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Snowbound vs White Dove (The Same Thing?)

    Snowbound and White Dove are often considered to be equivalent white shades from Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore, but are they really the same thing? Here we will compare undertones, real life rooms, and see other dupes.

    Sherwin Williams Snowbound on shiplap in a white bathroom above White Dove on walls in another bathroom
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    Snowbound vs White Dove in a Nutshell

    The very basic differences between White Dove and Snowbound, are: Snowbound is made by Sherwin Williams, and it is slightly more gray and has a more pink undertone.

    White Dove is made by Benjamin Moore, and it’s a bit cleaner and brighter than Snowbound. It also leans more beige in its undertone.

    Both Snowbound and White Dove are true white paint colors.

    Snowbound vs White Dove Undertones

    Don’t just take my word for it! Let’s see the technical differences between these shades.

    Here are each plotted on the color wheel:

    Swatches of Snowbound and White Dove, outside of a color wheel with arrows marking where they each fall on the wheel.

    You can see that Snowbound is slghtly more in the red color family, and White Dove is hanging out in yellow/orange.

    When you can see their undertones, Snowbound tends to have a whiff of pink, and White Dove reads more peach/beige.

    Because Snowbound leans slightly more gray than White Dove, it is less likely to read creamy. The gray helps it to stay very neutral and “white” looking. I find that Snowbound usually looks like a true white, and White Dove is about 50/50 in looking either plain white or a touch creamy.

    Light Reflectance Values of Snowbound vs White Dove

    What is an LRV anyway?

    The LRV 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.

    LRV chart from 100 (pure White) to a medium neutral color. White Dove is plotted at 83.16 and Snowbound is plotted at 83. For context, the off white of Oyster White is marked at 72.

    The LRV of Snowbound is listed at 83 and the LRV of White Dove is listed at 83.16, but we can’t exactly take these at face value.

    Benjamin Moore and Sherwin Williams do not measure LRV quite the same. In fact Benjamin Moore changed their scale not so long ago, and White Dove was even listed as having an LRV of 85.38 at that time.

    Comparing a few different shades, I believe that White Dove has an LRV in line with an 84 over at Sherwin Williams, so it is a bit lighter than Snowbound.

    Snowbound vs White Dove on Exteriors

    I think that Snowbound and White Dove look the most similar outside. Both read a little bit creamy on exteriors.

    Split frame photo with Snowbound and black trim on the left side and White Dove with a tall brick chimney on the right side.

    Here is Snowbound on the exterior of @rockcreekfarmhouse:

    Exterior of a modern farmhouse with Snowbound hardi board siding and brick front
    Photo credit: @rockcreekfarmhouse

    Here is White Dove on a similar sunny day with a bright blue sky. I tried to compare apples to apples in these first photos:

    White Dove on a stucco exterior on a sunny day with dark brown roof and accents
    Photo Credit: @slpaintingsf

    Overall I think the colors look very similar here.

    Now let’s take a look at a more confusing scenario:

    Snowbound Exterior with black windows and doors in the snowy countryside in front of some mountains in the distance
    Photo Credit: @rockcreekfarmhouse

    You can see that compared to the true blinding white of actual snow, Snowbound looks quite creamy.

    Not to be outdone, here is White Dove out in the snow:

    White Dove exterior lookin crisp and white in the snow
    Photo Credit: @petitemodernlife

    Here White Dove looks like a true white, which is a bit confusing. I would expect it to look creamy like Snowbound.

    I think what’s going on here is that the Snowbound photo has the warm light of the sun shining on it, and the undertones are emphasized by the blue gray clouds.

    Here is Snowbound showing its undertones the most:

    Snowbound on Exterior siding with black windows and door, and wood beams and pillars
    Photo credit: @rockcreekfarmhouse

    And the same thing for White Dove:

    White Dove on exterior siding of a two storey Scandinavian inspired farmhouse. The color looks creamy as the sun goes down.
    Photo Credit: @petitemodernlife

    Here is a comparison where the undertones look the most similar:

    White Dove on an exterior beside a dark brown garage door, above a photo of Snowbound on an exterior with black trim around the windows.

    Snowbound vs White Dove on Cabinets

    Cabinets are probably one of the most popular places to use a white paint color, so let’s compare these two in the kitchen!

    Snowbound on kitchen cabinets above a photo of White dove also on kitchen cabinets

    In this first example Snowbound does have a stronger pink undertone – especially in the lower cabinets – but I do think the photo has been made a little warmer.

    Here is another Snowbound kitchen by ML Designs (@mldesignskc) where Snowbound looks more neutral:

    Kitchen Cabinets in SW Snowbound with a marble tile backsplash and marble countertops
    Photo Credit: @mldesignskc

    This look is a bit more typical of Snowbound.

    Here are the White Dove cabinets from the comparison photo again:

    White Dove on trim walls and cabinets in a well lit office
    Photo Credit: @thriveallprojects

    The main reason that White Dove looks sooo white in this office is that it is the only white in this space. The team at @thriveallprojects used White Dove for the walls, ceiling, and cabinetry. This will always make a white paint color look it’s brightest most whitest.

