When I chose a white trim paint color for my Mom’s bathroom, I was under immediate pressure and admit: I found a teensy chip, “Alabaster White,” that looked “good” in the Sherwin-Williams midcentury paint colors brochure that I had sitting in the kitchen. The color turned out okay — fine for a ceiling actually — but it was to brite for the trim where sunlight hit fully. I am not a fan of brite whites inside the house, they hurt my eyes. So this made me think: Readers, what are your favorite whites for interior walls and trim in your mid century or vintage-inspired homes? Choosing whites can be sooooo anxiety-producing.
Two photos above: Dave and Kristin used Ralph Lauren Oatmeal for their lovely Louisville living room. They even admit, they had to try about 15 colors. I tweaked the exposures, etc., on these photos for the blog when I posted them initially. You’re always gonna have to put up a sample in your house. But: I think I would like Ralph Lauren Oatmeal and would definitely give it a try. Plus, I really trust Dave and Kristin — those two have the eye.
I’m currently using “Linen” from Restoration Hardware for my trim. I color match the RH paint chip at Lowes. In the last house I used “The Right White” from RH also. I switched to Linen because I also agree about a bright white just being too much. A softer white is just more comfortable and pleasant.
Creamy white by Pittsburgh Paint. Walls and trim of our old house. Wonderful color.
I haven’t painted our ’60′s ranch yet inside or out, but I will test Creamy White and see how it looks in a different style house and different light. No blue in it.
Any suggestions for a white exterior paint? I started looking and am confused already.
“Creamy” sounds great, Gerry — many thanks.
I have great luck with Benjamin Moore’s Decorator’s White. I have a 1962 tri-level split ranch, slightly on the more modern side. This white transitions well with warm or cool tones; I just changed the carpet from warm to cool and this paint looks super with both.
Thanks for the tip, Lisa!
I second the BM Decorator White suggestion. It is the best white around, also a favorite of many interior designers as well. We used it for all of the walls in our 1958 MCM Post and Beam and it looks spectacular.
Dave and Kristin’s living room is a vision of perfection! Every time I see it I’m in awe.
I’m using a Eco white, I think by CIL but the tins are in the shed, as pure white is part of what I need right now. Yeah, the psychology of decor, but Benjamin Moore’s Designer white is lovely and what I’ll most likely use again in the future.
Depending on the other colours on the exterior I’d go slightly off pure white….cool or warm as needed because, as Pam so rightly pointed out, when the sun hits it it hurts your eyes.
My sister-in-law painted her ’60′s ranch with Devine paint. She used Devine Whip for the walls and Devine Icing for all the trim and maybe the ceiling too. Devine advertises that their paint goes on like yogurt and looks like chiffon. They have a great website too.
I guess think whipped cream and white frosting and that should give you an idea of the colors she used.
Devine is the best paint you will EVER paint with. Used it several times and the colors are great; shine is also perfect. Painted an entire house and never had a single drip. Saw the “whip” used as trim in several model homes and it was great. It’s available in the northwest and formulated for our gray (the few we have) days.
I don’t paint with anything else.
I am going to add Behr “Swiss Coffee” to the list. I have seen in referenced in magazines two times recently. Next time I have the chance I will try it.
I like ‘Swiss Coffee’ as well and have used it often It doesn’t ‘sound’ like a white, but it’s a very soft pleasing white – sepecially in a satin finish.
Thanks, Cindy, I gotta try this one sometime!
Hi Pam! I discovered an old can of Kelly Moore Swiss Coffee in the garage of my Eichler when I moved in, and after consulting the neighbors I’m pretty sure this is the original white of all the beams in the house. My local BM has a custom mix to match KM SC so the beams all got a fresh coat a few months ago. I’m usually not a big fan of mixing whites, but I like the brighter, cooler SC against the warmer, milkier BM Ivory White I put on the walls.
Thanks, Troy — nice to hear from you!
Swiss Coffee by Dunn Edwards has been our go-to white for years. Very adaptable and lends itself to acting as a blank slate.
