How To Select The Best White Paint Color

Photo Credit: Emily Henderson 

​​Back when I talked about the best paint colors to use to sell your home, I asked if it would be helpful to talk about how to pick white paint colors. A few of you said yes! So, today I’m telling you my two big tips on selecting white paint colors, showing you my four favorite white paints to use, and giving some other tips for picking any paint color. 

My biggest tip in selecting a white paint is to take cues from the rest of the space and pick a white that plays off the color tones of everything else. Every white paint color is going to have some sort of a color undertone. For example if your room has very warm and rich wood floors, and furnishings, you’d want to pick a white that has a slight warm undertone to it (red, orange, yellow). Creating a spa bathroom with cool colored tiles? You guessed it, select a white that has a cooler undertone (blue, green, purple). If you keep this basic principal in mind, you’ve already pretty much won the battle of picking a white paint color. 
 
My second big tip is in the vast majority of cases you don’t want to use a pure bright white paint color. Why not? Well, it will feel too stark and cold, or if you’re painting a dark room it will look blue and dingy. Pick a white paint that is a shade down (darker) from pure white. 
 
Some of my favorite white paints are used in the images below. Normally I’d just show you a swatch of each paint color, but how boring would it be to just look at one white swatch after another?

Oxford White CC-30 Benjamin Moore
This is a good neutral white that can be used with both warm and cool tones.​

Image Credit: sfgirlbybay

​Polar Bear 75 Behr 
Another neutral white that leans a little more on the warm side. 

Image Credit: Behr 

​Paper White OC-55 Benjamin Moore 
A brighter white with a gray/green undertones 

Photo Credit: Benjamin Moore

​Alabaster SW 7008 Sherwin Williams 
A creamy white with a slight yellow undertone. 

​Photo Credit: Studio McGee

​Hot Tips On Selecting Any Paint Color:

• Test the color on as large of a surface as possible. It’s hard to get the feel of a color from a small paint chip. I recommend getting samples of your top paint choices and painting large tag boards of each color. That way you can move the samples around to different places in the room. 
• Look at the paint colors in all lighting situations. Color can look dramatically different at any given time of the day, and with the lights on and off. 
• Paint sheen matters for both looks and durability. Matte/flat paint hides flaws pretty well and absorbs light, but is not durable at all. I swear you look at matte paint and it scuffs. Matte paints can look darker. Higher sheen paints don’t hide much, but they do bounce light around the room and are much more durable.
• Don’t feel like you can tell the undertones of a white paint? Hold the paint chip up next to a white sheet of paper and you’ll be better able to see the undertone color.

 
Personally I love the crispness of an all white room. There is so much versatility in how you can design the rest of the room. Do you have a favorite white paint color you swear by? Let me know down in the comments below.