Paint color is so difficult to choose. My friend suggestd Aesthetic White. Any thoughts?

I used Behr Ultra Pure White (eggshell walls, satin trim) everywhere. It's very neutral so (IMO) it looks good with other, slightly different whites such as IKEA Besta "white" cabinets, Belldinni "Snow White" doors and "white" acrylic vanity tops. According to easyrgb.com*, the closest Sherwin-Williams equivalent color is SW 7757 Highly Reflective White.

*Original color name: "Ultra Pure White"; Define your choice: "Ultra Pure White in Behr color collection"; Search in this collection: "Sherwin-Williams ColorSnap"

If your furnishings are all on the cooler side, then Snowbound might work out well. You would need to check how it looks with the white used for the cabinets.

I considered Snowbound, but it was a bit too cool with all my warm toned furnishings and art.

Here are some rooms with Snowbound:

Washington Crossing Farmhouse · More Info

Kirkwood Addition/Renovation · More Info

Barrier Island House · More Info

1 Hillside · More Info

I love walls and trim all the same color, a fresher look that is so much less busy. Do not get dark floors, go for the medium. Dark floors are so yesterday plus they show every speck of dust and lint.

Mary, we just changed all our ceilings and trim from Aesthetic White to Snowboard. Had AW with Accessible Beige walls. AW comes across dingy to me and I tired of it and its grey undertone. Snowbound is a cleaner white but not loud white. If you have great natural light either can work well.

Meant Snowbound above.

Thank you all! I am still struggling. For me, paint color is the hardest decision.

• Sherwin Williams High Reflective White: a TRUE white paint colour?
• Sherwin Williams High Reflective White is Ideal for Your Next Project
• High Reflective White, Sherwin Williams’ Brightest White Paint

Mary, here. read through some of her articles. she breaks all the colors down for you. she has a specific article just for whites, here:

https://www.kylieminteriors.ca/the-ultimate-guide-to-choosing-white-paint-colours/

This is all the other colors:

https://www.kylieminteriors.ca/category/the-best-paint-colours/neutral-gray-greige-cream-and-white/

Pure White

https://www.kylieminteriors.ca/paint-colour-review-sherwin-williams-pure-white-sw-7005/

I have Creamy in my condo and Pure White trim. I also have Pure White walls and trim in my bathroom and laundry area. Creamy leans a little yellowish, but you wouldn't look at it and say the walls are yellow. I wouldn't hesitate to do Pure white/Pure white in a whole house.

I will agree that builders use crappy (often watered down) paint. We just moved in and repainted several areas. It also depends on the natural light in your house, the direction rooms face, etc.. A lot of factors. I initially picked one color, then snuck a look inside the house under construction next door to me (same model and layout) and HATED it, ended up changing it. I did extra white, we have a ton of windows and it’s a very contemporary home so we wanted bright white. I still love it, and repainted it the same color but changed from flat to a better grade paint that we called flat+ since I didn’t want a sheen. As others said, don’t stress too much because chances are you’ll repaint. The builder paint sucks.

Typically, I choose trim and ceiling in the same white as cabinets...semi-gloss on the trim and flat on the ceiling. Do you know which white is on the cabinets?

Your house is a production build, which means your choices are limited.

Save the upcharge for the second color. Pick the trim, let them throw same on walls.

This is NOT going to be the last time you paint those walls. Consider it to be the unseen cost in limited choice, production build. It's part of how they profit, and price a home you find palatable.

I use "throw" quite literally . A primer and a coat. It will barely survive the scuffs that occur in a move in. Get moved in, play with your decor......and yes, paint again where you like. Not the first day.

It's a very good idea TO REMEMBER, that NO MATTER how modest, how luxurious....?

Move in day is the beginning, not a nail in the coffin...........ending.

Life isn't HGTV.

judianna20 I don't know the color name. I have the selections brochure, but need to go to another vendor to pick the cabinets and havent been able to get my appointment yet. I know that I want white cabinets.

Go do that. Until you do that? Spell stuck.

In advance of the appointment? Take two white SW paints with you . Snowbound, Reflective. You will have painted those on an 8" x 10" poster card.........then go look at the cabinet sample whites with those in hand. Hopefully your counter top selections will be there as well.

Jan Moyer Thanks I will do that. The counter tops won't be there.

I like SW Snowbound for your situation.

Has anyone mentioned LRV?

• Windfresh 69
• First Star 69

These are pale wall colors

• Creamy 81
• Snowbound 82

These are soft off-whites but still white

• Extra White 86

A nice bright white but not harsh

I really appreciate everyone's help!!! Thank you!

Snowbound (see chart above) shows it has an LRV of 83. So nice white but not overly pure white.

My kitchen is SW Creamy and it definitely leans yellow. Go with the whites the pros are suggesting.

