DISCLAIMER: If you consider yourself a person who wouldn’t paint your walls white because it’s boring or sterile PLEASE READ THIS! I promise you, painting your walls all gray because you think it will help modernize or make your space feel bigger is an oversight. Using white on some walls in your home will instantly make it feel larger, brighter, and clean. Plus, it will make decorating the space that much easier. I’m not saying that every wall in your home needs to be white (man oh man, there are so many beautiful colors to pick out there so please use them), I’m just wanting you to consider adding white into some areas that you want to give a facelift to. Don’t be afraid of it and maybe drop the gray paint moving forward.

Side note: Our house will NOT BE ALL WHITE, I have colors picked out for the rooms. Some ceilings won’t even be white!!! *insert shocked face*

Let’s start off by understanding why white isn’t just white. White is the most reflective color out there. It may seem like a neutral, but it actually reflects whatever it’s surrounded by or mixed with. I’m sure you’re familiar with people saying “this white has warm undertones” or “this white feels cool”. What people mean by this is that the white isn’t neutral, it wasn't created with a warm color like yellow or mixed with a cool color like blue.

Image found on the Beach Painting Contractors website.

Now that we have that covered, let’s look at how hue, tint, tone, and shade play into your white decision. Since white and black are technically additives to primary, secondary, or tertiary colors the term “hue” essentially doesn’t apply to it as much. The tint and shade come in when you’re adding white to black or black to white which would make gray. Otherwise, tint would be the color white with white added and that doesn’t get you anywhere. But tone is very important! Reminder, tone is created when adding in gray. If someone says that a white has a gray tone to it that’s why. What’s more important here are the undertones that white can hold. So not only could white lean gray it could also have any hues in it which make up the undertones. For instance, when talking about tint and the color yellow you would have yellow + white = a cream pastel color. So if you add in a lot of the white tint the yellow disappears more and the white takes over. Making it a hue that lands in the white family and no longer yellow. This color would then be described as a warm white since it has a yellow hue to it.

Let’s circle back to the point I made earlier about white being the most reflective color. Since you now have an understanding of the basic terms used to describe colors you can move forward looking at what your space currently has in it and how much natural light you get. These are the two largest components to choosing the best white for your walls.

I’ll be using our new home as an example here. Our house faces North and South with 2 East-facing small windows and 0 West-facing windows. North and South-facing windows provide a steady amount of light throughout the day, but never any direct sun. Since there isn’t direct light streaming through the windows it usually casts a light shadow which ultimately creates a gray tone to the rooms. Whereas, if you had a large East-facing window, you’d have warm light streaming through in the mornings with the sun.

Below are the swatches I set out for our cabinet color. I wanted to see them in one location throughout the day to see if some colors felt different. DID THEY EVER! The picture on the left was taken at 7 am by our South-Facing window. The picture on the right was taken at 7 pm (with no overhead lights on). This is why it’s so crucial to see the swatches or paint samples in the location they will be living.

I then took a look at the items I’d be placing inside these rooms like decor and furniture. For the most part, I have a very warm color palette with my decor. I use a lot of burnt oranges, creams, browns, and natural textures like wood, woven baskets, and black metals. Given that I don’t have that warm direct light and I decorate with warm hues I knew I wouldn’t want to pick a super cool-tinted white.

1. If I would paint a cool white on the walls the gray shadow created with the indirect sun would be enhanced and make the room feel even muddier and gray instead of bright white.

2. The cool white would clash with the warm hues I decorate with.

You can see the warmth in my decorating style with the two pictures below. Even though I have green and blue in my home, I pair them with a lot of warm hues to make them fit.

At this moment you’re probably thinking “great, go with a warm white then!”. But the problem with picking a white that would lean too warm would be that it would fall yellow then. There wouldn’t be enough natural light in the space to brighten it up and my warm-hued decor would reflect on it, ultimately enhancing the yellow even more. Which lead me to figure out what the best white paints out there would be for my space. I wanted to either find the perfect neutral white that didn’t lean particularly in any direction or I wanted to find a white that had subtle warm undertones. The one thing I knew for sure was that I didn’t want a cool white.

Through many hours of research and hundreds of color swatches later, I finally found a nice array of whites that I think everyone should consider using in their homes. Just remember when picking one of these whites you should first recognize what your natural light and decor situations are. This will help you determine that white decision. I also suggest buying the sample sizes of the paint once you narrow it down to a couple. Painting on samples makes such a difference from just hanging up that 2-inch long paper swatch. By painting a chunk of it on the actual wall it will live on you’ll be able to see how it changes throughout the day given the light.

I can’t wait to share with ya’ll what the other room’s colors will be, because yes, there will be rooms that have some bold color choices aside from the tedious decision of white!