New house has warm wood floors so a cooler white, SW Origami

Lafayette · More Info

There is nothing in the house currently but I can see how it looks with wood samples... maybe some tiles.

Do some research about undertones, reflection, and also lighting. They all impact how a white appears to the eye.

The Kylie M Interiors website has lots of good info about this.

^Agree with deegw…check Kylie M. Whites can be tricky. This is just one of several links she has for whites.

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

To follow up on the above, here is Kylie M's website: https://www.kylieminteriors.ca/ She has a blog posting on almost everything you'd ever want to know about paint colors.

Educating yourself about whites can be a bit of a black hole. But, it can save you from looking at your finished product and getting a sinking feeling because it just doesn't look "right".

Does the ceiling have to be a different white?

I would not have used the warm white on the exterior of that home.

It is a crazy color of stucco called 'floral white'. In the direct sunshine it loses most of the overly yellow color and it's more interesting. Its very close to the inspo pic Beth H. posted in my previous stucco thread. You can see the old paint color on the wall in the lower right. It was a white with grey tones that made all the metal trim and dyed cement steps look a little cold and industrial. Now the metal looks blue (and a little overly pretty) but it's interesting. I like it on sunny days quite a bit, luckily it's SoCal. Today it is raining and and its probably the color of butter!

artificial light and natural light play a bigger role in choosing white(s).

it's always relatice your YOUR light. everyone has a favorite in their space, different than yours.

Sample in 24 hours of light, for sure. Exterior applications will always look lighter than interior.

Yes, the exterior does set the tone for what to expect on the interior.

Well, my lighting will be directed at the walls in most areas because of a lot of artwork so that is a darn good point. The recommended color temperature for lighting art is 2700k but I may bump that up to 3000k.

May be Simply White BM?

Here's SW Snow White and SW Extra White with most of the tiles used throughout the property. Is the Snow White too bright? They are are outside in overcast skies in the photo. Second one is the Snow White sample standing in the shampoo niche.... that's primer on the walls.

Is it a matter of the white being there to highlight the surroundings or should the white blend? Specifically the tile for example.

My two go-to whites are Benjamin Moore Simply White, and Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace. The former is a neutral white--not too warm, not too cool--and the latter is a brigther white.

Simply White:

Chantilly Lace:

That KylieM website is incredibly helpful. Thank you. All of my living space light comes from my 12 foot wide side yard which has a 7 foot wall around it. It’s a western exposure. I think I need the boost of a bright white like Snow White. So hard to tell because the drywall mud is yellow and against that it looks too cool, but up against the walls that have the white primer, you can see the warmth of it.

Here’s the place in direct sun. The color is crazy pretty. Maybe I need to take the interior color a shade warmer because of the exterior?

White? Are you sure? This house is in your ideabook.

Highlands #2 · More Info

Saved that because of the poured cement terracing. I can’t imagine having a dark house heating up the interior in relentless sun.

The Kylie website says BM Simply White and SW White snow are comparable... I'll get a sample of Simply white tomorrow to see how it compares in warmth.

@Paul F what brand(s) do you have access to. I have Sherwin Williams because there is a nearby store all the contractors love. See if you can stick with one brand when asking for advice for a particular paint color. 

All I see are pictures of SW White Snow. I liked your collection of materials. That was helpful. Just substitute the different paint color options.

The white needs to be pleasing in and of itself, not just as an accent. I think that was one of your questions. 

No, you don't have to paint the ceiling a different white, especially with your style house. But you could. In fact, you could paint different rooms in different whites. Or all the same. It depends on whether you want to draw attention to one room, perhaps as a quiet refuge. Easiest, simplest thing is all one color.

I should have made a million dollars on this, which my painter coined a name I won't share.

Make a mix of 2/3 Ben Moore "Decorator White" and ONE third Ben Moore "Linen White"

Don't ask why it's virtually fail safe. Clean, good coverage, no peach, no yellow, no gray, no icy tone. Just really clean and bright, a wonderful backdrop for art.

I just did it after a test run of virtually every white mentioned above for a client.

" Don't get a swelled head, but this looks fantastic- I loooove it."

"Moyer Melange"? Yes, I guess I didn't say but my collection of material photos show TWO different whites. I was looking for a direction... contrast or blend? The one on the left is White Snow and the right is called Extra White... a cooler white.

