Sherwin Williams Greek Villa (7551): Undertones, LRV, & Real-Home Results
Sherwin Williams Greek Villa is a soft, warm white paint color. It works well on interior walls, especially in open-concept spaces and whole homes.
Colors with high LRVs, like Greek Villa, can change their appearance depending on the amount and type of natural and interior light they receive.
This is why it’s important you do your research and sampling the right way, starting with Greek Villa’s full color review…
WHAT IS SHERWIN WILLIAMS GREEK VILLA?
Greek Villa is a WARM WHITE paint color. While there are 5 types of white, warm whites are by far the most popular in the average home, whether for cabinets, trims, or walls.
One reason people love them over cold or true whites is that they add warmth and softness to cold-looking, north-facing rooms. The same goes for an east-facing room (in the afternoon) or a west-facing room in the morning, which can have a flat, dull-looking light.
On the other hand, with south-facing light or western afternoon light already being warm, Greek Villa will look even warmer – be careful using it in these spaces.
North, East, South, West – Which Paint Color is the Best?
All the photos in my blog are from my Online Color Consulting clients, readers, & friends— because real homes deserve to be celebrated (dirty laundry & all!) While not magazine-perfect, they’re packed with ideas & proven color choices to help you create a home you’ll love.
WHAT’S THE LRV OF GREEK VILLA?
With Greek Villa having an LRV of 84, this classifies it as a SOFT WARM shade of white.
If you have a dark room, the warmth of Greek Villa (compared to, say, Pure White) can help your space look a bit more inviting. BUT you will need to supplement with adequate interior lighting.
If you have a bright room, Greek Villa will definitely wash out, but so will any paint color in the lighter end of things (you’ll need to hit LRVs approx. 55 and lower to REALLY start counteracting this).
Not sure what LRV is? It could save your paint lovin’ life – read all about it HERE.
The Best LIGHT Paint Colors for a DARK room
WHAT ARE GREEK VILLA’S UNDERTONES?
Unless you have a TRUE white paint color, you’ll find undertones in any white you choose, it’s just a matter of choosing the undertone you and your home can live with! And because Greek Villa is a warm white, it has a yellow undertone, just like most of the other popular shades of white.
WHAT’S THE BEST WHITE TRIM COLOR WITH GREEK VILLA?
If you have Greek Villa walls and want white trims and cabinets, your best choice will be…Greek Villa. That’s right, sometimes it’s best to use the same shade of white on your finishes, otherwise you risk their undertones clashing.
How to Choose the Best White Paint Color
DOES GREEK VILLA LOOK GOOD ON A HOME’S EXTERIOR?
Whether it’s for siding, stucco, brick, or trim, Greek Villa is a great option for an exterior. With its beautiful warmth, it can help balance a north or east-facing home. Just note that if you have south-facing light or warm afternoon sunshine, it will lean more into its warm yellow undertone (similar to what’s shown below).
5 Tips for Choosing an Exterior Paint Color
Does Your Exposure REALLY MATTER When Choosing EXTERIOR Paint Colors?
IS GREEK VILLA A GOOD CABINET PAINT COLOR?
Greek Villa certainly COULD be popular for kitchen cabinets, but isn’t used nearly as much as Benjamin Moore White Dove, Sherwin Williams Alabaster and Sherwin Williams Pure White.
It’s definitely worth trying out if your finishes suit a warmer white paint color, but compare it to the other popular shades of white, too.
WHAT COLORS ARE SIMILAR TO GREEK VILLA?
If you’re looking for colors to compare with Greek Villa or need an alternative from another brand, here are the best options…
GREEK VILLA VS. SHERWIN WILLIAMS ALABASTER
These are two gorgeous warm whites to compare with each other. Starting with depth, while they’re both soft, warm shades of white, Alabaster isn’t quite as white as its LRV is at 82 compared to Greek Villa’s 84.
