When it comes to decor, much is made of the color white: how it reflects light, refreshes old things, and sends a message of cleanliness. Meanwhile, shades of ivory, cream, and ecru get much less attention, but you’d be mistaken to ignore the richer hues of white: They have many of the benefits of true white—and sometimes they’re a better choice for a room.

White veers into off-white when there’s more than a whisper of pigment in the tone, and although, technically speaking, off-white could have any undertone—gray, yellow, pink, blue, green, and even purple—the off-whites we’re focused on here are neutral and warm: think ivory and cream. 

Ivory is particularly at home in historic houses, where a true white might feel too stark. But off-white has also been trending recently: Earlier this year, a style deemed “vanilla girl” went viral on TikTok, with Gen Z and millennials embracing an aesthetic of simplicity dominated by vanilla hues, taking what is often an insult (calling something “vanilla,” aka boring) and rebranding it as cozy and comforting. 

The good news is that, whether your style is very traditional or of-the-moment millennial, off-white is as easy to work with as a true white: ivory matches almost everything. We talked to interior designers to get their best tips for decorating with off-white in your home.

Make ivory your go-to old house white.

When designer Tricia Foley, the author of A Summer Place: Living by the Sea, became the director of the Bellport-Brookhaven Historical Society in Long Island, New York, she was tasked with specifying paint for one of the organization’s 1830s homes. Foley says she avoided white-white because it was not period-appropriate, and instead opted for what she describes as a “linen” or “china white”—very chalky and creamy. Foley even had the floors painted a deep cream to reflect more light.

Use it on tired walls.

If you’re thinking of white for your walls, know that a pure white can show off every little imperfection, while a bit of tint in your paint helps mask blemishes. This is also one of the many reasons off-white is a good choice in an older home.

Try cream near the coast.

Stark white can feel too modern and urban at times. “A richer cream creates a serene, calm color palette appropriate for the natural environment of a beach home,” says Stephanie Daniels, a senior designer at the New York interior design firm Foley and Cox, who used lots of ivory and cream in a recent project in the Hamptons.

Cozy up a kitchen.

Yarmouth-based designer Samantha Pappas chose a handmade off-white tile in a recent kitchen design: “It complemented the room’s mix of old and new pieces and natural materials,” she says. Off-white tiles still provide the clean look of a white tile without being cold and sterile, Pappas adds. Likewise, designer Jessie Tobias, who owns the shop Jessie Tobias Design in Camden, selected Benjamin Moore’s White Dove, a classic ivory hue, for a recent kitchen renovation. “It’s a warm white that adds a cozier feel to the lake home and also enhances the wood tones found throughout the house and outside,” says Tobias.

Go ahead, pair it with true white.

Maybe you already have some true white elements in your kitchen that can’t be changed; don’t let that stop you from using ivory too. “Mixing creams and whites feels loose,” Sophie Donelson writes in her book Uncommon Kitchens. “Things need to complement each other, but not be perfect. Slightly mismatching creams and whites in paint feels a little bit more relaxed.” This is true not only for kitchens but for every room of the house, including bathing spaces.

And mix in natural tones.

When Daniels designs white rooms, she intentionally mixes in a variety of pale, natural hues and natural materials such as wood and rattan. “We like to use off-white mixed with white and natural fibers to add dimension and warmth to the space,” she says.

Sample, sample, sample.

We’ve said it once, and we’ll say it again: there’s no way to truly judge a color from a paint chip. You need to try the color on the wall. And with a color like off-white, light can greatly impact how the color reads on a wall.

Do the whole room.

Often you’ll see cream-colored walls with bright white trim and a white ceiling, a tactic that was originally used to highlight grand mouldings and plasterwork, but that is less effective when you have plain trim. For a more enveloping and modern look, paint them all the same shade of ivory, possibly varying the sheen on the trim and walls. 

Use it where light changes.

When homeowners Paul Cavalli and Jack McKenney were considering paint colors for their Camden living room, they chose off-white as the best solution for a room whose light changed dramatically depending on the time and season. “We had wonderful, filtered light during the day, intense sunlight in the afternoon, and then relied on recessed lighting in the evening,” says Cavalli. The large-scale windows provided a lush green backdrop in summer, and either a woody or snowy background in fall and winter. Off-white on the walls and upholstery were the best choice to give the room an airy feel.

A History of Off-White Interiors

Because true white is rare in nature, off-white has a long history in interior design: It was the original wall color of limewash used to plaster walls and the hue of the marble used for ancient buildings like the Parthenon. Robert Adam, an eighteenth-century British architect working in the Neoclassical style, was famous for some of his off-white rooms, like the library at Kedleston Hall, which contains many shades of ivory and white. Off-white was less in favor in the colorful Regency period and the dark, heavy Victorian era, but it returned with the Arts and Crafts movement in the late nineteenth century, which embraced creamy white walls once again. In the twentieth century, white-whites dominated the modernist movement, but more recently the organic modern aesthetic has shifted toward off-white hues of cream, ivory, and linen—picture the countryside interiors of John Pawson or Axel Vervoordt.  

Benjamin Moore has 152 colors in its Off-White Collection.

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