Painting Your Rooms White - Top TIps

While white reflects all the colors in the spectrum it isn’t a color but remains the most widely used interior hue. Selecting the right white for a room can be the difference between creating a room that is fresh and airy or one that is dull and boring.

Painting a room white was once an easy decision but today paint companies offer thousands of shades of white. There is no such thing as “just” white paint. Think of the difference between matte white linen and bright white silk or the difference between a creamy rose bloom or a blushing carnation.

Study the Room

Even before looking at sample chips, study the colors already in the room. What colors are the rugs, the curtains, and the furniture? Select shades of white with hints of those colors. Consider the harmony created in a room with dark-wood antique furniture and white walls with a warm beige or gold undertone. Or consider the agreement of cool blue white with contemporary furniture.

Natural Light

If the room being painted has windows, white paint will reflect the changing light of day. The color of natural light changes from pink and lilac in the morning, to pale yellow almost white at mid-day to orange-gold at sunset.

The orientation of the windows also influences color. South-facing windows not only receive more light but intense light that drains out color. White paint with only hint of color can look washed out in a south-facing room, especially on the wall opposite the window.

North-facing rooms get less direct sunlight and that light puts white paint in a cool blue to blue-gray cast. The white paint will also seem darker and the finish duller.

If you are using white in rooms on the east or west side of the house, think about when you most use the rooms. A room facing the east-rising sun can seem like a south-facing room from dawn until noon. At the same time the west side room will look like a north-facing room.

Consider using white paint with yellow or red undertones to warm north-facing rooms or west-facing rooms that are used in the morning. Experiment with blue or green undertones to warm south-facing rooms or east-facing rooms used in the morning.

Artificial Light: Standard incandescent bulbs that heighten the yellow, red, or brown undertones of white paint also make white paint with a hint of cool blue or green seem drab.

The cool blue light of standard fluorescent bulbs enhances greens and blues but dulls any hint of warm yellows and reds. Compact fluorescent bulbs come closer to providing the warm cast of incandescent bulbs.

Finally, be aware of shadows. Without adequate light from any source, the subtle differences between shades of white vanish and all-white paint looks the same.

Testing White Paint

After you have narrowed down the white color selections buy small amounts and paint sample boards. Since seeing the color in your home is important, buy some plywood to make re-useable color boards.

For about a dollar, most large home improvement centers that sell wood will cut a 4’x8’ piece of plywood into four pieces 2’x2’ each. Use white primer on the pieces before covering them with white paint. (Simply re-prime the boards whenever you want to test another color.)

For several days and evenings live with the boards, moving them around the room to see how the color works overall. Don’t be afraid to use more than one shade of white in the room. Alcoves and window wells are easy transitions between colors.

Another easy option is to use the same shade of white thoughout a room but to juxtaposition sheens. For example the wall opposite a window receives the most natural light, it might be painted a flat white, sidewalls a satin white, and the wall receiving the least light (the wall with the window) a semi-gloss.

Trekking White Paint

If the white paint selected seems to need a little more color to make it darker ask the paint retailer if more pigment can be added. Just as white paint “base” cannot be used as white paint without pigment being added, some already tinted white paint began with a base for pastels, which cannot hold any more pigment. If the white paint seems to be a shade that is too dark, pigment cannot be removed.

But white paint can be made lighter by slowly stirring in an existing premixed white paint. It can be shaded to a different color by stirring in small amounts of colored paint. In this way you produce another shade of white paint without throwing off the balance of pigment to bind or alter the integrity of the paint film.

Ensuring Success

Seeing white as a subtle color with changing vitality ensures that a white room isn’t reminiscent of a bleached white bed sheet from the 1950s or a doctor’s starched smock from the last century.