there are tasteful whites and there are crass whites

'The walls were a white, the ceiling a white, the carpet a mocha brown'all decorator colors. Yes, even in whites, there are tasteful whites and there are crass whites, shades that might as well not be white.'

'Haruki Murikami, Hard-Boiled Wonderland And The End Of The World; translated by Alfred Birnbaum, 1991.