Sherwin Williams Shoji White vs Greek Villa (See Undertones and Real Homes!)

Sherwin Williams Shoji White and Greek Villa are both creamy white paint colors with similar undertones that are often in the same conversation when you are making final color choices!

Visual Differences Between Sherwin Williams Shoji White and Greek Villa (Let’s Talk Undertones!)

The major difference between Shoji White and Greek Villa, is that Shoji White is an off-white paint color and Greek Villa is a true white.

How is that decided? Primarily by LRV.

The LRV (Light Reflectance Value) of a color indicates on a scale of 0 – 100 how much light a color reflects (or doesn’t reflect). True black has an LRV of 0 and pure white has an LRV of 100.

In the paint world, we are working in a range of about 3 – 93 because no paint color is purely black or completely white.

The LRV of Greek Villa is 84 and Shoji White’s is 74. True white paint colors tend to have LRVs of 82+ and off-whites are generally in the 70 – 81 range.

Shoji White vs Greek Villa Typical Undertones

Visually, the undertones of Shoji White and Greek Villa are quite similar. Both of these colors tend to have beige undertones.

Here is a pretty typical look for Shoji White:

…and here is a typical look for Greek Villa:

Shoji White vs Greek Villa When Undertones are Strongest

At its very strongest, Shoji White tends to veer into peach territory. Here is an example of a particularly strong peach undertone on some hall cabinets:

The other color here is the true clean white of Chantilly Lace, which has a slightly green undertone, so it makes sense that Shoji White looks more peach here.

Shoji White does not ever look yellow in my opinion. Definitely peachy and definitely beige, but it does not ever look yellow. This is about as close as it gets to yellow, and it’s still very much a linen color. (To me anyways.)

Likewise in my OPINION, Greek Villa does not typically look yellow, but rather beige. Here is a stronger undertone for Greek Villa where it looks quite a lot like Shoji White:

Unlike Shoji White, Greek Villa can occasionally look a little yellow. It is less likely to do so than Alabaster, but more likely than Shoji White.

(If you’re interested, I also have a post for Shoji White vs Alabaster, and another for Greek Villa vs Alabaster.)

This is the absolute creamiest and most yellow that Greek Villa looks. Blue is complementary to yellow, so it is definitely enhanced in this picture. The other walls here are Sherwin Williams Grays Harbor.

Greek Villa vs Shoji White When They Look Mostly White

As we talked about earlier, Greek Villa is a true white color, so it can look very white, and it isn’t creamy 100% of the time. Both colors will look their absolute lightest and whitest when they are the only white paint color in your space. (Walls, trim, ceiling, doors, etc.)

Here is an all-white color drench in Greek Villa, which makes the color look absolutely white:

…and here is the same thing for Shoji White:

You can see that in a vacuum, your eyes could be tricked into seeing Shoji White as a true white, but immediately after the Greek Villa scroll, you can see that it is definitely more creamy.

Greek Villa vs Shoji White at Their Coolest and Most Gray

Shoji White is sometimes referred to as a greige color, and it’s something that I disagree on. Yes, there is some gray in it…but it almost always looks warm and creamy. It is greige to the same extent that Greek Villa is “greige” which is really not at all.

Here is Shoji White at the closest to gray that it gets:

It still looks very much like a creamy white paint color to me!

Here is a cooler and more gray look for Greek Villa:

Again, not exactly frosty. Still pretty neutral!

Technical Difference Between Sherwin Williams Shoji White and Greek Villa

Here are Shoji White and Greek Villa on the color wheel:

Shoji White is in a slightly deeper part of the orange family than Greek Villa, which makes sense when you think about their undertones.

Besides that slight difference in color, Greek Villa is quite close to a lighter version of Shoji White. You can see here that they almost follow the same trend line, but Shoji White is a tiny bit more gray.

Here is a look at how both colors compare on trim with a variety of other neutral paint colors.

Sherwin Williams Shoji White and Greek Villa on Kitchen Cabinets

We’ve already seen both colors in a few different real life scenarios, but let’s get specific with kitchen cabinets!

First let’s take a look at Shoji White on cabinets:

This look is pretty much what I would expect. If you were to use a true white on your ceilings or cooler white tile, you will find that Shoji White looks darker and more like a light beige.

Here is a good example of how Shoji White looks on cabinets when it is more beige:

The color here is actually Benjamin Moore Natural Cream, but it is very similar to Shoji White.

Here are kitchen cabinets where Greek Villa looks quite white:

The island and lower cabinets are in Sherwin Williams Evergreen Fog.

Not to be left out, here is Greek Villa when it looks quite beige on kitchen cabinets:

In that same kitchen we can see something in between:

Sherwin Williams Shoji White vs Greek Villa on Exteriors

I am a little biased, but I think Shoji White is the winner for exteriors! It is one of my absolute favorite creamy white paint colors for the outside of your home, but specifically for brick:

Isn’t that the most perfect color?

Here is Shoji White on siding:

This is how Greek Villa looks on brick:

Outside you should definitely expect a true white look with subtle softness from Greek Villa, because colors are always lighter on exteriors. Here is Greek Villa on the same house where it does look creamier:

Here is how Greek Villa looks on siding:

It looks very creamy here, so just to be fair, here is a brighter white look to Greek Villa on siding:

I hope this helped you decide if Shoji White or Greek Villa is the right color for you! Still on the unpainted fence? I’ve got a lot more!