@Paul F now I see...duh. I hope you make up Jan's mix and try it out.

I wish I could experiment a little but my painter would make me sign a waiver about impercise mixing of paint over the almost 4000 sqft, I'm sure. I have straight edging going on today to get the walls as perfect as possible then its a primer touch up, then paint next week.

https://www.southernliving.com/home/colors/sherwin-williams-pure-white

Sign the damn waiver. Beacause if he takes those "instructions " To a Ben Moorse Hardware store? They are going to create the formula, which I can NOT find at the moment. : )

Do it in Regal Select flat.

I got the sample of simple white and I see it’s slightly more warm than white snow. Since I am using 2700° kelvin for the lighting, I think maybe I should opt for the cooler of the 2.

I actually think my yellowish lighting will need the less yellow white snow.

Of the options you posted @Paul F I also like the SW White Snow.

@Paul F I still think it couldn't hurt to try Jan's mix. I mean, if you absolutely love it and make sure that each room has just one "batch" of the desired mix, what's the harm if they don't match exactly? The rooms will vary in appearance anyway because of different lighting and objects in each. And if you don't absolutely love it, you have SW White Snow as back-up.

Simply White and White Snow are two markedly different colors of white. They're similar in terms of luminance (Value and LRV) but so are most all colors of white/off-white.

@K L I would try but Jan has an 'idea' about a color but no formula. It would be a miracle to recreate it by guessing how much 1/3 is. Or is it a thing you can tell a paint store... 1/3 of this and 2/3's of that??

@Paul F OK. That's fine. So is it going to be SW White Snow? Pretty exciting.... You have a really beautiful home. So sorry about the fire. I sure hope that NEVER happens again.

Thank you! Because of my lighting being on the yellow side I think the white snow is the way to go. Because of city code upgrades it can't happen again because I have interior sprinklers now... well not nearly as bad as it did. Nice that I've been able to get things like car chargers and updated infrastructure in place but wouldn't wish it on anyone. Make sure you have enough coverage and code upgrades!

Kylie M Interiors website kind of let me down. She directly compared Highly reflective white and White snow as if they were somewhat in the same world. She said "White Snow isn’t obviously warm or cold, and in the words of the Late Great Goldilocks, it’s juuuuust right. Okay, so maybe it caters to a very minor warmth, but it’s negligible – and that’s an overstatement." Ummm, no.

My room was painted in White Snow and in person ended up looking buttery yellow or bone. I had to stop and switch to SW Highly Reflective white to lose the overly warm tone. In the photo below they've resprayed the ceiling with highly reflective white and it is a night and day difference compared to the White Snow on the walls. My predominantly western light would have made the room Amber at certain times of day.

@Paul F sorry to hear the white was disappointing. I have used SW Ceilings Bright White a lot. It supposedly has a hint of blue. No warmth. I've read the SW Highly Reflective White is the purest white. Good luck, and thanks for reporting back.

In order to describe color appearance, the light source MUST be defined.

A framework of color descriptions under a defined light source is a color appearance model - human color appearance model - that's what makes it FACTUAL color.

A factual framework of color descriptions is a point of departure or baseline for understanding a color's characteristics and predicting how a color could ACTUALLY show up.

It is a system to manage Factual and Actual Color.

Everything else is just someone's subjective opinion of what the color ACTUALLY looks like - to them - under whatever light source they're using, in whatever context they happen to be in.

It's also why everything "undertones" is meaningful only to the individual using the term to articulate how they're experiencing a particular color - "undertones" doesn't scale beyond an individual color perception.

@Paul F somehow I got so distracted by everyone's answer that I didn't really read the question until today. Or maybe life has been distracting...

Anyway, my house exterior is various shades of chocolate and cocoa with dark red shutters, front door and a little trim around the garage doors. And there's lots of green outside with plants. I focus on purples and reds for flowers. 

So for the interior, I have to choose a color too. Do I choose a pale cocoa white? I read chocolate is pink at its core. Do I choose SW White Flour? I read it is a little pink. Or do I stick with SW Ceiling Bright White with it's hint of blue? Or both? I can use CBW for windows doors and ceilings and WF for my walls where I want white walls, like my front entry and hallway. 

For my floors I want a chocolate brown stone and wood all through the house. I just LOVE that color. And it goes well with the otherwise analogous color scheme I like: evergreen, spruce, teal, indigo, abergine. 

