White Paint Colors, Choosing Them is Not Easy

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One of the many decisions we needed to make during the building process of our new home is choosing white paint colors.  I knew I wanted white.  White walls, white trim and even a white exterior.  Simple right?  Not so much.  Who knew there would be so many “colors” of white!  When did white get so fancy?

In today’s world you have hundreds of choices of white!  Everywhere from Oyster White to Polite White and everything in between. Where do you begin?  How do you decide?  I can’t possibly be the first person with this dilemma.

Back in the day, the only choice you had to make when painting with white, or any color for that matter, was whether you wanted flat, satin, or gloss!

Our kitchen cabinets are white, so I feel like the trim color should match the cabinet color.  Depending on what lighting I was in, the closet color match I found was High Reflective White.  Come to find out, High Reflective White is not a recommended color to use (not sure why they have in their color book as a choice if I can’t choose it!).  Since I can’t have High Reflective White for our trim, I told the painters to match it to our cupboards……..not sure of the color name.

I also wanted the exterior of the house to be a nice clean, crisp, bright white.  This post will show you more of our porch. After learning High Reflective White is a color that you can’t really use. I asked, “What color do you use when you trim a house white?”  The response, “I think it is a basic white.”  EXACTLY!!!  That is the color I want!!  Basic White!!!  Our windows are black. We will have some wood trim and a faux wood front door. So the simplicity of the “basic white” will be perfect!

I ended up choosing Pearly White by Sherwin Williams for the interior walls. To be honest, I don’t love it! I have since repainted some of the smaller rooms in our home with Snowbound by Sherwin Williams. I love it! Maybe some day I will get a wild hair and paint the rest of the house. It would have to be a REALLY WILD HAIR!