Dove Wing

OC-18 · Benjamin Moore

Benjamin Moore

Dove Wing

OC-18

Hex code

#E9E6DB

Light reflectance value (LRV)

77.5Off-white, light and airy

0 black100 white

Undertone

Subtle yellow-beige, a warm color

Color family: White
Sold for: Interior and exterior

Try it on your walls Get a sample

Benjamin Moore Dove Wing OC-18 is a soft warm white with a gray hold, close enough to White Dove OC-17 in name to cause constant confusion and a clear step darker on the wall. Its LRV of 78 keeps a room light while leaving enough pigment to read as a color beside bright trim. It is picked for walls that should look warm and quiet at once, in bedrooms, living rooms and whole main floors.

Is Dove Wing warm or cool? Undertones by the numbers

leans yellow

Undertone

Subtle yellow-beige

graysaturated

A gentle lean, quiet on the wall.

The lean is a gentle yellow, about half what the creams in this family carry, with a trace of green behind it and no red. That balance is what gives Dove Wing its gray character: enough yellow to keep the walls from going cold, not enough to call the color cream. Beside warm oak it looks like a plain soft white. Beside a bright white ceiling or a run of new white cabinets it shows its warmth immediately and can look faintly gray at the same time. It is close to Seapearl OC-19 in measurement and the two behave the same way in a room.

Dove Wing in north, south, east and west light

North light is what pulls the gray out of Dove Wing, and in a north room the walls read as a warm gray rather than a white, which is either the reason to pick it or the reason not to. South rooms bring the yellow forward and the same walls look like a soft cream by mid-afternoon. East rooms give the cleanest version in the morning and let it drift gray as the day ends. West sun adds a brief warm cast late on. Between 2700K and 3000K the color holds; cooler bulbs push it grayer than any daylight will.

Watch for

In a north room with cool bulbs it can read as a light gray, not a white
New white cabinets nearby make the walls look distinctly warm
The gray in it shows most on the wall opposite the window

Best rooms and surfaces for Dove Wing

Dove Wing does its best work as a whole-floor wall color, since it is light enough for a corridor with borrowed light and warm enough for a bedroom. It sits under white trim without looking like a failed attempt at white, which is the usual reason people move up to it from a bright white. On cabinets it reads as a warm off-white and is easier to keep clean-looking than a true white, though in a kitchen with cool marble it will look slightly gray. In a bathroom it is fine with warm tile and dull with cold gray porcelain. On ceilings it works best above walls in the same color, in a flat sheen.

Dove Wing on an exterior

Benjamin Moore sells Dove Wing for exterior use, and it is a sensible body color for a house that should read light without going stark. Sun lifts it close to a plain warm white, so the gray people see indoors mostly disappears on a sunlit wall and returns in the shade of a porch or a deep eave. It carries dark shutters, a black roof and bronze windows well. With a bright white trim the contrast is soft but readable, which suits a traditional house better than a hard white pair.

Try Dove Wing on your own walls

Upload a photo of your room, or the outside of your house, and TryMyHome renders Dove Wing onto the walls so you can judge it in your light, with your floors and furniture. Your first five renders are free.

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Dove Wing vs White Dove, Seapearl, Swiss Coffee, Classic Gray and Pale Oak

Living room walls rendered in Benjamin Moore White Dove OC-17, white trim, ceiling and wood floor unchanged

Dove Wing vs White Dove OC-17

Dove Wing is noticeably darker; undertone subtle yellow-beige vs subtle yellow-leaning green.

This is the pairing people search for, and the answer is simple: about six points of brightness. White Dove OC-17 is the lighter one and reads as a white in nearly any room, while Dove Wing sits low enough to read as a color against white trim. Their undertones are close, with White Dove's warmth held a little more tightly by green. Use White Dove when the walls should look white, and Dove Wing when they should look soft and warm.

Living room walls rendered in Benjamin Moore Seapearl OC-19, white trim, ceiling and wood floor unchanged

Dove Wing vs Seapearl OC-19

Dove Wing is a touch lighter; both have a subtle yellow-beige undertone.

