Thursday
Jun092011
Picking the Perfect White Paint
Thursday, June 9, 2011 As part of my New Year’s decorating goals, I wanted to go clean, house clean that is. Over the past couple of months that has evolved into pining to paint my walls white, like some of the inspiration seen here:
Source: sarahklassen.com via Elise on Pinterest
(and of course seend on our blog here).
I have used some of the new fabric choices for my room (black & white, gold, and deep purples) to choose a white background to set off these lovely accent colors. The chairs, throw pillows and floor coverings will all bring pops of color into the room.
I have used some of the new fabric choices for my room (black & white, gold, and deep purples) to choose a white background to set off these lovely accent colors. The chairs, throw pillows and floor coverings will all bring pops of color into the room.
My living room right now...Over Memorial Day weekend, I finally found some time to run into a local paint store to check out some colors and grab some samples. Here are the white samples I picked from Sherwin-Williams: Cloud Nine, Soothing White, and White Iris. I decided to block them off on my living room wall in 12”x12” squares (kinda artistic- lol) in order to test them in the room. After priming so the current yellow in the room wouldn’t come through, I painted each block one of the whites. I’m still not sure I can favor one over the other.
Sherwin-Williams: Cloud Nine, Soothing White, & White Iris
I decided to go check out the new House Beautiful app for the iPad I was sent complimentary as a guest of Blogfest. It has several paint selection options based on the colors, spaces, and moods. I choose white, living room, & sophisticated colors. It gave me 29 colors to choose from! I narrowed it down to these three: All White by Farrow & Ball, Strong White by Farrow & Ball, and Heaven by Benjamin Moore.
As another resource, I interviewed the HGTV designer Lisa LaPorta (interview coming tomorrow) and asked her what her recommend white is. Her response is Swiss Coffee by Benjamin Moore. She said there are many different brands that have a similar color but this one is perfect because it’s not too pink or blue and works well everwhere.
Swiss Coffee by Benjamin MooreI think I’ll pick up all four of the new colors and paint new squares!
What do you think about the whites I’ve selected? Do you know of any of them? Have you used them before? Or do you have another white that you have used and really recommend for my bright, naturally-lit living room.
Reader Comments (4)
WOW, love this and your blog. Met you on Picture Color! So many wonderful artists there!
Thanks, Diana, for popping over! We LOVE to have guests. Feel free to stop by often and we promise to not disappoint :)
I like Benjamin Moore's Moonlight White! One suggestion -- paint an enormous square of primer and then put your painted swatches on that. Right now the yellow is so strong that it is almost impossible not to visually compare the whites to the yellow and it skews your opinion! Or you can just paint the enormous square of white primer and then paint the swatches on boards and tape the boards up one at a time ... again because it's "not fair" to visually compare them against each other ...
Traci, these are great suggestions. I had wondered about the yellow changing the shade and how to compare the three the best way. Will give Moonlight White a try too!