    Here is White Dove on kitchen cabinets where again, it looks very white:

    A kitchen with all white dove cabinets
    Photo Credit: @thriveallprojects

    I don’t have an example on cabinets where White Dove looks very creamy, but I have actually used it on a dresser before, so I know first-hand that it can.

    Just to help with the visualization, here is a room in which White Dove looks quite creamy:

    White Dove on walls, trim, and ceilings in a living room with semi gloss finish on the trim.
    Photo Credit: @stefsqualitypainting

    Snowbound or White Dove in the Bathroom

    Now let’s take a look at these popular whites on walls. I’ve opted to compare White Dove and Snowbound in the bathroom because 1.) it’s a small space, and 2.) bathrooms are a popular room to go all-white.

    Swatches of Snowbound and White Dove, each over a photo of the corresponding color on bathroom walls

    The bathroom at Rock Creek Farmhouse is one that I like to show because I feel like you can see really see the undertone of Snowbound, but it still looks very white.

    Snowbound walls in bathroom with wood vanity and black hardware, faucet and light fixture
    Photo Credit: @rockcreekfarmhouse

    The best spot to peep the pink is on the left side of the photo near the trim.

    I could show you more bathrooms in Snowbound, but I already have a separate post dedicated to this: See Sherwin Williams Snowbound in These Sophisticated Bathrooms

    Now let’s see White Dove:

    White Dove walls and trim in a powder room with styled wooden ladder shelf, pedestal sink and black framed mirror
    Photo Credit: @badgerhouseinteriors

    The undertones of White Dove are best seen in the shadows in this photo.

    Either of these is a nice choice for a bathroom. Use it as the only white to keep things crisp and clean.

    Snowbound vs White Dove in the Living Room

    Let’s take a look at Snowbound and White Dove for an all-around wall color.

    Snowbound in a living room with styled built-ins above a photo of White Dove in an empty living room with large multi planed windows.

    Here is Snowbound on all the walls in a living room. You can see the undertone best on the wall directly under the beam:

    All white walls in a living room painted in SW Snowbound
    Photo Credit: @rockcreekfarmhouse

    The undertone is less obvious in this photo before the space was complete:

    Vaulted open plan living room painted in Snowbound
    Photo Credit: @rockcreekfarmhouse

    This next room is all White Dove, including trim and ceilings:

    Of course this will make White Dove look very crisp and white.

    In this living room you can see how creamy the walls look compared to the clean true white of Chantilly Lace on the ceilings:

    Chantilly Lace ceiling and trim with White Dove Walls
    Photo Credit: @thriveallprojects

    Snowbound vs White Dove at Their Strongest

    Even though we have seen Snowbound and White Dove in all different spaces, I want to quickly show you each of them at their boldest. I feel like in a lot of space the conditions aren’t exactly the same, so it can’t always be the fairest comparison.

    Here is Snowbound with it’s very strongest undertone:

    Snowbound kitchen cabinets with pink undertones
    Photo Credit: @thefinishingroommke

    You can really see a whiff of pink in these cabinets, especially near the end of the island and beside the fridge.

    Here is White Dove looking it’s boldest:

    White Dove walls with Haze blue cabinets and trim in a laundry room
    Photo Credit: @ourbouldlife

    The blue of these cabinets is complementary to White Dove, which really emphasizes its underlying peachy/beige color.

    Is White Dove the Benjamin Moore Equivalent for Snowbound and Vice Versa?

    In my opinion, Snowbound has never been the Sherwin Williams equivalent for White Dove. Truly nobody makes more soft white paints than Sherwin Williams so of course they had a closer match than this:

    White Dove on half of a wall and Snowbound on the other half behind a white sofa.

    The opposite has been true though! Once upon a time I said that White Dove was about the closest white to Snowbound that Benjamin Moore made.

    However, I did just undertake the laborious manual process of comparing all the Benjamin Moore white paints over again, and I have found a better match!

    Graphic is half Snowbound colored and half White Dove. On each side there is a swatch of the other color in order to compare. On the Snowbound side there is a swatch of Benjamin Moore Venetian Marble which is an almost exact match. On the white Dove side a swatch of SW Cold Foam is a near perfect match

    I believe the closest match for White Dove is the SW shade Cold Foam.

    The closest Benjamin Moore color to Snowbound, is the shade Venetian Marble.

    Check out this post: Sherwin Williams Snowbound vs 50+ Other White and Light Paint Colors (Including Benjamin Moore!) to see Snowbound against many other colors!

    I hope this helped you decide which white is right for you, or maybe it just helped you tell them apart!

    Here are some more posts that you might like:

    A snowy mountain scene above a photo of white marble arches. Graphic reads Snowbound vs Alabaster
    Snowbound swatched over a snowbound living room vs pure white swatched over a living room
    graphic reads white walls with white trim? How to do it right!