apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

the day i realized that white wasn't just white my head exploded.

Lol....I hope you're sitting down Pistachio because, black just isn't black either.

I never gave much thought to all of the white options until I started reading AT! And, I have to agree, my head almost exploded too....until I painted my open kitchen and dining room Benjamin Moore Decorators White this past weekend after seeing Victoria's kitchen transformation! I feel totally liberated now to re-accesorize with bright color and art against the white...woo hoo!

Best TIP ever:

Compare the white you choose to a pure white chip and look at the undertone. Is it pink? yellow? green? blue?
Then compare your choice to the color of your trim -- especially if the trim is a brighter shade of white.

I learned the hard way.

My labor day weekend started out so well when I selected what appeared to be a warm white from Benjamin Moore. Pottery Barn has great little palette of their favorite chips from BM -- complimentary in stores. I fanned it open, loved Acadia -- a nice neutral warm white -- and had some mixed that day. It worked with my fabric swatches and wood colors in natural day light, so I was convinced that it would work in the room, which gets lots of morning light. So I go home, prep, cut in, paint... all with this sinking awareness that the color is in fact a cool white with the palest celedon green undertone.

En masse, what looked like 2 square inches of warm white was in fact a beautiful shade of cool white. Great, if that's what you want. But I want a warm white for my carpet and wood colors (oatmeal and walnut).

I went back to look all of PB's recommendations and discovered that most of the white/beige/yellow colors they sugges have a subtle green undertone. UGH.

In the end it was a waste of money and my labor day weekend. I'm not happy to have to paint all over again. :-(

If I had compared the chip -- or better, a sample area on the wall -- to my lighter white trim, I would have noticed the green and picked another color.

I just painted my hallway with RL's cove point-- an off-white recommended by AT. It looks great! It reminds me of clean sand.

One of the things I love about Living Etc. magazine is that they typically mention the paint color and brand featured in their interiors editorial spreads.

Wish more US magazines did the same thing.