As for undertones, compare the two and notice the different approach to yellow/cream. It seems like Alabaster has a touch of green compared to Greek Villa, but don’t let this throw you, as I’ve yet to have it look even REMOTELY green on any of my Online Color Consulting projects.
Sherwin Williams Alabaster: IMAGES, Info, & More
GREEK VILLA VS. SHERWIN WILLIAMS PURE WHITE
These two are apples to apples as far as depth goes. With an LRV of 84, Greek Villa and Pure White are both soft, warm white paint colors.
The Best Paint Colors with Red-Stained Woods
Where you see the difference is in temperature. While they’re both warm whites, Pure White is much less warm, with Greek Villa looking creamier in comparison. If you have one of the popular white quartz countertops, chances are it suits Pure White better than Greek Villa.
Sherwin Williams Pure White: IMAGES, Info, & More
GREEK VILLA VS. BENJAMIN MOORE WHITE DOVE
You KNOW I love my White Dove. With its LRV of 83.16, it’s more or less the same depth as Greek Villa, so very comparable on that front.
Benjamin Moore White Dove with a painted interior door.
BUT (Kardashian-sized, so huge), you’d think they’re in different white worlds upon comparison, as White Dove is far more muted and grounded by a warm gray base compared to Greek Villa’s cleaner warmth.
Benjamin Moore White Dove: IMAGES, Info, & More
By the way, if you’re thinking of getting one brand to match another’s paint color, I DON’T recommend it. Read why HERE.
How to Choose the Best White Paint Color for Your Kitchen Cabinets
REVIEWS: BM Ballet White | SW Alabaster | SW Aesthetic White | SW Zurich White (no review)
WHICH PAINT COLORS GO WITH GREEK VILLA?
Because Greek Villa is a warm white, it’s pretty darn flexible as to its partners.
- Greek Villa looks goooorgeous with light shades of green, as well as green-grays, and medium to darker greens.
- Check it out with varying depths of greige, including lighter shades and darker greige paint colors.
- Greek Villa can look pretty with a range of cream paint colors.
- It can also work with some light shades of taupe and some of the modern beige and tan paint colors
READ MORE
SHOULD I Paint My Wood Cabinets White? A QUESTIONNAIRE
The ULTIMATE GUIDE to White Paint Colors
6 Questions to Ask Before You Paint Your Cabinets White
Not sure which paint color is best for YOUR home?
Check out my Online Paint Color Consulting – I’d love to help!
I am sampling Greek Villa in my home with honey oak trim and floors and sapphire blue granite countertops. It looks quite nice, but I am just nervous about using it as a whole house paint.
First time commenting but wanted to put my full support behind Greek Villa as an awesome white with a welcoming warmth to it. In our previous home, we used GV, on all of our trim, ceilings (in flat), and on our son’s bedroom wall when painting alternating navy stripes. It is the perfect white to me. I also love Sherwin Williams Pure White but for exterior applications because it’s very crisp. In our current home, we chose Benjamin Moore White Dove as our cabinet color and as our whole house trim and ceiling colors (partially open concept). While I like WD, I wish it was a bit brighter at times. We live in a south facing home but are surrounded by a lot of trees and greenery outside so we don’t get the full brightness as a normal south facing home, especially towards the back of the home where our kitchen& family room are located. We also have good artificial lighting with recessed lighting, sconces and ceiling light and WD still looks a little muddled to me. If I could go back and reselect the cabinet color, trim and ceiling color for the home, I would pick Greek Villa 1000 times over White Dove, especially given the natural light in this home. Again I like WD but GV is cleaner, slightly brighter and just as welcoming if not more than WD. When we complete our basement renovation, I know we will use Greek Villa for mostly all walls, ceilings and trim (with different finishes for each) as White Dove will be too dark for the lower level.
YES, THIS is such a great comment to read, thank you! When comparing colours, sometimes it’s notes like these that help others figure out which white is best for them – one way or another! And I agree, it’s just that bit brighter and cleaner than White Dove. I’m even tempted to use it in our next home that I do white!