As Jan said, this is the first paint job. Move in, get settled and revisit this after you catch your breath.

Congratulations on your new home!!!

Of the whites available to you, Extra White is lovin' blues.

As suggested, go to S W and get samples of all the whites allowed; take them with you when you go to see the cabinets. This is important to get right because painting woodwork and ceiling is more expensive (man hours) than rolling walls.

Just in time, this charcoal blue sofa is on sale at Crate and Barrel. You could design a gorgeous room with it as inspiration.

Love this room...painted one area of the white wall blue to break up all the white. That's something you could do later on, either blue or what ever color you choose for a sofa.

Your builder will spray the walls and ceiling with a watered down flat paint version of whatever color your choose. They will bump up your trim to a semi gloss or gloss and likely hand brush this. Keep this in mind when choosing. Choose the color you want your trim to be because trim is harder and more expensive to change. Walls not so much. If you know you’re getting white cabinets can you find out the color of them? Choose your color based on what works the best with them.

Eliminate
first star it’s a gray.
Creamy way too yellow
Windsbreath is going to look greige

Your two choices are
Snowbound which is a beautiful white that can be calming because it absorbs just enough light to not be jarring.

Extra white also a good white although I would reserve it for trim and cabinetry.

A lot of cabinet companies who do cabinetry for productions homes use extra white as their stock cabinet color or chantilly lace by Ben Moore. If you know who makes the cabinets you can find out their colors.

Take snowbound and extra white samples with you to your selections appointments. You can get larger samples from Sherwin Williams. Go in with the intention of selecting the color for your trims and doors and choose which one best compliments your cabinets.

Design Interior South Does Sherwin Wiiliams have stick on samples?

Design Interior South I found the samples.

Yes they do make the larger peel and stick samples now. Not sure if they are an online order only or if you you can get them in store. I think it depends on the color and the store. Since the two colors are some of their most used you might be able to get them in store. Also Samplize is another option for you to order from. You will get a flat version from them. Not sure if you can choose flat or semi gloss from SW. if not you can buy actual samples and paint them on boards yourself.

Design Interior South They have free shipping for a limited time. The prices are better than Samplize. Thanks!

OH BTW, Except kitchen and bath, always go with Flat finish on the walls and Semi-gloss on the trim.

I don't know the extra charge for getting two colors, but I would most likely go with Extra White for the trim. It is the most neutral white that you can choose given your selection and it will work with most wall colors.

The others are not incorrect that the builder will paint with a low quality, thinly applied paint, but not everyone has the extra money or the time to re-paint immediately, so you may end up living with the paint for the next 5 or more years.

Extra White and Snowbound are both bright enough to generally be used as a trim color, but Snowbound does have a pink/taupe undertone that may not work as well as Extra White with many colors.

Here are some visualizations with Extra White Trim and each of your 5 color choices.

I would not do Extra White with Snowbound. I'm not in love with Extra White with Creamy, but I could live with it.

Now let's look at your choices as trim color with two popular greige wall colors (Agreeable Gray and Accessible Beige).

IMHO the colors other than Extra White and Snowbound are just not white enough to feel like white trim and have enough color that depending on what you decide to paint your walls they will possibly fight with the wall color.

For my own home I would probably pick Snowbound over Extra White, but my color palette (Furniture and belongings) has a lot of taupe, purple, wine reds and I have large pink brick fireplace. It isn't likely to scream pink with my color palette.

Your color is blue. I think Snowbound is risky with blues and the generally accompanying yellow or orange accents.

Extra White is also often chosen to go with marble as it does have a touch of gray that would be in the gray veining of a white/gray marble. Snowbound will be a bit too pink with marble.

______________________________

My sister just moved into an assisted living apartment complex. She was given limited choices for flooring, cabinets and counter tops. The only color trim they use throughout the building and apartments is Extra White. She could pick any wall color she wanted. We ended up choosing Natural Linen, as it was the best color with all of her furniture, worked well with the flooring, counter and cabinets. Extra white would not have been my first choice with Natural Linen, but honestly, it has enough contrast that it just looks like white trim. You don't notice the gray undertone and it doesn't look overly cool next to the Natural Linen.

If I could have chosen any trim I would have chosen Pure White with natural Linen. A bit less harsh, but Extra White is really not all that different that it was worth worrying about.

If the builder is going to spray builders-grade Sherwin-Williams Painters Edge paint, read the comments in this discussion before you agree to it. The use of this quality of paint is why the commenters above stated that their walls had to be repainted so soon.

What color are they painting the ceilings? Did they give you a choice for ceiling color?

Did they give you a choice for Sheen?

They generally like to do flat on ceilings and walls because it hides issues better than anything with any level of gloss.

With lower grade/builders grade paint the flat will not be washable at all.

