Little Greene Stock vs Clockface: the measured difference

Two Little Greene off-whites get compared more than any other: Stock, number 37, and Clockface, number 81. People stand in front of both with a brush-out in each hand and cannot decide. So here is the measurement rather than another opinion.

They are 1.65 dE apart. That is inside the band where you need the two samples side by side to see any difference at all. Clockface reads slightly lighter and a touch cooler than Stock. On a wall, in a room, a week after it dries, almost nobody would pick one out of the other.

The numbers

LRV is how much light the colour reflects. Fit and dE are how closely the NCS shade a trade tin is mixed to lands on the original colour, measured with CIEDE2000.

Colour	Hex	LRV	NCS shade	Fit	dE to NCS
Stock LG 37	#ECE6D8	80	S 0603-Y20R	Exact	0.71
Clockface LG 81	#EDEADE	82	S 0502-Y	Close	1.16

Stock is the warmer of the two and sits a touch deeper at LRV 80 against Clockface's 82. Stock carries a yellow-red cast, NCS S 0603-Y20R; Clockface is an almost pure yellow at S 0502-Y with half the chromaticness. That is the whole difference: Stock has a little more colour in it, Clockface is nearer to a plain soft white.

The comparison nobody makes, which matters more

Little Greene sells Stock in four strengths, and the gap between Stock and Stock Mid is 3.69 dE. That is more than double the gap between Stock and Clockface.

So the agonising is happening at the wrong end. If Stock looks close to right but not quite, the colour you want is probably further along its own family rather than across at Clockface. Here is every pair, ordered by how far apart they actually are.

Measured distance between each pair, CIEDE2000. Under 1 is invisible, 1 to 2 shows only side by side, over 3.5 is a different colour.

Pair	dE	How the second reads against the first
Stock vs Clockface	1.65	slightly lighter and a touch cooler
Stock mid vs Stock deep	2.48	noticeably darker, a little more saturated and a touch warmer
Stock deep vs Stock dark	3.26	noticeably darker, a little more saturated and noticeably warmer
Stock vs Stock mid	3.69	noticeably more saturated and noticeably warmer
Stock mid vs Clockface	5.23	slightly lighter, noticeably more muted and noticeably cooler
Stock vs Stock deep	5.49	noticeably darker, noticeably more saturated and noticeably warmer
Stock mid vs Stock dark	5.73	noticeably darker, noticeably more saturated and noticeably warmer
Stock deep vs Clockface	7.09	noticeably lighter, noticeably more muted and noticeably cooler
Stock vs Stock dark	8.48	noticeably darker, noticeably more saturated and noticeably warmer
Stock dark vs Clockface	10.03	noticeably lighter, noticeably more muted and noticeably cooler

The whole Stock family

Colour	Hex	LRV	NCS shade	Fit	dE to NCS
Stock LG 37	#ECE6D8	80	S 0603-Y20R	Exact	0.71
Stock mid LG 173	#F0E3CD	78	S 0505-Y30R	Close	1.3
Stock deep LG 174	#E8D9C0	71	S 0907-Y30R	Exact	0.61
Stock dark LG 175	#DFCDAF	63	S 1510-Y20R	Close	1.23

The family runs from LRV 80 down to 63, getting warmer and more saturated as it goes. Stock Dark is 8.48 dE from plain Stock, which is a different colour by any measure.

What about Chambré?

We do not carry a Little Greene Chambré, so there is no measured comparison for it here, and we are not going to estimate one from a photograph. Everything above is measured against the NCS shade a trade tin is mixed to; a colour we cannot match is a colour we cannot measure.

If neither is quite right

Both colours sit in a crowded part of the off-white range, and the nearest neighbours cross brands. Stock's closest are Fired Earth Oyster at 0.8 dE, Sherwin-Williams Ivory lace at 0.8 dE, Sanderson Cameo white at 0.8 dE. Clockface's are Benjamin Moore Snow on the mountain at 0.4 dE, Benjamin Moore Vapor at 0.6 dE, Little Greene Linen wash at 0.6 dE. Anything under 1 dE there is closer to the original than most people's memory of the colour they saw in the shop.

Whichever you land on, order the tester. Stock and Clockface are 1.65 dE apart on paper, and the light in your room moves colours further than that before lunchtime.