Let's talk white paints, shall we? Whites can be the most beautiful paint colors for a room but can also be the most difficult color to choose. There are pure, crisp and bright whites that are great for modern minimalist spaces or eclectic rooms where you want your bold patterns or colors to pop but if you go too cool, your room will end up looking feeling cold and clinical. Warm whites have yellow undertones and can warm up a space, making it feel both bright yet cozy at the same time but veer to far and you end up with a buttery yellow. Cool whites have a slight blue undertone and are admittedly, a bit colder looking and not nearly as inviting as a soft or warm white and then there are the whites with a brown or grey undertone that really don't count as white as all compared to a true white...how do you even begin to choose?!

There are whites with purple, green, pink, blue, yellow and all kinds of other undertones that if you're not expecting them - can really make for a bit of a shock if you think you're about to paint your walls white and end up with a purple looking room instead. So if you're looking to pick a white or off white paint color, here's a few of my tips to keep in mind...

Tips For Picking White Paint

1. Compare to White Paper

When you start to look at white paints it sometimes helps to have a true white to compare to. When you're just looking at a sample you might miss a particular undertone unless you can place it next to a sheet of white paper as a comparison. This is really helpful for making sure you don't end up with an undesired undertone to your white.

2. Use Daylight

Again, to get the truest sense of the white you're looking at (or any color really) it's best to look at the paint in daylight. Obviously you want to check the colors in the room you're planning to paint but always check your paint colors in true daylight (take them outside!) first to catch all of the subtleties in your colors.

3. Grab Samples

The tip I ALWAYS tell my clients is once you've picked your color or narrowed it down to two, spend the $5 and go buy a tester sample. Paint chips are never 100% true as the finish on a sample swatch is different than the finish of paint so the color will show slightly differently. In whites, these slight differences can be crucial so for the few minutes it takes to do a few swatches, it's worth the piece of mind before you get started on painting a whole room or house!

True Story - I once had a client who painted their living room 4 TIMES before they finally decided to hire a decorator and called me in for a color consult. They would have saved so much time and money if they'd even just bought a small sample to try on the walls before painting their whole room. To this day this situation still blows my mind! haha

4. Check the Colors Throughout the Day

Once you've painted your test swatch, check in on the color throughout the day. It's totally normal for your paint colors to look different in the morning, vs the afternoon and then into the evening; not to mention how it looks in natural daylight vs your interior lights. Make sure you don't love how your color looks in the morning but hate it when it's dark outside and all you have is your interior lighting. Especially if you're painting a whole room or house, these tips make a big difference and can end up saving you time and money if you have to repaint!

_____

Now, why am I talking about white paint today? When James and I were building our home we decided to paint the entire interior the same bright white color with the understanding that a few of the rooms would be painted after we moved in. The paint we chose is a slightly cool, fresh, bright white that's wonderful for our modern and eclectic vibe throughout most of the house but our guest room was another story. We chose to go in a very different route design wise with our spare room. Keeping in mind who would likely be staying with us the most we wanted our spare room to be cozy, a bit more traditional and most importantly, incredibly comfortable (and beautiful of course!). So, once we began furnishing and decorating our spare room the bright white that was in there started to feel a bit too cold.

I'm all for a bright and fresh space but our more transitional feminine style in our guest bedroom called for a softer shade than what was in there. Enter Canadian Tire's Premium Paints. We have a Canadian Tire less than 15 minutes away from our place so one night while strolling through the store we started to look at the paint colors and decided it was time to cozy up that space.

After a few days of checking the colors in different lights we settled on Alpine Snow, a very subtle grey/white that had the perfect depth to the shade and really softens up the room. One gallon was all we needed and in a weekend, we managed to repaint the space to completely transform the feel of the room. We used the Premier Infinity paint which was so great to work with. It dried fast, didn't smell and the coverage was fantastic which made for a hassle free weekend project!

It's amazing how the subtleties in white paint can make such a drastic difference. When you see the difference between the soft shade of the Arctic White walls next to the trim & door (which was also the wall color before) you can see what a difference varying shades of white can make.

So if you're planning to paint a room in your home a white or off-white shade, remember: take your time, remember your light and get your samples. Do you have a go-to white or off white paint that you love? What do you think of our spare bedroom revamp?