Thursday, July 23, 2009

The perfect white paint

If you've tried to choose a white wall color, I suspect that you've sat in front of the display and felt like you wanted to throw your hands up. How do you choose? Who knew there were so many different shades? And what if I (gasp) pick the wrong one?

When it was time to choose ours, I took to the internet to get opinions, but that was equally as confusing as you consider individual preferences and styles. Back at the store, I selected my top 5 (of course it took me an hour to get down to 5) to trial on the walls. I was astounded by how different each "white" was on the walls. At the end of the day, we settled on Benjamin Moore's White Dove (OC-17) and I love it. (As if my life would have been turned upside down if we were one shade different).

Benjamin Moore's White Dove (not in the best lighting)

This morning I came across the incredibly talented Vicente Wolf's blog. He was posed this exact question...how to choose the perfect white. He consistently chooses Benjamin Moore's Super White, as he feels it is the most neutral white. I thought this was a good little insider tip from the top of the design world. (Oh why couldn't he have blogged about this before I spent far too many hours of my life worrying about the right shade of white?).

Benjamin Moore's Super White (notice a difference? didn't think so)

So no, I'm absolutely not worried about our white. It's great in our house. But apparently I did feel compelled to contribute to the internet chatter on finding the perfect white. If anyone is facing this dilemma, just thought you might be interested. This is also a good article on the different hues on the most popular whites if you're still not certain. Good luck!

2 comments:

MaryBeth said...

Those stairs are great with the white outside runner. MB

Permi said...

We're going through the same exercise right now - trying to find the right white for our house. I'm going to try the one you found Jenny, as well as the Super White. My question is can I paint white over a dark mustard color (which I hate, by the way)? Does anyone know...
Permi