Background is more ivory than white, which blends nicely with the gold pattern.  It looks lovely in my living room and serves to anchor the couch with 4 chairs.  The largest size I purchased was 3" narrower than stated.  Before placing in the room, I reverse rolled the rug and left it for 3 days so that it would lay flat from the start and that worked well.  It then took a couple of weeks for all the 'wrinkles' to lay flat but now you can't tell where they were.  I couldn't be more pleased with my purchase and the great price for such a large rug.  I will definitely consider Wayfair for my next area rug purchase.