Swiss Coffee vs White Dove! Which is Your Benjamin Moore Favorite?

Swiss Coffee and White Dove are probably tied for popularity when it comes to white paint colors from Benjamin Moore! Each has their fan club, and both colors are proclaimed to be “the best creamy white with NO yellow.”

Here we will take a somewhat-objective look at Swiss Coffee vs White Dove, both in real life and in technicalities, so that hopefully by the end of this post you can see the difference, and KNOW which color is perfect for you!

Technical Difference Between White Dove and Swiss Coffee

It’s actually pretty tricky to spot the differences between White Dove and Swiss Coffee visually, so we will start by showing the difference on paper!

You can see that the most obvious difference between these two, is that Swiss Coffee is a little darker than White Dove.

White Dove vs Swiss Coffee Light Reflectance Values

The LRV of Swiss Coffee is 81.91 vs White Dove’s, which is 83.16.

What’s an LRV anyway?

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.

Here I have rounded the light reflectance values, but even without doing so, there is only just over 1 point of difference. (1.25 to be exact!) So while Swiss Coffee is darker, the difference is almost negligible.

Swiss Coffee vs White Dove on the Color Wheel

Now let’s take a look at each of these white paints on the color wheel!

The colors are very close to each other, but Swiss Coffee is more saturated. The center of the color wheel would be gray/white, and you can see that White Dove is closer to the center, so it is less saturated and a bit more gray.

It’s hard to see the difference in the color family here, so here is another look at the charts:

This is just an on paper difference, and honestly it isn’t enough to really matter. The saturation is a much bigger difference.

You might find that the difference in color is easier to spot in small doses. Here is each color on trim with a selection of popular neutrals:

Here you can really see that Swiss Coffee is more boldly creamy than White Dove is.

Visual Differences Between White Dove and Swiss Coffee (Let’s Talk Undertones!)

Okay, now that we have covered the technical differences in these colors, let’s see how they actually look in real life!

Luckily for us, we have some super great examples of White Dove and Swiss Coffee literally side by side in the same house! Chrissy of @simplyslade used Benjamin Moore Swiss Coffee for her walls, and White Dove for trim…in her WHOLE house. Thank youuuu Chrissy!

Disclaimer time! : These colors are in different sheens. White Dove is in a satin or semi-gloss trim paint, and Swiss Coffee is in eggshell. Why does that matter? White paint colors can look a little darker in a higher sheen, and the undertone is a little harder to see.

Here you can really see the sheen difference:

Basically the difference here will be more subtle than if they were in the same finish (flat would be best), but we get what we get, and we don’t get upset!

Here is one picture where the difference is the most obvious:

In the mirror you can really see how White Dove looks that little bit more “white” on the trim than Swiss Coffee does on the walls. This is the same thing we saw on paper with the trim comparison.

Now we get into somewhat of an opinion piece… IN MY OPINION, White Dove tends to have a more beige to peach undertone, and Swiss Coffee’s leans a little more yellow. Swiss Coffee still looks fairly beige most of the time, but it isn’t as peachy as White Dove.

Here is a look at Swiss Coffee with a strong undertone against the much lighter Benjamin Moore Simply White.

This is a great example because the color looks very neutral in the bright natural light at the bottom of the wall and it gets more creamy up towards the artificial light.

Here is White Dove with a strong undertone against Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace on the ceiling:

The difference between the undertones in the last picture (Swiss Coffee) compared to this one (White Dove) are quite subtle, but if you look to the corner by the window, I do find the undertone is a hair less buttery.

For every white paint color that people love, there are fans that will fight you at the mention of yellow. Other people will tell you that it’s much worse for yellow than you feared.

Unfortunately this is a grain-of-salt situation, and you need to decide for yourself how you see it. Hopefully these next homes and real-life scenarios help!

How White Dove and Swiss Coffee Compare Inside Real Homes

Let’s take a look at a few more photos from Chrissy’s place to see the difference between Swiss Coffee and White Dove (or lack thereof!).

I did try to pick photos where you can see at least some difference, but make no mistake, the contrast is always subtle!

In this hallway you can see that something is different between the trim and walls, but it might be hard to put your finger on it.

This next picture is the coolest and most white version of this combo, and for that reason it is also easier to see the contrast.

Swiss Coffee would look totally true white here, if it wasn’t for the White Dove trim!

Here is another one where you can see the difference between White Dove and Swiss Coffee, but if you didn’t know they were different colors, you might chalk it up to the sheen.

And then just to be totally fair and transparent, here are two pictures from Chrissy’s place where we truly can’t tell what is where.

If you squint you can guess which is which because the sheen is slightly higher in spots, but even I am not too sure!

Moving on to other homes, I wanted to really quickly show you one more example of each color with a very strong undertone. First is Swiss Coffee:

This is actually Swiss Coffee at 75%, which is wild, but I think the photo may be warmed slightly, so that should balance out.

Here is White Dove with a very strong undertone:

The color here is emphasized by the cabinets, because this sort of blue-green shade is complementary to peach. I do think the photo is warmed up a little here too (judging from the white on the appliances) so this is a pretty fair comparison.

Is White Dove or Swiss Coffee Better?

Finishing up with an opinion, which is just AN OPINION, I prefer White Dove to Swiss Coffee. (I can hear the jeers already.)

I find that Swiss Coffee does look yellow to me on occasion, and while White Dove certainly doesn’t look like a true perfect white all the time, I just prefer the peach-leaning beige undertone.