I would choose an eggshell for the walls, flat for the ceiling and satin for the trim if the builder is allowing a choice.

If not you are stuck with what you get. If it is flat plan on painting sooner than if they offer eggshell.

You aren't going to get eggshell anything! Forget it! You are going to get cheap white ceiling flat, satin o trim, and flat on walls.

As I said earlier............the

limited choices are reflected in the production, assembly line build. This is not a critique of the op's resources. it is just Fact. Pick the trim, and get on with the one color. Do not give them an extra dime for what will be at best, a passable paint job. Money talks, everything else WALKS. THAT'S life. You pay up front, or you pay LATER

Jennifer Hogan The ceiling will be the same color as the trim.

Jan Moyer The paint is Sherwin Williams, do they water that down?

Mary, our home was done by builder using SW paint. All flat for ceilings and walls. Semigloss on trim. They typically spray paint (thinner) which to me is NOT like 2 good coats of rolled on. It was nice for about 3 years then I repainted myself the walls.

Every new house needs.......one coat of primer, TWO coats of finish paint in quality paint.

You aren't going to get it. You will get one primer and one finish coat.

I don't use SW. But Benjamin Moore has good, better, best. SW probably does too. Forget about "better and best" . And ask WHAT number of coats very specifically. Primer and one? Or primer and two. Bet on the first.

You won't get eggshell anywhere because it needs immaculately finished drywall to look good. They need the flat finish to get you to closing....and they don't need or want you pointing out flaws with a flashlight and Post it Notes. Welcome to reality.

We have a white with LRV of 86 that we used on walls and trim. It looks great. So if it were my choice I would go with Extra White with an LRV of 86 for the walls and for the trim. Flat for walls and semi-gloss for trim.

this is the floor I have picked with the kitchen cabinets. The perimeter will be the canvas color and the island will be cherry with a molasses stain. I am thinking of using Cambria Colton for the counter top. i am looking to paunt just one color for walls, trim and ceiling. Out of the five colors the builder allows the kitchen designer suggested Snowbound. I will habe to live with the color for awhile. Thanks in advance for your help.

Mary will ceilings be Snowbound as well? If so might be easier to change just wall colors down the road. Flooring and kitchen selections look dreamy!

Thank you! Yes, the ceiling would have to be the same color. Do you think Snowbound would look good?

Why do painters and contractors do this to people? i am so glad I had a custom GC. All the rooms are the colors I want them to be, and my trim is stained wood, not some paint. Yes, he didn't go with the quality of paint I specified (for which I was prepared to pay), but I don't have to repaint the place to get rid of the boring tidy-whities. I do understand them wanting all the walls the same color - saves on their costs, but any GCs reading this - why do you LIMIT folks to YOUR favorite choices of BLANDNESS? One paint color will cost the same as any other paint color!

Jan Moyer bathrooms should have eggshell. paint. quality. Any area that could potentially get wet should have eggshell quality. Yes, prepare to pay extra. Or, be prepared to re-paint to deal with bad GCs who follow a book of savings first... Of course, then, you can repaint in a color that really does appeal to you....

Truth? Bath should have Ben Moore Bath and Spa. Is she going to get it from a spec build ? No. She's not going to get latex eggshell finish from this guy, either.

Mary only you can say if the Snowbound looks good. I have it on all my ceilings and with limited natural light I like the softness look of it.

I think Snowbound is your best option, based on the options available.

It will be fine, it is a very nice white and will be a perfect place to start the lifelong journey of decorating your home.

Our house was built in 1979 as a tract home. We bought it in 1998. It still has just white primer on all interior walls. I'm not suggesting you settle for just primer, but take a white and then as soon as you are comfortable, paint your bathrooms and kitchen with a higher gloss if you are worried about it.

KL, u mean it had white primer on it when you bought it or after 25 yrs, it still has white primer?? lol If the latter, any reason why?

Hi Beth. Sigh... Our 1979 house had white primer on all interior walls when we bought it in 1998. So that's 19 years with the original owners not painting it. I had forgotten this more that, a couple years after we bought it, we had all the downstairs painted an off-white, still not realizing that was the first finish coat. I realized it when I was washing walls upstairs after finishing the downstairs. Then we went through some years thinking we would move. Now we have plans to gut the upstairs which will never see more than primer I guess.

Beth, I think the answer to the way is partly a busy life focused on teenagers and jobs. Partly that my mom painted all walls white and it looked fine to me. I only feel stupid now that I know it was primer.

KL, no judgement here. I was just kidding. if you didn't know it was primer and was fine w/the white paint, no big deal.

I just can't imagine not painting in all that time . I have literally painted every wall in this house at least 7 times.

Beth, don't worry. No judgement felt. I just feel like laughing at myself sometimes. Finally after years of neglect, our house is getting the care it deserves. I'm really enjoying the process of making our home nice.