I’ve been researching a light grey/beige and B. Moore Abalone + Silver Fox have really positive feedback on websites like apartment therapy. Leaning that direction…
You may like Benjamin Moore’s Shale (861). It’s quite a light gray, moves from warm to cool depending on the light. Looks great on on my bedroom wall with black/ivory/gold/chartreuse bedding, art, and accessories and warm walnut furniture.
We’ve used a Behr paint called Pearl Drops in the half bath, and also in the hallway that goes to the bedrooms. It is a warm pearly white, and I sometimes wish I would have painted every single room this color, particularly the bedrooms, rather than the pale blues and pale greens that we used. Hey, what’s to stop me? That ghastly mint green in the master bedroom will be the first to go.
Too funny, Jkaye! THAT green has been in every house, always in a bedroom, I’ve ever renovated. Even when you think it’s not there it shows up again hidden behind a switch plate or under wallpaper.
Sounds like a great color, Judy!
Green is a really hard color to get right. The colors that look great on the chip, or even the swatch, are usually too bright or too green or something when they are all over the wall. The ones that look ugly on the chip end up nicest on the walls.
The only white in my house is Oyster White by Glidden, painted before we moved in. It’s a nice warm white.
Thanks, STL Mom. That one sounds good. When I was in KY, we also painted my mom’s kitchen. She has beadboard on the walls half-way up. It went Alabaster, which I think is too bright for that application. The walls we painted Great Green (Greatest Green?) by Sherwin-Williams. It’s a 1940s green, a leetle on the yellow side – and I liked it. Will get a pic next time I’m there. I dropped my camera about 1/4 way through these projects, argh.
…oh, that green, it was my original kitchen walls (with dark green trim- straight out of the Youngstown Kitchens ads….). I repainted all my trim in my 1945 Cape Cod with Benjamin Moore’s Cloud Nine….with a splash more yellow ochre added by the awesome folks at Jill’s Paint in Atwater Village, CA, it matched the paint on the tongue-in-groove wainscoting that covers half the walls in the bedrooms, and in its straight from the can form it covers all the gabled walls and dormers and is cozy and light without being too bright (I tried Decorator’s White, but it just looks too new in this old house….)
Thanks, Alison. Yes, you’ve hit on my issue: Brite whites = too “new”. Like you, I like the house to feel “vintage”!
I still use oil paint for trim. Bullet-proof, Ben Moore Satin Impervo.
Alkyd paints do tend to yellow over time, so I try to compensate and keep to the gray/blue tints. I have been very happy with China White.
Keep your paint samples or better yet, your used stir sticks: Many manufacturers change formulations every few years….yet keep the same names.
BM is famous for this.
Thanks, Gavin — I was waiting to hear from you!
Lol Alabaster White is the colour of my Valiant I use white on the ceilings with just a small tint of pink. I find it takes the harshness out of the ceiling paints. For trimmings and most doors I use a water based gloss easier to paint with and they have come along way with this type of paint, especially after the oil based gloss I used in my old house turned yellow. For none white doors such as large wardrobe doors I still use oil gloss but not in white same with kitchen cabinets.
Thanks, Jason — I really liked the Sherwin Williams Alabaster on the ceilings. But on the wall trim it was too brite for my eyes.
Just be careful that the color doesn’t end up looking like old nicotine stain from the 1950s. my girlfriend painted her whole house a warm off-white-beige-with-a-hint-of-chocolate shade. It looked to me like nothing had been painted for 50 years because everyone was busy smoking with all of the windows and doors shut. I told her it looked real nice…well,it was the whole house that took weeks to paint!
Agreed.
That is why I stay away from anything with a hint of yellow. Whether the white is tinted with pink, green, gray or blue- I like it to look CLEAN.
I’m also capturing for the record: New White by Farrow & Ball. I have a magazine clipping (Cottage Living) where it is spotlighted as a warm white that gives a buttery glow. I think this one is spendy, tho.
