Some think that white paint is just white paint… I wish. When I’m choosing white paint colors for others homes I often shock them when I bring in white options & they see how many great white paint colors there are. I LOVE white paint and I’ve found myself becoming pretty passionate about playing with different white paint colors in different spaces and on different pieces of furniture. In my curiosity I asked a few weeks ago what YOUR favorite white paint colors were & I compiled the most submitted ones below. I went a step beyond & I put all the swatches of your favorite white paint colors on my wall in our kitchen to demonstrate for you. Also: We are painting the walls in our office, kitchen, & front living room. Why you ask? Well, the short answer is they just need it. The little bit longer answer is that we patched a lot of nail holes and we wanted all the rooms to be the same paint color on the main level so we have been busy painting all week in between diaper changes & work, but today it’s not about our house.. it’s about the white paint colors you guys chose. So without further ado.. here are your favorite white paint colors that you submitted to me on Instagram:
Can you believe those are all “white” paint colors?! I didn’t edit the photos in any way so the colors looked true to what they were. Of course they will look different in everyone’s home, but this is how they looked in ours in the raw. Now a couple of those were more “neutrals” that people submitted, but it was really nice as a comparison and these may look more “white” in other homes that do not have true white walls like we have. These samples were all put on a wall that is true white by Magnolia Home that carries a very neutral undertone and doesn’t read yellow, tan, pink, or gray. Here are the color as listed in order left to right…
WHITE PAINT COLORS:
- Pure White – Sherwin Williams
- Chantilly Lace – Benjamin Moore
- Cotton White – Sherwin Williams
- Pearly White – Sherwin Williams
- Silky White – Behr
- Bistro White – Valspar
- Dover White – Sherwin Williams
- Simply White – Behr
- Alabaster – Sherwin Williams
- Pale Oak – Benjamin Moore
- White Dove – Benjamin Moore
- Swiss Coffee – Behr
below: - Soft Wool – Valspar
- Antique White – Behr
There were a few more, but these were the ones that showed up the most so if you love hearing “crowd favorites” here are the crow favorite whites if you were looking for them. I LOVE hearing what other paint colors that people love.. so this was especially fun for me & you know I couldn’t keep it to myself. We did pick one of these whites to paint our walls so I will be sharing that in a separate post.
After years of living with Classic Taupe on our walls, I just started repainting the whole inside of our home (ceiling to baseboards) Polar Bear White by Behr. It is amazing the transformation a coat of paint can do for a home!
Crazy how whites can look from one house to another. I am painitng my living/dining room/kitchen in BW Pale Oak. We are also getting our trim, doors, wainscotting below our bar, and mantel repainted white and seeing all these together helps me with what white would look good with BW Pale Oak. When I look at the swatch from the store, I was worried that the PO wouldn’t pop but picking the right trim “white” will surely make it noticeable. I’m leaning towards the true white by Magnolia Home for my home because of your photos!
Ahhhhhh!!!! What did you choose?? I can’t take the suspense!! ?
It’s amazing how many different whites there are to choose from at the store. I have Swiss Coffee throughout my whole house, and to me it’s very white. But, when I look at it on your wall compared to the other whites it looks kinda tan. Thanks for doing this- it is fun to see!
Just did my planked kitchen ceiling in Chantilly Lace and it is such a beautiful, crisp white. It brightens up the whole space.
I love this so much… thanks for always doing such great things to share with us!
I am on the hunt for the perfect white for our kitchen cabinets. This is so much help, thanks.
Swiss Coffee by Behr has been my go to for years
Thank you for posting this! We had to decide paint colors last week and choose the Dover White for the exterior of our house. They just finished painting today and it looks great going from a faded hunter green to a warm white. I am sure this post will help many in the future.
It looks like you used Behr paint for all your samples, with the SW, V, BM formulas. I have found this isn’t a true example of the color, even though the formula is correct . I used Pearly White from SW paint store and it is lighter. I had used Ralph Lauren paint in my dining room and living room and since it was discontinued, Home Depot had the exact formula and put it in Behr paint. It was a much darker color .
Alabaster white is in our playroom ❤️
So true, Janet.
Each paint company has their own proprietary bases, and the bases do impact how the final color appears when one company trues to match a color using another company’s formula. SW bases are different from Behr, V, BM, F&B, etc.
If I want a specific color I always buy from the original company.
Dang old fingers.
Each paint company has their own proprietary bases, and the bases do impact how the final color appears when one company tries to match a color using another company’s formula. SW bases are different from Behr, V, BM, F&B, etc.
If I want a specific color I always buy from the original company.
Love this! Thanks! Our paint guy suggest alabaster and I
Love it!
I’m doing polar bear also – I painted servers rooms before realizing polar bear looked best white but not blue or yellow ?
Another vote for Polar Bear white! It’s what we used on all our shiplap walls and trim. Also looks amazing with subway tile we purchased from Home Depot.
Hey!I just wanted to let you know I mentioned this post in one of my blog posts because I used the coffee lover tin idea last year. Here is a direct link to the post if you would like to check it out
I’ve also learned the hard way that the direction the room is facing can make a huge difference. For instance, our north-facing rooms can’t handle Alabaster-it just washes them out and gives a dreary appearance all day. However, our south-facing rooms look beautiful.
Can’t wait to see which white you decided on. We are about to paint our great room. Thank you so much for the comparisons. So very helpful.
It looks like all the paint samples were done in Behr paint. When choosing paint I got samples the Sherwin Colors in both Behr paint and Sherwin Williams paint to see if there was a difference. There was a difference in Alabaster-the Behr paint was a bit warmer, more yellow In the color Silver Strand the difference was tremendous-the SW sample looked like paint chip, a soft gray with blue/green undertones. The Behr sample was a bright(!!!) blue with a touch of green and maybe gray undertones.
Looking at the Alabaster strip on the wall it looks much darker than the SW Alabaster I painted on white paper to hang up and test in different parts of my room. After painting walls it looks white even in a room with warm light from south and west windows.
I learned that even if various companies can copy formulas from each other, they are starting with different bases.
Regardless, picking the right white takes time because they vary so much!
Two of my favs made the list:
White Doce by Benjamin Moore
Alabaster by Sherwin Williams
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I used Valspar Du Jour- It reads as a neutral white- no tone at all! the morning and afternoon sun in different parts of the house is very pretty. The color of the paint is like milk white. The bathroom has SW White Cotton- minimal blue tone but pretty much white.
Getting ready to paint the outside of our remodel @thewhiteantlercottage I want a creamy tonal white with bright white trim, light shutters in a very light maybe blueish color… Any suggestions?
I love the Soft Wool. I love color though.
We did chantily lace for our cabinets and ceilings and it’s awesome! Super bright and crisp makes the kitchen feel large.
I used BM’s Pale Oak in my living room and hallway. I love it. It changes color throughout the day. I wouldn’t consider it a white, though. It’s light greige.
My favorite white, which I used on my shiplap is Behr’s Ultra Pure White. It’s super bright, clean, and has no undertones. I don’t understand why people love Simply White so much. It looks yellowish to me.
I agree. If you want a SW color, go to SW. If you want BM, get BM. Same with all the others. The matches are not a match.
What color did you choose for your own home?
I am dieing to know the color you chose!
Hello,
Need to choose a paint color by Friday May 10th.. does anyone on this feed know the color @lizmarie uses in her home?? I asked but she must be super busy…I Want a neutral white.. have earth-tones in kitchen and walls can’t handle Chantilly unfortunately. 🙁
I did a search for “paint colors” on her site. Lots of info here:
https://www.lizmarieblog.com/page/2/?s=paint+colors