The simplest thing in the world is choosing white paint for your NYC home, right? Wrong! There are probably few things more annoying than selecting the perfect white paint. Many people love white walls because they help increase the sense of space in a room, and the color works with just about any decor. It’d be so much easier if there were simply one or two shades of white, but there are more like 74,000.
Each of these whites have different levels of undertones, with the tiniest shift in level resulting in a brand-new color. These slight variations in tone translate to drastically different colors when applied to a wall.
So how are you supposed to choose? If you’re rocking back and forth on your living room floor surrounded by a pile of paint chips and swath-streaked walls, check out the following tips.
Use adhesive-backed poster board when testing out your paint samples.
Tiny swatches of paint on a wall are nowhere near big enough to give you a true idea of what the white paint will look like on your wall. Get a pack of adhesive-backed poster board that’s at least 11″ x 14″ instead. Hang the painted board on your wall and look at it at different times throughout the day. Need boards? Dick Blick Art Materials has several stores throughout the city.
Don’t just select whites from a fan deck; you won’t get the full picture.
Have you ever noticed that when you look at the white samples on a fan deck, they look anything but white? They look grey, or blue, or even pink. The problem is that when you look at a ton of different white shades lined up alongside each other, your eyes isolate the undertones, and those undertones end up being all that you see.
Instead, try looking at the colors on your computer screen as well. Between the fan deck and the screen, you’ll get a clearer idea of what the white looks like. Many paint companies have online features where you can upload pictures of your room into the site’s interface. You can then “paint” the room on the site. That may help give you a better “at first glance” idea of what your walls will look like.
Check your lighting.
A room with big windows that’s flooded with lots of natural light and painted a particular shade of white will look drastically different from a room without windows painted the very same color. If you get very little natural lighting in your room, warm whites may give it a comforting glow.
If you want to play it safe, choose whites that have little to no undertone.
Choose whites that have little or no undertones. These are ideal for many rooms because they tend to show up crisp, clear, and white, even in the most difficult lighting conditions.
See how warm and cold whites work in your space.
Whites tend to be warm or cold. Crisp, cool whites can either give your room a sleek, modern edge or leave it feeling sterile and impersonal. Warm whites can either cozy up your room or make it feel dingy due to the yellow undertones. Choose carefully so that you end up with a vibe you can live with.
Consider the favorites.
There are certain whites that pop up again and again on “best whites” lists. Benjamin Moore’s White Dove and Farrow & Ball’s Pointing are great warm and creamy whites. Pratt & Lambert’s Silver Lining is the perfect blend of cool and warm.
Main Image: Flickr
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YOU ARE IN VIOLATION OF COPYRIGHT!!! laurelberninteriors.com great-shades-white-paint.
(“best whites” lists.) <——– THAT LINK.
THE LINK NEEDS TO BE REMOVED FROM EVERY SINGLE WEBSITE IT'S POSTED ON. ASAP!
THAT IS MY POST AND YOU DO NOT HAVE PERMISSION TO USE IT ON DOZENS OF DUPLICATE COPIES. THAT IS AGAINST THE TERMS OF GOOGLE AND IT LOOKS LIKE I SOLD OUT.
NO! I WAS ROBBED!!! THIS IS NOT FUNNY AND IF YOU DO NOT COMPLY, I AM GOING TO HAVE TO TAKE ACTION THAT YOU ARE NOT GOING TO LIKE.
You tell them, Laurel!! That is outrageous and it needs to be removed or you need to be given credit!!
Hi Laurel,
Thank you for stopping by our blog. We appreciate your feedback and wanted to share a few things. The author of this post is passionate about contributing interesting and relevant content regarding home décor and renovations. When they came across your extremely informative blog post about how to choose the best white paint for your home, they found your expertise to be impressive, and linked to it in their blog post to direct our readers to your blog as a supplemental resource. Driving traffic to someone else’s blog is a benefit to them as it increases awareness for their content.
In addition, we just wanted to clear a few misconceptions up, no content was plagiarized or stolen from your website and we are not getting paid for clicks on links within articles on our blog. To alleviate your concerns we’ve removed the link & switched it out for an article on Houzz about choosing the right paint for your wall.
Thank you.
Alexandra,
You can drop the patronizing attitude. You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. Or else you do have an idea and are lying.
Either way, I am not “concerned.”
I am outraged!!!
This is not a natural link. Yes, that would be of benefit. It is replicated on dozens of OTHER realtor’s website. DUPLICATE CONTENT pointing back to my website which is against google’s terms of service.
If it were a natural link, it would be on one and only one website but it is not. And on top of it all, their would be attribution with MY NAME something like… We were so impressed with Laurel Bern’s great post on white paint. And the link would be under my name. But no, you used the key words and in quotes.
ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING.
Again. EACH AND EVERY LINK ON COLDWELL BANKER’S REALTOR’S INDIVIDUAL BLOGS pointing back to my post must be taken down. It is a slimy marketing tactic. I know that my post is ranked very high in SERPs. Why is it ranked high? Because as you said, it’s great content which I’ve promoted the heck out of.
What YOU are attempting to do is knock me off of my position and worse yet, have google penalize me because it looks to them like I sold my valuable link.
If only. You have no right to do this to people! Houzz, I couldn’t care less. They are corrupt too. You deserve each other.
Again, I am going to repeat. I expect all links pointing back to my website to be taken down by 5:00PM on Monday April 13th. If not, then I will have no other choice than to publicly shame you for your slimy marketing tactics.
Laurel
How unethial! Don’t stoop so low as to steal someone’s work and use it for your benefit. Whoever copied this post and passed it off as their work needs to be fired immediately.
The content above was written and stolen from Laurel Bern. Shame on you Caldwell Bank!!!