Who knew the colour “white” was actually 1,000,000 different colours? Sounds simple, but is arguably the hardest colour to pick for your house because it looks SO different depending on so many different factors. If you’re about to repaint, here are the 5 steps you need to take to pick the perfect white paint for your space.
1. Consider What Direction The Window In Your Room Is Facing
The sunlight that pours into an east-facing window is very different than the sunlight that pours into a west-facing window. East and North facing rooms tend to have cooler light come through, so can handle whites that are on the warmer side (without looking yellow or peach). In contrast, West and South-facing rooms generally have warmer sunlight come through, so can handle cooler toned whites (without looking blue or grey).
In short: cool-toned whites will look blue in East/North rooms. Warm-toned whites will look yellow in West/South rooms. Pick a paint colour of the opposite tone of your room to cancel out similar tones so you can land on a true “neutral white” for your specific space.
2. Bring Lots Of Paint Chips Home
So you’ve determined what direction your window faces and what kind of light your room gets. With this information in mind, it’s time to pick out paint chips! Don’t be shy. Bring as many home as you need.
When you get home, tape all of your paint chips up on a wall in the room you’re painting. There will immediately be some that you don’t like (they’re too pink, too orange, too green, etc.). Remove them. They don’t need to clutter up your decision making process.
Leave up the rest of the paint chips for a few days and periodically check in on them to keep narrowing things down. Check on them in morning light, in evening light, in natural light, in artificial light, on rainy days, on sunny days. Every time one of them feels wrong, remove it. Keep this up until you have 3-5 of your favourite white paint colours remaining.
3. Buy Samples Of Your Top 5 White Paint Options
Purchase little sample pots of your top 3-5 white paints. I personally love flat/matte paint finishes, but eggshell is often the go-to for living rooms / bedrooms, while satin and semi-gloss are recommended for kitchens / bathrooms. I mention this because the sheen of your paint actually affects the paint colour more than you might think! So purchase your white paint samples with the sheen you want to end up with.
4. Paint Your Samples On Every Wall
Paint a square (about 12″ x 12″) of each paint sample on EACH wall in the room. Not just one wall. All of the walls. Paint looks different depending on its position from the light source in the room. (For example, the window wall is way darker than the wall directly across from the window.) Painting a sample on each wall will give you the most accurate sense of what each white colour will look like when the entire room is painted.
*Pro-tip from an interior designer I met years ago (if you’re as picky as I am and want to go the extra mile): Rather than painting your samples directly on your walls, paint each swatch on a piece of sturdy paper or cardboard and then tape each sample to your walls. She told me that painting all these different squares on your walls will actually affect the final finish of the paint in those spots, because your final paint colour will absorb differently into your swatched patches than the rest of your walls.
5. Check In On Your Swatches At All Times Of The Day
The final step to this process is to leave your swatches up for a few days. This is to allow yourself the opportunity to see these swatches at all times of day: in all kinds of weather, in all positions of the sun, with natural light during the day, and artificial light at night. Continue to eliminate swatches until you’ve landed on your perfect white paint.
Did you find this helpful? Let me know in the comments!
