If you have never taken an art class or even if you have, you might be surprised to find out that white paint isn’t necessarily “all white!”. It usually has some “under tones” which mean the shade of paint can change in varying light and the time of day. And if you are not careful that “shade” of paint can cause you to wish it wasn’t so. This can make it difficult to select the proper “white” paint for your home. Unless you are the one painting, painting is expensive. Even if you do it yourself, the paint can now cost quite a bit. So you end up afraid to make a decision which has happened to me, where you get trapped in …
analysis paralysis! Which means you may stick with the old paint rather than make a costly mistake. Well, for my fear-laden friends — what do we do? I recently lived this and didn’t want to waste more time. Years ago, I had painted the main level and a few other important walls a nice shade of “biscuit, which took me months to agonize over, and the kitchen was white with a chair rail and taupe down below.
Now, it was time to paint again and for some rooms that builder antique white really needed to go! So I thought — let’s make it simple and pick white! Do you know how many shades of white there are?! A LOT!!
Anyway, so I tried to just look at samples in the house and out on the deck in the sunlight– it wasn’t helping. Then I decided to use the online tools to see the white in rooms. That didn’t help enough – ugh. I knew that you need to know where your light comes in — from the East, West, North or South. With my town house, I have East/West facing light. Believe it or not you can google paint colors for East/West facing homes which led me to some interior designer blogs which were very helpful.
So I selected one color of the two that I had narrowed down. Then I started to rethink the two colors (from two different designer’s blogs) plus my contractor had recently painted another house a different color. So I called and asked him if he could do samples of the two and he added in the third without telling me which was which. He then sent me a video of them all three on the same wall. It was great because I was able to see the color in the house in the daytime and again later at night. I selected the color that was my original selection! It turns out it was the one selected by several other folks. Trust your gut but verify!
The color I selected was for walls and trim. We went with “ceiling” white for all of the ceilings and it really brightened the house. The contractor fix all the cracks and years of settling and stripped away the old wallpaper in the powder room. And it is amazing what a fresh coat of paint does to a home. This paint in my house does have some barely there gray under tones. I am good with that since I chose gray carpet and some gray marble like Luxury Vinyl Tile (LVP).
I chose Sherwin Williams Pure White (SW 7005). https://www.sherwin-williams.com/en-us/color/color-family/white-paint-colors/sw7005-pure-white
I am not being paid or sponsored for the mention of any paints, blogs or designers. These comments are from personal experiences in renovating my property.