Does it sound silly to you that I wanted chocolate inside and out? Does it sound silly to you that I would switch from red outside to those cool colors inside?  

I have seen plenty of marshmallows that were pure cool white on the inside and golden on the outside. I think they are lovely, especially with a few areas of caramel brown. 😁 What do you think about a warm white outside and a cool white inside? Will you forever dream of marshmallows at a campfire?

I like the Marshmallow analogy! I have the ability to change the color without a problem right now. First pic is SW White Snow and the second is SW Highly reflective white. The mottled exterior wall is a heavily worked smooth stucco called Floral White. What do you all think?

@Paul F my gut reaction is that I like SW Highly Reflective White. No logic, no reason.  I'm  going to try to persuade anyone. What does your gut say?

I had a realtor stop by and she didn't like the HRWhite, then a landscape architect said it looked like primer. :(

In this photo I thought I'd like BM Alabaster but its too yellow. The lighter sample is BM Chantilly Lace. The HRW looks warmer in the photos as it reflecting the sunset. I'll re-photograph tomorrow when the sun is stronger.

Over 20 yrs ago we painted our house interior BM Simply White. In tests it looked like a grand color but I never really liked it.

We just got done painting the whole interior BM Super White. I LOVE it! We get a ton of natural light and it has a crisp modern feel during the day with natural light. In the evening with 3000K LED lights it reads more warm and creamy. We are going with a modern minimalist theme and BM Super White fits the bill.

We added black and brushed nickel light fixtures, linear fireplace and other elements that fit a modern theme. So far I'm delighted with all the choices we have made.

@Paul F I saw this article and liked it because it shows EXTERIOR examples. https://graceinmyspace.com/best-exterior-white-paint-colors/

The trend in "whites" is towards pinkish whites being called "warm" but a white with a red, orange, or yellow undertone is "warm". In your pictures I see a yellow undertone exterior. Is that what you want? Or would you like to update with a pinkish undertone? Or be different with an orange undertone? 

For interiors, I like to choose a white that coordinates with the wood trim and floors and cabinets, especially if there is wood trim. You can have yellow, orange, or pink (chocolate) stains on woods. I'm trying to look through your other posts to see what you have. Can't find any.

Thank K L! Since the Highly Reflective White is too white and the White Snow is too yellow I mixed the two at about 50% parts. I think the mix is what I'm looking for. Still warm and bright but the overt yellow is gone.

My Mix next to Alabaster on a White Snow wall.

Great! That's not what Jan suggested eons ago, is it?

Well kind of. Jan said she had a mix... 2/3's this 1/3 that but couldn't find the formula. I didn't have the confidence to try it myself until now and boom... the perfect white by combining 50/50 SW HRW and SW White Snow. It took off the yellow cast of White Snow and cancelled the starkness of HRW, I love it. Maybe Jan can find the formula so I can try it in my north facing unit with the totally different quality of light. NOW, I realize that mixing is likely the way to go when nothing seems quite right.

@Paul F congratulations! That's fairly gutsy!

Thanks! Now what finish for the recessed baseboards, door frames and doors? Semi-gloss? I was thinking of just using the same color.

@Paul F since you are using a white paint color, you can go with this guide generally.https://www.sherwin-williams.com/homeowners/sw-article-dir-selectingafinis

But here is another: https://www.sherwin-williams.com/architects-specifiers-designers/inspiration/styles-and-techniques/sw-art-gloss-sheen-differences

The second guide says that white and light paints look lighter and brighter with higher gloss levels. Makes sense really.

I read a lot of recommendations to use a gloss level one step higher than the wall gloss level. Note the first guide includes woodwork, doors, trim in all gloss levels but flat. I don't know the difference between "woodwork" and "trim" and "wood trim" in their guide. They do the same thing with doors. What's the difference between woodwork, closet doors and doors in this guide?

I've also read the general recommendation for flat paint on ceilings... period... Except when you want to bounce light off it into the home interior. And flat on walls except for rooms that might see more dirt and need more cleaning such as bathrooms, kitchens, insides of closets, hallways. And then choose your trim one gloss level higher. Then save the high gloss for perfectly smooth surfaces you want to draw attention to. 

Really there's a lot to read on this. I read what I could to figure out what gloss level to use in my laundry closet and bathroom. 

Even I'm giving TMI now...😁