50 Shades Of White- Choosing a white paint colour for your home.

Choosing a white paint colour

Natural white, Whisper White, Lexicon Half, Linen White, Infinity White, Nearly White, Antique White, Sorta white but a bit greyish…  Choosing a white paint for your home can be is the hardest design decision you will make.

After painting three of our homes in different whites I have compiled a few tips to getting it white (see what I…yep you did)

Pictured Below: Our master bedroom in house # 2, (Builders White- White with a few teaspoons of black!)

Choosing by name

You know, I know we’ve done it all before. Case # 1- our very first home, an over confident me announces to G “I have found THE ONE”. Ocean Pearl- I live for the ocean and pearls are my favourite, it’s destiny. We buy the paint, paint the walls and then return to the paint shop the next day to find a paint that actually suits our place.

Hint: Don’t do this

Pictured Below: Image from Haymes paint showing Organic 1, house by Simone Haag ,Images Derek Swalwell

Lighting

Now that you’ve decided “kick arse unicorn #2” is likely the wrong colour for your home we can now move on to factors that ACTUALLY influence the decision making process of choosing a white paint colour for your abode, cue lighting.

Natural light will play the biggest role in what your colour actually looks like. The same use of colour in a well lit room compared to a dark room will look very different, keep this in mind if you are choosing a bright crisp white in a well lit area- it may reflect the light creating a wearing sunglasses inside type scenario. On the contrary if you are going a darker shade with not much light it will accentuate it and may feel a little…well dark.

The colour of your lights also play a huge role in what your colour will look like, most places where you will be looking at sample cards will be under high lumen white lights, if you intend on using warm white lighting your white will look softer with a more yellow tone.

Hint- test samples in different natural light and under your choice of warm or cool ceiling lights.

Pictured below: Taubmans “Snow Drop” from Home Beautiful Magazine Images Chris Warnes. House by Three Birds Renovations

Ceilings, skirting and architraves

Do you go matchy matchy or try to contrast? It depends.

In our last home we went a fairly standard white (white with a couple of teaspoons of black), we opted to use a standard ceiling white . Because the wall and ceiling whites were both very similar in tones you can’t visually notice the change in colour and it works. On our current house we are building we’ve gone with a deep creamy white with light beige undertones, our painter Barry suggested to use the same paint for all walls, ceiling, architraves and skirting. Due to the off white nature of our paint selection it would have being too much of a contrast using a ceiling white. Using the same colour throughout favours the minimalistic look and it’s easy on the eye. Barry (the painter) said now days about 80% of his clients opt for the same colour on all.

Hint- If going for a soft minimalist atheistic don’t contrast ceiling, skirts and archs try choosing a white paint colour that is the same throughout.

Pictured Below: Haymes Paint  “Refuge 2”

Test, test, test.

It’s un-likely that you’ll be choosing a white paint colour successfully via the paint sample isle in your local hardware store there and then (although everyone has fun collecting 100 white cards and getting home to wonder what you’ll actually do with them all).

If you have the ability to go and paint a wall in your home beforehand, do it. Nothing will tell you more if it’s a winner or not than actually testing in situ on a bigger sample than a 10cm card. If test painting isn’t an option for you I’d suggest ordering a larger sample card, they are usually available in a4 size. Fun fact: on our second house we re-painted about a third of the façade as I’d picked the colour from a 10cm sample card, learn from my mistakes!

Hint- test the paint!

Pictured: Three Birds Renovation  The Hamptons House for Adore Magazine

Other handy hints

A few other hints on choosing a white paint colour for your interiors.

If possible check in on progress after the first coat (if you’re using a painter). Deciding you hate it at this stage is a lot easier to remedy compared to once all coats are finished or you’ve moved in.

Colour consultants are a good idea. Most brands or painters can offer colour consults, the cost of this is usually taken off your paint order so it’s a worth while investment, especially if you were leaning towards “Kick arse unicorn #2”.

Mood boards are also a great way to check that all your colours will compliment each other, it’s easy to do and gives a great overall picture.

Colours on different bases can vary so stick with the same brand paint as colour. We found this on our first coat of our façade recently, we then painted the colour side by side on two different brand bases and the difference was quiet significant (especially when you’ve gone through this whole process of choosing your white paint colour!)

Popular Australian Brand White Paints

Dulux- Antique White U.S.A , Hog Bristle, Lexicon, White On White.

Taubmans- Crisp White, Snowy White, White Illusion

Haymes-  Organic 1, Iris White,  Bond White,  Modesty White

Wattyl- Wattyl White,

Porters- Popcorn, White Sand, Irish Linen

Resene-  Albescent White, Black White, Apricot White

Hint- Rockcote have a great range of zero VOC paints (good for the environment and air quality).

Your Whites

Do you have a favourite white? Or a story from choosing a white paint colour for your home? Let us and your fellow white paint lovers know below in the comments.

Hailey