White is a popular color in home design and home décor right now. As people are spending more time at home, they want their living spaces to feel clean and open, and fresh. White is a common choice for this goal, and it can make for a beautiful, minimalistic feeling in any room.
While white is very on-brand for 2021, it does come along with some considerations that many people do not think about when they pick it. If you are considering white for your home remodel or home refresher, this article will get you started with a great set of white counters that will stand the test of time.
Once you have picked out some gorgeous counters, you need to move on to planning the rest of your color scheme.
Things to Know About Painting Your Walls White
White is a gorgeous color and it can bring light and brightness to even the darkest room. However, there are some things that you should think about before you paint your walls white. Some of them are considerations that people don’t often think about until after they have painted their entire home or a whole room white.
Regular White Paint Will Not Clean Well
If you are going to paint a high-traffic area, you have to pick semi-gloss or gloss paint. If you do not, you will struggle to get marks or smudges off your paint. This can be especially important if you have young people living in the house. Teens like to drag their hands on walls and little kids might color on your white paint.
Picking the right white paint type can save you headaches and can also prevent the need to repaint all of the rooms or high-traffic areas of your home later.
Not All White is True White
Many people think that any white paint is white and that is that. This is not really true though, as very few shades of paint will be stark white. Almost all white paints will have an undertone of cream or grey in varying degrees.
This means that you need to be sure to get color swatches of the whites that you are considering and make sure that the white paint you pick will match your white counters or will look nice in your rooms. The amount of light that a room gets can really affect the white paint that you choose and can change how it appears to you depending on the time of day.
White Color Can Yellow
Always make sure to purchase quality white paint. This is because white paints can react to sunlight or to other elements in your home and can yellow. If you pick a lower-quality paint, you may be faced with the need to repaint all of your rooms to get the yellow out.
White is a color that will also show cooking grease and smoke damage from being near a fireplace, so add white paint to walls in your kitchen and living room with this in mind. A good quality white paint will not be affected by these features of your home, but cheap paint might.
White can be Peaceful
White, while bright in color, has been linked in studies to better sleep and to peaceful feelings. If you have been rejecting white as a color option for your home or your kitchen, you might be cheating yourself out of a great mood pick-me-up.
Many people think white is actually an active color and choose not to have white walls anywhere in their home. Studies show the opposite, in fact, so if you want to add white to your home, you can do without fear of making the room uncomfortable for peaceful activities.
Use Various Tones of White
If you are feeling frustrated because your chosen white paint doesn’t look great on one half of the room due to a lack of daylight or other factors, never fear! You can solve this problem by selecting a white paint a few shades darker or lighter for that side of the room. Using two or more shades of white will make the entire room look good.
White shades are so close that you often can barely see the difference between them, even on paint swatches. This means that the undertone of a varying shade might work better with a darker side of the room. You will never be able to tell that the walls of the room are not all painted the same white color and the visual effect will be much more uniform.
Adjust Your Lighting to Match
If you have chosen the perfect white paint and it looks great in most of the house but blah in rooms without natural light, don’t get upset. You can solve this issue by adjusting your lighting. Artificial light can affect white paints more than other colors.
If your lighting or lamps in a room are fighting with your white paint, switch them out for brighter lights that don’t cast a yellow tone on your walls. Adjusting the lighting in your home can actually improve any paint color that you choose, so white is not really unique in this way.
Upkeep
No matter which color of white you pick, you will have to do some upkeep on your white walls. There is no color of white paint that will not be more prone to showing grime, handprints, and other signs of wear and tear.
Thankfully, there are simple methods for washing your white walls that are not time-consuming, assuming you chose semi-gloss or gloss paint. A bucket of diluted all-purpose cleaner that is non-abrasive, and a sponge or towel can take care of most of your needs. If you have stubborn areas that grime naturally collects like areas near doorways or light switches, a non-abrasive pad or eraser tool can clean things right up for you.
White is a Great Choice
White paint is a great choice for any room in your home, and the advent of latex paints and gloss paints has also made it a practical choice. If you have been trying to decide if white is the right color for your home, now is the time to get some paint swatches and start planning to repaint your home in this beautiful color.
