you where the warmth comes from. Red (236) is the highest channel, green (229) is close behind and blue (216) is the lowest. A white whose blue channel trails red by about 20 points will look warm, and when green stays close to red, that warmth reads as yellow-beige rather than pink or peach. Sherwin-Williams' own data for the color lists a hue of 39 and a saturation of 0.08, which describes the same thing in another way: a warm hue, barely saturated. Ivory Lace is not a yellow paint; it is a white with a cream cast.

The name does not tell you much: Ivory Lace is neither the lightest nor the yellowest of the popular Sherwin-Williams creams. What sets it apart is depth: the same warmth as Creamy and Dover White at a lower LRV.

Warm undertones also amplify what is around them. Honey oak floors, brass fixtures and warm-white LED bulbs (2,700K) push Ivory Lace toward cream. Gray tile, chrome and cool daylight bulbs pull it back toward a soft white. If your room already has a lot of orange-toned wood, sample Ivory Lace against the floor before you commit, because two warm surfaces together can read more yellow than either one alone.

How Ivory Lace reads by room orientation

Sherwin-Williams' guidance on choosing color by room orientation gives a simple framework: north-facing rooms receive the least light and the coolest light, so warm colors with a higher LRV suit them; south-facing rooms receive steady warm light that makes most colors work, but very warm colors can look overly strong at certain times of day; east and west rooms swing between warm and cool light depending on the hour. Applied to Ivory Lace:

• North-facing rooms. This is where Ivory Lace does its best work. The cool, even light cancels part of the yellow-beige warmth, so the walls read as a soft, slightly warm white instead of the gray that cooler whites often turn in north light. It is a natural candidate in our list of white paint colors for north-facing rooms.
• South-facing rooms. Strong warm sun stacks on the color's own warmth. At midday Ivory Lace can look distinctly creamy, even buttery on a wall that faces the window. If you want a calmer white in a bright south room, move up to Alabaster or a less warm white.
• East and west rooms. Ivory Lace stays pleasant in the cooler half of the day and turns creamier in the warm half: morning in an east kitchen, sunset in a west living room.
• Rooms with little daylight. The bulbs decide: deeper cream under 2,700K bulbs, cleaner under 4,000K.

For the general method behind these calls, see our guide to choosing paint colors by room orientation.

Ivory Lace vs the whites and creams sold next to it

The table below lines up Ivory Lace with seven Sherwin-Williams neighbors, using the values on each color's Sherwin-Williams page (for example SW 7012 Creamy and SW 7008 Alabaster). The "warmth gap" column is red minus blue in the published RGB: a quick way to compare how warm two whites look on screen. It is our calculation from the maker's numbers, not a Sherwin-Williams metric.

Read the table in two directions. Down the LRV column, Ivory Lace is the deepest of the classic creams and the lightest of the soft putty-whites. Across the warmth column, it has exactly the same warmth gap as Creamy and Dover White. So the real choice between those three is not "how yellow" but "how light".

• Ivory Lace vs Creamy. Many people assume Creamy is the deeper of the two because of its name. The maker's numbers say the opposite: Creamy is 81.19, Ivory Lace 78.79, a 2.4-point difference with the same warmth. Side by side, Creamy looks a shade brighter and Ivory Lace a shade more muted. Our guide to Creamy SW 7012 covers the brighter option.
• Ivory Lace vs Alabaster. Alabaster is 3.4 points lighter and noticeably less warm (gap 13 instead of 20). It is the safer whole-house white; Ivory Lace is the cozier one. The north-light behavior of Alabaster is covered in our Alabaster on a north-facing house page.
• Ivory Lace vs Dover White. Same warmth, but Dover White is almost four points lighter (82.52). If you like the cream character of Ivory Lace but your room is dim, Dover White SW 6385 gives you the same feel with more brightness.
• Ivory Lace vs Shoji White. Shoji White sits right after it on strip 254 and is 4.4 points deeper with nearly the same warmth. In the same light it moves from "cream white" toward "pale beige". Our Shoji White guide explains when that extra depth helps.
• Ivory Lace vs Oyster White. At 72.49, Oyster White is a light greige-leaning off-white rather than a cream. Choose it when Ivory Lace looks too yellow in your room; choose Ivory Lace when Oyster White looks too dull.

Benjamin Moore colors near Ivory Lace (no official match)

There is no official cross-brand equivalent: each maker formulates its own colors, and any store can computer-match a competitor's chip with some drift. What you can do is shortlist Benjamin Moore colors with a similar LRV and a similar description, then compare samples. Two candidates stand out on Benjamin Moore's own pages:

• Navajo White OC-95, LRV 78.26 (Benjamin Moore, Navajo White OC-95). Only 0.53 points below Ivory Lace, and Benjamin Moore describes it as slightly warm and delicately shaded. On reflectance it is the closest of the popular Benjamin Moore off-whites.
• Swiss Coffee OC-45, LRV 81.91 (Benjamin Moore, Swiss Coffee OC-45). About 3.1 points lighter, a warm white that sits closer to Creamy than to Ivory Lace.

Benjamin Moore does not publish RGB values on those pages, so the undertone match cannot be checked on numbers alone. Paint large samples of both brands on the same wall and look at them morning and evening. The same method applies to other creams, as in our comparison of the Benjamin Moore equivalent of Creamy.