Nice Hopper, Jeanne.
Thank you, Tommy. My sister thinks Hopper is too depressing, but I like the colors and the mood.
For my 1932 English rental, I used Miller (regional paint company) Navaho White on the main rooms, with a bright white for the trayed ceiling and the narrow space above the picture rail. It has a beautiful, warm, vintage look and is really flattering to a lot of other wall colors, too. I can see that some might think it was like 50 years of smoking, but I love it and also think it’s pretty authentic. Navaho White was extremely popular 30-40 years ago and is probably available in every paint line by the same or a different name.
I too used the Miller Navajo white in the bathroom of a rental that we eventually sold. Looked just perfect with the reglazed tub and new white vanity. A nice soft white. If you’re in the NW – Love Miller paint, and they know everything you ever wanted to know about paint.
I painted the walls of the first house I ever bought, in 1985 or so, Navajo. White trim. I loved it, and think it should be making a major comeback. When I was at moms, we painted her 2nd bathroom Sherwin Williams Muslin. White trim. A lighter version of Navaho. Very lovely. Went well with the muslin-ish Snoopy shower curtain.
Thanks for the photos, Jane aka MulchMaid. I REALLY like the look of the BM Pale Sisal – I am a fan of ecru’s. Regarding your window moldings, we have the same design — they are wonderful. Somewhere on this blog, I think I have a post about them as a resource. A WONDERFUL TOUCH.
Re the moldings: Yes, so much less to dust, and a serene, unfussy look. Glad you’re a fan, too!
Pure Artic White looks Clean, but is rather antiseptic, and shadows kind of a gray color.
Dave and Kristin’s place has sculptural details on the walls that are highlighted by the Cream White. The white, they chose, looks to be a lighter version of the Background Color used on the chair with foot rest.
My advice for picking a WHITE, is to pick a “white” which is the LIGHTEST version of ANY ONE of the fabric colors in the room you are decorating.
Hi Dan,
In the room with the fireplace mantle in dove white..How about mustard-yellow drapes (walls color in picture over fireplace) and a red valance hung over them. Work the red and mustard-yellow from the picture around the room as accents.
In the bedroom, with the yellow walls, paint the dresser, mirror, and night stand a gloss black. How about a black and white (wide) striped fabric swagged over the window.
In the bedroom with the teal wall. Paint all of the woodwork in the room a GRAY pulled from the bedding. Paint the top of the room, over the bed, where the vent is, the same light gray as the woodwork, It will take some visual weight away from that area ,and it will work gray from the bed, up onto the walls. Buy some TALL lemon yellow ceramic lamps, to pull the color from the bedding. Put them on the end tables. Somehow introduce more lemon yellow around the room as an accent color.
Hi Fred. Thanks for the tips. I am planning on getting or making some red and gold/yellow pillows for my sectional. I eventually would like to have some pinch pleat drapes for the windows on either side of the fireplace….a soft gold sounds nice.
Fred, I really like your advice. The tones in our living room really do share a common “feel” if you will. Nothing exudes a blue or yellow or pink cast. I see HGTV shows where they put together a color palate with paint, fabric, curtain material, etc. We actually started with a paint color we liked and picked fabrics and accesories that worked with our paint. Looking at the paint in natural sunlight and incandecent evening light was critical in our paint choice. Thanks to Pam for shedding “light” on the white paint mystery. I am going to check out “swiss coffee” tomorrow !
SORRY DAVE for calling you Dan, and getting my comment to you in the wrong spot
Hi everyone! Currently working on remodeling our ranch that is stuck in the 80′s in a really bad way. Want a great “neutral” for the LR and hall (same color) that is not any shade of white or cream. Seafoam green, pale yellow, robin’s egg blue already in use in other rooms in the house. Was thinking maybe a pale gray? Suggestions anyone? I lean HEAVY towards mid-century modern taste but also love some antiques and coziness mixed in! I use a alot of red accent wise and thought this would look great with gray! Weigh in! Thanks!