I’m so excited to read your review, as I’ve chosen Greek Villa for our home that we are currently building! We are also surrounded by woods and will have lots of natural light, but like yours it will be affected by the woods. All of our windows but one facing north and south and we will have good artificial lighting. I’m more excited about Greek Villa after reading your review! Thanks for sharing
Yes!! I have my north facing two story great room/whole downstairs painted in Greek Villa. I wanted a white with some warmth that wouldn’t make my great room look cold (and I used your website to figure all that out). I think it’s a great interior option. I will say that we have an open floor plan, so the foyer faces south and is painted the same color and I don’t like it as much there. But all rooms have four walls… you gotta pick the color for the best impact.
YES, I love when the right whites are used to balance an exposure like this – well done! And I know, it’s so hard when you have multiple exposures. I have the same thing in our home (with White Dove) and while I love White Dove the MOST in my south-facing rooms, I still like it well enough in the northern spaces, even though it loses a bit of its warmth :).
I have BM White Dove at 50% painted throughout our beach condo and it is STUNNING and just “white” in my south facing bedroom, warm in the morning in the east facing LR (can see the yellow undertone-which is beautiful in my space) but a bit flat in the afternoon – but colorful art brings it to life. It’s grayed out in the dark hallway and north facing room but still lovely with lamps, etc. There’s a depth about White Dove that I love. It would have been beautiful for my home repaint, but we are using Sherwin Williams and I liked the very slight nod to beige (and it is slight) that Greek Villa has.
We are in the process of painting SW Greek Villa throughout our home. It sampled beautifully compared to SW Alabaster and BM White Dove, way less grayed down and more consistent in every room, even north facing. It’s glorious!
This is the feedback I LOVE to get, thank you, Cindy!
We are repainting all of the trim in our home. We recently painted our kitchen cabinets SW “Creamy” and they look great. Dark wood floors, cream tile and SW Macademia on all of the walls. Trying to decide between Alabaster, Greek Villa and Whitetail for the trim but concerned the latter is too yellow even though it is on the same color card as creamy.
Would appreciate any thoughts. Thanks,
Toni
Ooooo, with Creamy cabinets, I’d be nervous to go too white/different on the trim. I might even try Creamy 25% lighter or go with Alabaster 🙂
Could Greek villa be used on walls with a pure white flat ceiling? Southern exposure…I am a bit afraid after reading your review
I have Greek Villa cabinets and trim going into my new home. I am trying to find the perfect wall color. I was originally thinking of doing all GV, but I think I do want just a subtle difference between wall/trim. Is there a darker white that you would suggest for my walls that won’t make GV look yellow? Shoji? Aesthetic? White Duck? Would any of those work or would you suggest something different? Also, with our build we are hoping to stick with Sherwin Williams.
Thanks for your insight and knowledge, your blogs help me SO much!
What did you choose for your walls?
I also have new GV cabinets and now have to pick a wall color that won’t go yellow. Was wondering what you finally decided. Thanks for any insight!
I’m remodeling and have chosen Pure White for trim and Greek White for Cabinets with Pure Linen for walls. Will that work. I was also looking at Shoji White for walls. After reading comments I’m thinking I should use Greek Villla for cabinets and trim? Yikes! I get confused.
Oooo ya, I would definitely simplify and eliminate one of those whites. Of the two, Pure White is more flexible than Greek Villa, but it depends on your finishes and how much warmth they need 🙂
Really love Greek Villa and want to do walls in our new house in it – but stuck on cabinets and trim colors. Painter recommended doing kitchen cabinets same color as trim (very open floor plan), but cabinets/trim/walls ALL in GV seems like too much. My thought was trim and cabinets in Pure White but this has me rethinking it all again! Any suggestions here? Biggest light source is east facing (wall of sliding glass doors)
Hey HOlly, because Greek Villa is a white, and a slightly warmer one, I wouldn’t mix it with another white and would lean to doing it on the cabinets/trims as well. Mixing and matching whites can end up with clashing undertones or one white making the other look yellow/dingy/etc… 🙂
Just want to add, I painted my south facing living room GV and it was very yellow, I hated it. Changed to WD and love it. Going to try the GV in my north facing kitchen though since I have a gallon left over!