Best rooms for Ivory Lace

Ivory Lace works best where you want warmth without color: rooms that should feel calm and lived-in rather than crisp.

• Bedrooms. The softest use of the color. With linen bedding, natural wood and muted greens or blues in textiles, Ivory Lace walls read restful in daylight and warm under bedside lamps.
• Living and family rooms in north or east light. It keeps a room from feeling cold or gray on overcast days, which is the main complaint about bright whites in those rooms.
• Traditional and farmhouse kitchens. Next to bright white cabinets the walls look distinctly cream; with Ivory Lace cabinets, use a higher sheen on the doors so they read as a separate surface.

Where to hesitate: bright south-facing rooms that already have honey oak or pine (the warmth stacks), rooms with cool gray tile or marble (the walls can look yellow next to them), and modern spaces built around black, white and chrome, where a cleaner white usually fits the brief better. The broader family of warm whites is compared in our cream and antique white paint colors guide.

Trim, ceiling and accent colors that work with Ivory Lace

Start with the pairings Sherwin-Williams lists on the Ivory Lace page itself: Skyline Steel SW 1015, a light warm gray (LRV 52.32), and Auger Shell SW 9159, a muted mauve-gray from the purple family (LRV 30.14). Beyond those two, the table gives you trim whites and darker accents with their published LRVs.

Under a bright flat white ceiling, Ivory Lace walls look creamier; if that contrast bothers you, paint the ceiling in Ivory Lace too, in flat, as described in our ceiling paint colors guide. For dark accents, Urbane Bronze and Iron Ore each have their own guide.

Sheen matters as much as color. Sherwin-Williams' paint sheen guide places ceilings in flat, living spaces in matte to eggshell, and trim, doors and cabinets in satin to gloss, and notes that sheen can slightly change how light or dark a color looks. A semi-gloss Ivory Lace on trim will look a touch lighter than the same color in matte on the wall next to it, which is what makes the tone-on-tone option work.

Ivory Lace on an exterior

Sherwin-Williams lists Ivory Lace for interior and exterior use, and a warm white at this LRV is a classic body color for colonial, farmhouse and cottage houses. Outside, three things change compared with a living room:

• Full sun lightens it. Direct daylight is far stronger than indoor light, so Ivory Lace on siding in full sun looks closer to a soft white than to cream. On a shaded side of the same house it can look like a pale beige. Judge it on two sides of the house, not on the porch chip.
• Surroundings set the undertone. Red brick, a brown roof or tan stone push it warmer; a charcoal roof and gray stone keep it cleaner.
• Trim needs contrast. If the trim is Extra White or Pure White, the body will read as cream; if the trim is also Ivory Lace, the house reads as a single warm white with the details carried by the door and shutters.

For a door or shutters, Urbane Bronze, Iron Ore or Tricorn Black give the strongest definition. Before choosing an exterior white, also read our guide to white exterior paint shades, which compares warmer and cooler whites on siding, and check any HOA color list before you buy. If you live in a historic district, the approved palette can rule out certain whites altogether.

Before you paint: sampling, light and prep

A small chip tells you little about a color this subtle. Paint two large swatches (at least 2 by 2 feet), one on the window wall and one beside it, hold your trim color and a piece of flooring against each, and look at them morning, afternoon and night under your own bulbs. Add one lighter neighbor (Creamy or Alabaster) and one deeper one (Shoji White) so you see where Ivory Lace sits in your light.

If your house was built before 1978, plan the prep around lead. The EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting program page states that roughly three-quarters of US homes built before 1978 still contain some lead-based paint, and that anyone paid to disturb paint in those homes must be certified. Homeowners working on their own house are generally outside the rule, but sanding old trim or doors still creates lead dust, so test first and use lead-safe practices. Prime stains and patches so they do not show through such a light color.

To browse the rest of the brand's interior range by family, start from our Sherwin-Williams interior paint colors guide, and for the wider group of soft whites, our page on warm white paint colors and their undertones.

Sources and references

• Sherwin-Williams, SW 7013 Ivory Lace color page: LRV 78.79, RGB 236, 229, 216, hex ECE5D8, location 254-C3, interior and exterior use, coordinating colors Skyline Steel SW 1015 and Auger Shell SW 9159.
• Sherwin-Williams color pages for the comparison table: SW 7012 Creamy, SW 7008 Alabaster, SW 6385 Dover White, SW 7042 Shoji White, SW 7637 Oyster White, SW 7006 Extra White and SW 7005 Pure White: LRV, RGB and fan deck locations.
• Sherwin-Williams color pages for the pairings: SW 1015 Skyline Steel, SW 9159 Auger Shell, SW 7036 Accessible Beige, SW 7029 Agreeable Gray, SW 9130 Evergreen Fog, SW 7048 Urbane Bronze, SW 7069 Iron Ore and SW 6258 Tricorn Black: published LRVs.
• Sherwin-Williams, Color by room orientation: how north, south, east and west light shifts warm and cool colors.
• Sherwin-Williams, Paint sheen guide: recommended sheens by surface and the effect of sheen on perceived color.
• Benjamin Moore, Navajo White OC-95 (LRV 78.26) and Swiss Coffee OC-45 (LRV 81.91): cross-brand candidates by reflectance.
• US Environmental Protection Agency, Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting Program: share of pre-1978 homes with lead-based paint, who must be certified.