Best Soft White Paint Colors | Interior Design 

Hi Kathryn! Wow, beautiful combo! Thanks for sharing your experience! ~Liz

My pleasure! I’m so happy it helped!

Hi Karen! It's my pleasure. Thanks so much for sharing your experience with these colors. It's great to hear how you used them and how they're working out for you. ~Liz

My pleasure! That's so great to hear. I'm always learning from other design professionals as well.

Thanks, Cha!

You're very welcome, Mary Kay! I'm glad you found your color. It's beautiful! ~Liz

My pleasure! I'm so glad it was helpful 😊

My pleasure!

Thank you!

Hi Khaled! Thank you! Cheers! ~Liz

So happy you liked it! For the Parisian apartment look, I've seen everything from a crisp white to deeper almost beigey tones. It really depends on the existing fixed finishes like flooring, fireplaces, etc., any existing furniture and furnishings and the look you're going for i.e. crisp and clean vs warm and cozy or somewhere in between. I think this could be a really good topic for an upcoming video! ~Liz

Thanks, Fran! Greek Villa is a great color! Yes, testing is key! ~Liz

Hi Michell! Welcome! It sounds like your fixed finishes like your cabinets and countertops are on the warm side so going with something with a little warmth like a beige or creamy white would work well.

Thanks! Alabaster is pretty light so I like the idea of using the same color for ceiling and trim, flat sheen on the ceiling and maybe satin sheen on the trim if you're going with flat or matte on the walls. That will give you some contrast even though it's the same color. Chantilly Lace will provide some color contrast if you want to go lighter and brighter on the ceiling and trim. Pure White is too close in LRV to Alabaster and looks too cool next to it. I hope that helps!

So interesting. I, too, have mixed leftover paints with good results but I still recommend testing samples out to be sure. It's a big commitment especially if you have tall ceilings.

@@BalanceRhythm oh gosh yes! With the price of paint and the work it takes you want to be happy in the end. Just wanted people to know if the undertone is not perfect, they may not notice once decorative touches are complete

@@justmejo9008 Thanks so much for sharing your experience!

I somehow agree with you. I had my southeastern apartment painted White Dove. At first I hated it, but once I started changing the furniture and other fixtures it suddenly felt beautiful. White Dove is also a chameleon. Warm and beautiful in the southeastern sun, oatmeal-ish undertone in the afternoon, and the green undertone subtly shows up in the evening. With the furnishings and decor I have now, a green, gray, and wood palette ot looks fine. Mine is the case where I decorated according to the white paint instead of the rug and a painting

Glad you liked it! I'm not familiar with "high hide" white so I'm not sure how it looks against other colors. BM Chantilly Lace works well with warm and cool colors. Even though it's one of the brightest whites out there, SW Pure White looks cooler next to it so might not be the best choice if your wall color is warm. Get some samples and compare them to each other and look at them with the wall paint you'll be using. It's also a good idea to look at them against something pure white like a piece of foam board. I think you're on the right track with matching the ceiling color to the trim if they're both going to be white. Otherwise it might look like you tried to match them and missed. The trim will stand out a bit with some sheen like satin or semi-gloss against a flat sheen on the ceiling. I hope that helps a bit!

Hi Evelyn! It's such a beautiful soft white and so versatile. Thanks for sharing your experience with it! ~Liz

Walls , ceilings , trims ?

I chose this as well, which will be a big change from dark greys and ochre from previous owner. Keeping my fingers crossed! Painting starts later this morning

Hi Cynthia! It's hard to say without seeing all of the fabrics, finishes and the paint colors together in the space. Acadia White reads pretty yellow when compared to a bright white as well as White Dove and Swiss Coffee. So it depends on what you're looking for. One thing I like to do is pick up on one of the colors in the floor which usually have some light, medium and dark tones in it. That may help you narrow it down. Then get large samples (samplize.com offers large peel and stick samples from the major paint companies) and evaluate them in the space at all times of day and in artificial light in the evening. I hope that helps a bit!

I'm so happy you're liking the videos and finding them helpful! I can't give a specific paint recommendation without seeing all the finishes together but it sounds like you have a good neutral base with a mix of warm and cool tones. If most of your light is coming from the south, paint colors are going to look warmer. The east light will add to that warmth in the morning but will turn cooler by midday. I would recommend going to samplize.com and looking at their bundles. They have a good cross section of neutrals as well as colors from several manufacturers that can help you narrow it down. You can order peel and stick samples there, bundles or individual colors, to test them out. Compare them with your trim choice (Chantilly Lace is one of the brightest whites out there, while White Dove is softer and warmer) and look at them at all times of day and with your lighting in the evening. You mentioned your lighting isn't great. If it's overhead lighting, it usually isn't. Think about adding some lamps or accent lights to balance things out and turn off the overhead lights when they're not needed. I hope that helps a bit!

