Sherwin Williams White Sesame: Undertones, Lighting, & Best Uses

Sherwin Williams White Sesame is a warm, off-white paint color in their newer, Emerald Designer Collection colors. It’s used on interior walls, especially open-concept spaces, whole homes, and bedrooms. While it’s also found on trims/doors and kitchen cabinets, it’s not as common. 

A room’s lighting conditions (bulbs) and exposure can play a big part in how White Sesame appears on walls, which is why sampling (and comparing it to similar shades) is so important. In doing so, you can make sure you’ve got the best color for your home! 

Being a newer shade (a few years old but still new in the paint world), White Sesame isn’t talked about much. This is why we’re taking a close look at White Sesame and how it might react in different situations, along with its LRV (depth) and other fun facts. 

Once my Online Color Consulting clients and readers send some photos of White Sesame in action, I’ll add them! 

WHAT COLOR IS WHITE SESAME? 

White Sesame is a warm, off-white neutral paint color that usually looks like a soft, subtle, grayed-out creamy neutral – like it’s stuck, motorboating in the very ample bosom between cream, taupe, greige, and gray. And it’s actually one of the more interesting ones (if you ask this color cowgirl). 

• Some colors commit to taupe or greige (purple-pink or green undertones)
• Other colors lean into cream (yellow undertones), beige (orange), or tan (yellow)
• And of course, there are grays. 

White Sesame doesn’t do any of that – not to any great degree, anyway. 

Why?

First off, it has very little ‘color’ (chroma), which means it’s very…very neutral. And while it lives in the yellow hue family, it doesn’t READ yellow because of its minimal color – she be neutral. 

But, just because a color is neutral, doesn’t mean you’re free from undertones…

WHAT ARE WHITE SESAME’S UNDERTONES?

To say Sherwin-Williams White Sesame has undertones is an overstatement – its undertones are WAY under, so down under, you might only see them in Australia.

Like Sherwin Williams White Duck (below), White Sesame is pretty low-key…

If they do show up, I’d say that pink is slightly more likely to appear than green, but seriously, your room’s exposure and interior lighting situation will play a HUGE PART in how it settles. 

Could White Sesame look cream or beige?

Yup. But that’s just perception; if you compare it to an actual cream (SW Creamy) or beige (SW Moderate White), you’ll see it’s massively grayed out. 

Shlong story, while it might look cream-ish or beige-ish in some lighting, it’s not. 

Here’s your Peel & Stick sample of White Sesame…

WHAT WHITE TRIM & CABINET COLOR GOES WITH WHITE SESAME?

Being in the off-white range (on the edge of the light range), White Sesame can be a bit fussy with its white pairings. Here are a few of my favorites…

• Sherwin-Williams White Snow – amazeballs; it offers a more contrasting approach than a softer white. 
• Sherwin Williams Pure White – this is a softer white, but NOT an overly creamy one.
• If you want a bit more clarity, Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace is a bit cleaner than White Snow.  

WHERE WHITE SESAME DOES (& DOESN’T) LOOK BEST

White Sesame is pretty darn versatile, but it can’t do everything. Let’s see what’s up its colorless little sleeves…

WHITE SESAME IN ROOMS

Whether it’s a single room like a bedroom or a bathroom, or an open-concept space, this is a beauty. Heck, it’s even a great color for your ENTIRE HOME. Of course, it has to suit your interior finishes, but as far as flexibility goes, it’s reasonably good. This is thanks to its higher LRV and lack of real color – it’s very ‘gentle’. 

Again, as soon as some of my Online Color Consulting clients (or readers who use my advice – wink wink) send in photos – I’ll put them in! 

WHITE SESAME ON CABINETS

Would I paint my kitchen cabinets White Sesame? Sure, if that’s the best color for my backsplash (and countertop). However, it will be fussy about its wall partners. It won’t be partnered with other off-whites, so you’ll need white walls or something, a good 15-20 LRV points darker than it. 

WHITE SESAME AS AN EXTERIOR COLOR

If you want a gentle, muted, warm neutral for the exterior of your home, White Sesame is absolutely a great contender (along with similar shades, listed shortly). 