Seapearl OC-19 and Dove Wing measure so closely that the difference is barely a point of brightness and no difference in warmth worth naming. Painted on the same wall in the same light, most people cannot tell them apart. Seapearl is the older, better known name of the two and shows up more often on exteriors. If a sample of one is already on the wall and looks right, there is nothing to gain from testing the other.

Living room walls rendered in Benjamin Moore Swiss Coffee OC-45, white trim, ceiling and wood floor unchanged

Dove Wing vs Swiss Coffee OC-45

Dove Wing is noticeably darker; both have a subtle yellow-beige undertone.

Swiss Coffee OC-45 carries about the same amount of warmth but sits four points brighter, so it is the version of this idea that still reads white. Dove Wing keeps more visible gray. In a dark room Swiss Coffee gives back more light; in a bright room Dove Wing keeps the walls from glaring. The trim white you choose matters more with Dove Wing, because there is a real step to manage.

Living room walls rendered in Benjamin Moore Classic Gray OC-23, white trim, ceiling and wood floor unchanged

Dove Wing vs Classic Gray OC-23

Dove Wing is noticeably lighter; both have a subtle yellow-beige undertone.

Classic Gray OC-23 is four points darker and slightly less yellow, which makes it the grayer and more neutral of the two, despite both being sold as warm off-whites. Dove Wing is the choice for a room that should feel soft; Classic Gray for one that should feel calm and a little cooler. In north light the pair almost converges, so pick by how the room looks at noon rather than in the evening.

Living room walls rendered in Benjamin Moore Pale Oak OC-20, white trim, ceiling and wood floor unchanged

Dove Wing vs Pale Oak OC-20

Dove Wing is noticeably lighter; both have a subtle yellow-beige undertone.

There are nine points of brightness between them, with the same modest warmth in both, so Pale Oak OC-20 is essentially Dove Wing taken down a full step. Pale Oak reads as a greige on the wall and needs decent light. Dove Wing stays an off-white in almost any room. Houses often use both, Dove Wing upstairs where the light is good and Pale Oak in the rooms that can carry more depth.

Questions about Dove Wing

Does Dove Wing look gray or beige?

Gray in cool light, softly beige in warm light. The measurement holds a modest amount of yellow with a trace of green and no red, so the swing runs between warm gray and soft cream and never toward pink or purple. What decides it in practice is the ceiling and trim white nearby, since a cool white beside it pushes the walls warm and a cream beside it pushes them gray.

Is Dove Wing good for exteriors?

Yes, it is sold for exterior use and behaves well outdoors. Sunlight raises it toward a warm white, so the house will read lighter than the chip on every wall the sun touches, with the color showing under eaves and porches. Because the shift is upward, it is a safer exterior than a color that goes yellow in sun. Dark trim, roof and windows give it the contrast it needs.

Is there a Sherwin-Williams version of Dove Wing?

Alabaster SW 7008 is the closest by measurement across the Sherwin-Williams range, near enough that the two are difficult to separate on a wall, though Alabaster is a few points brighter. Pearly White SW 7009 is the next closest and sits almost level with Dove Wing in brightness. Grey Mist SW 9625 is nearer still in feel but has no page here.

What colors go with Dove Wing?

Benjamin Moore pairs it with Collingwood OC-28 as the deeper neutral, then Wish AF-680, Cinder AF-705 and Tarrytown Green HC-134. The green is the one to note, since a dark muted green gives this soft a wall color something to push against. Warm wood, black metal and unbleached fabric all sit comfortably with it.

What is one shade darker than Dove Wing?

It has no fan-deck strip, so the step comes from the closest colors. Classic Gray OC-23 is the nearest darker one, about four points down and slightly grayer. Above it, Cloud Cover OC-25 is roughly three points brighter with the same character, and Swiss Coffee OC-45 is the next clear step up in brightness.

Get a sample before you paint

Use the visualizer to narrow your shortlist, then confirm the finalist on your actual wall. A peel-and-stick sample of Dove Wing, checked in morning and evening light, is the last step before a gallon.