This is good to know! I do love Greek Villa for some rooms, but am often nervous of it BECAUSE of the degree of warmth in it. White Dove is more muted but has similar warm intentions 🙂
Hi Natalie! Did you end up painting your north facing room with Greek Villa, and if so – how did it turn out?
Hi, I am happy to share a pic with you of my north facing formal dining room in GV!
I am redecorating my beach condo. The main light source is the south facing sliding glass door. I am considering SW Greek Villa on the walls. I will eventually replace the cabinets as well. Should I paint everything (cabinets, walls, and trim) all the same? Or maybe Pure White on trim and cabinets with a different wall color? Thanks.
Hi Linda, I would check out this blog post! https://www.kylieminteriors.ca/white-paint-colors-walls-cabinets-trim-do-they-need-to-match/
Hi Kylie! Love reading your reviews and they’ve saved many rooms for me over the years! I’m painting my bathroom cabinets Greek Villa but want some warmth and saturation for the walls. Do you have any fun suggestions for colors that would coordinate? Thanks!
Oh, Anne, I’d love to help, but even MORE so than Greek Villa, it matters what the countertop and tiles are doing in this room!
I have a question b/c I’m SOOO confused as to what the answer is! If my home is facing South (when I stand at the front door and look out of it at the street it’s looking “south slightly westerly”)…my home is a total “open concept”…so when you turn around and walk in the door (the only light coming into the home from the “south” is one little dining room window…but once in the home, the family room that is straigh ahead has huge sliding glass doors across the whole back wall (which when you walk out them you are facing North slightly easterly). So when I’m looking for paint and everywhere I read about what my “exposure” is…Do they mean what direction is my house FACING…or where is the most light entering my home from? (In my case the most light exposure into the home are from the sliding glass doors that are on the north (back) side of the home. HELP ME SOMEONE?!?!!? lol!!! P.S. Kylie…your website has been SUPER informative and helpful in EVERY WAY! I thank you for not only your great information…but also you fun personality and great sense of humor!
Good question! It’s the light that affects the inside of your home, so in your case, this would be a northern light! My home also faces south, but I only have 2 windows with this, whereas my entire open concept living area is alllll north, and this affects our whole home! I hope this helps :). And this might help too! https://www.kylieminteriors.ca/the-best-most-popular-benjamin-moore-paint-colors-north-facing-northern-exposure-rooms/
Hi Kylie, what is your opinion on Greek villa walls and trim same different Sheen. But I need to do the ceiling oh different white because they’re short ceilings. What SW paint would you recommend? I’m considering pure white or extra white. Also, with those two, what color do you do the doors?
Hey Jessi, I love the idea of Greek Vill on the walls and trims in different sheens! As for the ceiling, I would PERSONALLY do it Greek Villa. Pure White will compete with it and Extra White could be too cool. The challenge is that using a white other than Greek Villa could enhance its warmth and have it looking more cream-yellow than originally intended. Or you could ask the paint store to lighten Greek Villa by 25% (if possible, sometimes whites don’t have enough tint in them to be lightened any more 🙂
Hi Jessi – what did you end up doing for the ceiling?
Hi Kylie, I am deciding between Pure white vs Greek villa on the exterior of my home. It faces Southern exposure and has some cognac/yellow colored stone along with some light grey. Windows and soffits are bronze. I need help deciding between the 2. I want something that looks crisp but balanced, not yellow. I look forward to hearing from you.