Of course, make sure that it coordinates with your brick, stone, roof, and windows. That said, it often suits homes with no brick or stone, as it doesn’t always hit the spot. 

While a color like this doesn’t always lean creamy on interior walls, in exterior lighting, expect a bit more warmth to pop up on an exterior finish. Not super-creamy, but a bit warmer than you might think.

WHITE SESAME IN DIFFERENT EXPOSURES

If your room has north-facing light, eastern afternoon, or morning western light, expect White Sesame to look a bit muted. 

North, East, South, West: Which Paint Colors Are The Best?

That is, compared to how it can look in a room with southern light, it will look like its truest self in these spaces and seem warmer than others. As for western afternoons, this light gets warmer as the day progresses, eventually turning red-pink near evening. Any color will pick up warmth. 

WHAT’S THE DEPTH (LRV) OF WHITE SESAME

Oooo, I see you’re doing your homework – this is a great question, as a color’s LRV tells you something very important – its depth! 

White Sesame has an LRV of 73. This means it’s an off-white color, but not one of the SUPER washed-out ones; it’s on the lower end, winking discreetly at the ‘light depths’. 

Not sure what LRV is and why it’s important? THREE SLAPS WITH A WET NOODLE! Just joking – read this. 

WHAT COLORS ARE SIMILAR?

Sampling and comparing similar colors is, hands down, one of the best ways to land on your perfect shade. So, let’s see a few alternatives to add to your list…

WHITE SESAME COMPARED TO WHITE DUCK & SHOJI WHITE

Ermmmm, are we kissin’? Nope, we’re just looking at kissin’ cousins, as these two are barely separated by birth. Heck, it’s more of a threesome.

These colors are so…darn…similar. Which is why getting large samples is so important – so you can see the subtle shifts. 

COLOR REVIEW: Sherwin Williams White Duck

White Duck has an LRV of 74, so it’s fractionally lighter than White Sesame – that difference shouldn’t sway you one way or the other. As for undertones, of the two, White Duck is slightly more inclined toward green, but it doesn’t always show up at the party. That said, if you have finishes that hate green, White Sesame is the better choice of the two. 

REVIEWS left to right: SW Aesthetic White | SW Shoji White | SW Egret White

Shoji White also has an LRV of 74, so again, only a weeeee willy wink lighter than White Sesame. 

Now, some notice that Shoji White can show off a minor pink undertone (not always, but sometimes). White Sesame is just as inclined, but BARELY so. Barely.

Really, while the risk might be slight, as you can see, compared to colors that ACTUALLY pick up some pink (purple-pink), like Shoji White and White Sesame, are pretty tame…

REVIEWS: BM Classic Gray | BM Pale Oak |SW City Loft | SW Egret White | SW Kestrel White

To be honest, given that Shoji White exists, I wish they’d added just a bit more depth (a few more LRV points) to White Sesame, just to set it apart. That said, you could try it 25% darker to see how that looks. 

COLOR REVIEW: Sherwin Williams Shoji White

WHAT COLORS GO WITH WHITE SESAME?

You’ll find this color pretty darn flexible. While it depends on the finishes you’re creating a color palette for – adjoining rooms, cabinets, accent walls, etc., these should get you started…

• GREEN-GRAYS: I absolutely love the idea of warm green-grays, along with cooler versions
• GREIGES: Light to medium-depth greiges can be stunning. If you need a darker accent, darker greiges are great, too. 
• DARK GREEN: Darker green paint colors make for great accent walls with White Sesame.
• GRAY-BLUES: You can also entertain some light-medium to medium gray-blues for a stormy, coastal look (so long as they’re gray-blue-green, not the purple version).

QUICK SUMMARY (TL;DR)

• White Sesame is a warm, off-white paint color
• With minimal undertones, it’s a flexible neutral.
• It’s most popular on interior walls, including single rooms and whole homes
• Its best white paint color is Sherwin Williams White Snow

READ MORE

The Best Off-White Paint Colors

The Best Warm Neutrals That AREN’T YELLOW!