@@BalanceRhythmthank you so much ! I will check out that site.

@@viv920 My pleasure!

My pleasure! I haven't worked with Dunn Edwards much and don't have samples here in my studio. Colors as we see them online will look very different at home and in different types of lighting but the following look like what you might be searching for: Coconut Grove, At First Light, Sugar Swizzle. Be sure to get samples though and look at some of the other options live as well.

@@BalanceRhythmThank you for responding to my comment. I’m not limited at purchasing paints from Dun Edwards anymore :) What color do you suggest for the whole house with natural wood(upstairs) and tile flooring in downstairs? I like clean and light / whites colors. I’m not fan of yellow undertones … South, East & West windows . I’m Changing the whole furnitures :) Thank you so much for your help.

@@estelle1035 You're welcome! All of the colors in the video could work as none of them have much yellow but the cleanest brightest of them is Chantilly Lace by Benjamin Moore.

Hi Denise! It sounds like you have a bit of warmth there with your white oak floors. I would try to pick up on one of the more neutral, not too yellow tones there. I looked at the SW Alabaster with some soft blues and greens and thought it looked good. You could use that as a starting point and get a few other samples to compare with all your finishes and furnishings. I hope that helps at least a little! ~Liz

@@BalanceRhythm thank you so much for your reply, I will look at that colour, many thanks 😊

@@deniserobertson6320 My pleasure!

Hi Suraj! If you like a very bright look similar to Chantilly Lace in the video but not quite as bright, then I think it could be a good choice. It may read a bit cold most of the day given the northwest exposure but might warm up a bit as the sun shifts and with artificial lighting. Definitely test it out first to be sure.

I used SW Greek Villa in my home. It’s so soft and creamy. I absolutely love it. All interior doors are painted in SW Tricorn Black.

⁠@@VioletEvans-yt2fd This sounds beautiful! When you do a contrasting door, do you also paint the trim, or only the door itself?

Hey there! There are no 100 LRV paints that I'm aware of. The highest LRV paints are about 94, even the whitest of the whites available.

The LRV's on those paints are really close, 84 and 82 respectively and the Pure White looks really cool next to the warmer Alabaster. So in this case I would do the walls in a flat or matte finish, the ceilings in a flat finish and the trim in a satin finish all in the Alabaster.

@@BalanceRhythm thank you so much!! I’m getting ready to repaint our new house, and it’s the whole house!! Massive project. Don’t want to mess it up.

My pleasure! Good luck with your project!

@@BalanceRhythmthank you!

@@lauraboyles8310Isn’t it tho?!! I’m right there with you!

Swiss Coffee is really versatile, a little on the warm side. I think it would look great but you have to test it out in your space.

All of these paint colors are a good starting point but it's impossible to make a specific recommendation without seeing your home and the finishes in it. I always recommend going to samplize.com and checking out their bundles. Then order some samples and look at them in the space with all of your finishes and in natural and artificial light.

Hi Elaine! It sounds like you have a lot of cool tones so I wouldn't go with a paint that has a yellow undertone. Of the paints mentioned in the video, Sherwin Williams Alabaster or Pure White have the least yellow undertone. Also, check out Benjamin Moore's White Heron and Decorator's White. There are lots of beautiful white paint shades out there so these are just some suggestions to get you started.

I don’t know. It’s a stock photo.

Hi there ! White stops being 100% pure when the LRV is below 100 (perfectly reflective white is 100 LRV, while absolute black is 0% LRV). The highest paint LRV's come in at around 94 so they're all technically not pure white. The difference in undertone comes in when the pigments are added, giving varying degrees of cool or warm undertones. Once you get below an LRV of about 82 or so, the colors become more off white or pastel. ~Liz

@@BalanceRhythm Thanks for the insight! Each of your videos is an opportunity to learn something new and/or to get inspired. Looking forward to the next one.

@@duikmans It's my pleasure! I really appreciate your thoughtful questions and am so happy you're learning from the videos and finding some inspiration too. Thanks so much for watching! ~Liz