It seems every designer home is bathed in a crisp white colour scheme & proclaiming the freshness of the look. Yes I do agree that stark white has it’s place but there are many reasons to NOT paint it all in white.
Dirty Little Fingers
Anyone with children knows they have a tendency to leave fingerprints all over the walls. Stark whites hide very little. If you want to keep the light look, even a slight off-white will hide more marks than you think. This can be colours such as Natural White by Dulux or Bassinet by Bristol or the perfectly named Off White by Haymes.
Time Is Dirty
In time, paint colours can change, due to sunlight, enamel paint or exposure to fine particles like smoke or cooking oil. A white can dis-colour quite quickly & will show these imperfections more than tinted colours.
Personality
Your home shows your style. If your walls are white, then you need to add personality in the decor. This means adding & adding items, adding cost to your pocket & extra clutter in your home. Usually the purpose of a white colour palette is to give the feeling or space & openness which is ruined by the need to add personality afterwards.
Resale Value
When reselling your home, you’d think white is a good blank canvas to paint your home. However if your home is to be photographed or an open house is organised when you don’t have furniture in it, the white colour palette can look very plain & boring.
The Remedy
So how do we achieve the fresh white look without these issues? Easy ~ add some colour to your wall paint. This will help to hide marks & give personality. This can still be an off-white, or even deeper.
Think about the style of your house. Do you have architectural features like fireplaces, decorative trims around your doors, ceiling beams or textured walls? Make a feature of them. Add a contrasting colour to those areas to highlight. The contrast between a darker & lighter colour will highlight both. Even off-whites look fresh against darker colours.
If the rooms are dark, fix it with lighting. Replace your light bulbs with brighter ones, change the light shades for clear options, add extra lighting like lamps, replace the curtains/blinds with ones which allow more sunlight to enter. You can also be clever & add mirrors or reflective surfaces to help bounce light around the room. Don’t rely just on paint to fix your light problems.
Decorate with lighter tones. If you are to add furniture or artwork, make that lighter. A white framed picture will pop against a coloured wall & white linen floats in a darker bedroom. Timber furniture pieces can be white washed or chalk emulsion painted to give a French Provincial or Hamptons look, & a light coloured rug can be more easily cleaned than a white carpet.
Colour adds so much to a room, even in a lighter tone. We should embrace colour & allow white to be used to highlight rather than dominate.
Do you get stuck with colours? Click here for Colour Advice.
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