What colour is ecru? Examples in real houses
Ecru, like mauve, taupe and cyan, is one of those dubious and hard-to-pin-down colours that crops up repeatedly in interior design. Like the others, ecru sits between several other better-known colours, and its exact visual parameters are somewhat up for debate. Here’s what we can say for certain: ecru is a blend of grey, beige, cream and a dash of yellow. It’s not quite greige, though, less creamy than cream, and certainly not eggshell. Perhaps it has a touch of biscuit.
The word itself was originally used to describe unbleached linen – in French écru means “raw”, or crude – and has also typically been equated with silk, and with sand, as a colour rather than a substance. As a neutral tone, ecru is a good colour in which to paint one’s walls, joinery and/or fittings and doors, although it tends to work best when paired with something a little bolder; beware trying to pull off the all-ecru design scheme unless you are literally Rose Uniacke. Paint & Paper Library’s Stone series, including five tones ranging from light to dark numbered I-V, might be a good reference point.
Perhaps the best way to get a handle on ecru is to take inspiration from real-life houses by real-life designers. Luckily, we’ve assembled some of the best examples of ecru from the extensive House & Garden archives below.
Joachim Wichmann1/10At Pernille Lind’s Victorian terrace in north-east London, the Danish designer has deployed ecru to its most fitting effect: to create a calming sanctuary space which combines earth tones and natural woods. The paint on the walls in the kitchen is Farrow & Ball’s ‘Cord’, and has the typical yellow-green tinge that many ecru tones display.
2/10It’s certainly the darker end of ecru which adorns the walls of Patrick O’Donnell’s 1930s house in Worcestershire, but the tone is undeniable. It’s warm and neutral, offering a good backdrop against which to display his art, furniture and books.
Paul Whitbread3/10Charlotte Boundy chose ‘Bath Stone’ by Little Greene for the dressing room of this Victorian house in Oxford, which features a complementary Art Deco Dish light from Jamb.
Paul Whitbread4/10Elsewhere in the same house, the walls in the drawing room have been painted in Edward Bulmer’s ‘Milk White’, which occupies a similar space to ecru.
Eric Piasecki/Otto5/10Ecru doesn’t necessarily have to mean paint; it can be plaster, too, as in this quietly elegant house in Atlanta by classical architect Stan Dixon.
Michael Sinclair6/10When Lucy Hammond Giles of Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler was commissioned to breathe new life into a Victorian family home in west London, she turned to a cool ecru for the walls of a bedroom in which Howard armchairs and Aesthetic movement wardrobes from Rose Uniacke took centre stage.
Simon Brown7/10This Georgian house in the south of England, called the Clock House, was sympathetically revitalised by Salvesen Graham including courtesy of an entrance hall in a calming ecru colour palette. A rush runner from Edit 58 sits on the floor with an ‘Original Globe’ pendant light from Hector Finch overhead. An element of weight keeps the whole scheme grounded thanks to the heavier console table to the left.
Mark Anthony Fox8/10In his own Battersea flat, designer Christian Bense painted the sitting room in Paint and Paper Library’s ‘Slate II’. Here, a Rug Vista rug sits on the sitting room floor, with an armchair from 1stDibs, upholstered in a Northcroft fabric. The cabinet is bespoke by KUDOS and was originally designed for Christian’s Wow House room at the Design Centre Chelsea Harbour in 2023.
Mark Anthony Fox9/10The ceiling of Christian’s flat is ‘London Stone’ from Farrow & Ball. Christian created the checkerboard artwork above the fireplace. Stone-inspired shades are often close matches for ecru. The dining table sits on a jute rug from Rowen & Wren, with chair seat pads covered in Lauren Hwang's ‘Silk Road’ fabric.
Alicia Waite10/10Finally, in Emma Ainscough’s London flat, Emma painted her kitchen in a very, very light ecru. The terminology and definition here of “ecru” is possibly debatable but we think that there’s enough of a hint of yellow that it counts – and is proof that ecru can be bright and airy without tipping into white.