Of those, I would lean into Pure White, but that’s without seeing your home so i can’t know what’s best for your exact finishes 😉
I have a new kitchen being installed, which opens up into our sunroom which is south facing windows and pineboard walls/ceilings, because of this I chose a very bright cabinet colour of Chantilly Lace, I felt anything warmer would just pull yellow or yellow overtime. I wanted to pick a different shade of white to go on the walls as the dinning room adjacent to the kitchen has no windows so it only gets light from the open concept kitchen/sunroom, and it could feel stark also painted in CL white (we do have pine trim though). Now after reading some of your posts, I am worried that Chantilly Lace cabinets would clash and make my top runner, Greek Villa walls look off. I may just paint it all Chantilly lace and if I absolutely think it’s too stark white, I can repaint it.
Have a new build. For cabinets I’m leaning towards Shoji White. Since I want a warm white on my walls (entire house) would Greek Villa in different sheens work with the undertone of Shoji White? Yay or nay?
There are so many great comments in this post, thanks Kylie!
I’m thinking about painting my laundry room cabinets colonnade gray & then the walls 25% lighter. Do you think that combo would play nice with Greek Villa as the trim & ceiling color? The room has a north & east exposure with good lighting. Thank you!
Hmmm, I wouldn’t play with Colonnade that way as its undertones could shift a bit, but even then, the difference isn’t really noticeable for a cabinet/wall combo. This is more common when you have the cabinets 25% lighter than the walls, as when you add the SHEEN of the cabinet paint in, you might notice more of a difference. Even then, I’d tread carefully – maybe just stick with Colonnade Gray regular or lightened for both!
Thanks Kylie- after I read your comment I decided to go with Agreeable Gray cabinets instead & I’ll paint the walls the same. That will get the LRV where I want it without messing with lightening the color. For trim- I know you like White Dove with AG, how do you feel about Greek Villa with AG? Thanks so much!
I don’t miiiiind GV with AG, but I personally wouldn’t do it.
I am selling my house and all I have been hearing about lately is BM White Dove. My real estate agent recommended SW Alabaster, but now my painter just came across SW Greek Villa paint that he already has. I am hearing people are tired of gray/gray undertones. I saw this post and I really like the warmth of Greek Villa, but I have large south facing windows in the living room, but there are also north facing windows but smaller. I am worried about Greek Villa being too dark in the living room for the real estate photos and I will be installing polished chrome light fixtures. I plan on painting the trim and walls the same color but different sheens. What do you think? Please help, so many whites to choose from. It would be greatly appreciated!
Hey Sally, you’ll find that EVERYONE in the house-related industry has an opinion. But luckily, my opinion is based on over 10,000 consults and a whackload of experience :). Greek Villa is way too yellow for south-facing light. While lit might help balance a cool northern light, it’s actually one of my least favorite whites. Alabaster is LOVELY, and has a soft, creamy look. White Dove is very popular as it’s soft and warm, but not as yellow as Alabaster.
I find that MORE homes suit the muted look of White Dove over the other 2, however, it ABSOLUTELY depends on your interior finishes (countertop/tiles/carpet/woods/furniture) and which type of white they can HANDLE! I would put the exposures low on your priority list, get big Samplize samples of each white and see which one your finishes best respond to :).
I forgot to mention I have cathedral ceilings, which I also plan on painting the same color.
Kylie, Thank you so much for the information! And your quick response. And all the Youtube videos!!! Unfortunately, my painter is strictly a Sherwin Williams guy since he can get much better prices from them in my area and I am on a budget. Ironically, I just yesterday watched a video of yours where you say you are not a fan of Greek Villa.
I am worried I may have the same issue with Alabaster since I have heard others say in this blog that it is too yellow also. Just fyi, SW Cold Foam came up as the closest match to BM White Dove online, for what that’s worth. I have an open concept with tons of windows so I may be able to go with something like Snowbound or Westhighland White . . . it is just that south wall that is so dark! Pure White also a possibility. I Just ordered a ton of peel & sticks and color chips from Sherwin Williams. Will order the larger Samplize when I have it narrowed down.
For anyone having the same predicament as me, I came across this post on houzz, don’t know how accurate it