Is white alright?

July 26, 2005 1:48 AM

I want to paint my room white...but everyone thinks white is too harsh....

My walls are a dark blue at the moment, and the room always feels dark, and because its south-facing it soaks up the sun in the summer and the room stays hot for ages (too hot to sleep in).

So what white do I want? if not Pure/Brilliant White, what about "Milk White", and all the other variants? (general scheme of my room at the moment - dark blue walls, white ceiling, blue carpet, wood (beech) and brushed metal furniture, halogen lights on wires)

Also, my walls are plasterboard, and not exactly smooth in places. Whats the best way to remedy this?

Brilliantly, my mum wants to decorate my room while I'm away (in Japan heeee heeeee) for 2 weeks. I have 17 days to decide!

posted by lemonfridge to Home & Garden (19 answers total)

My room is completely white. I was afraid it would be scary and hospital-like before I painted it, but I'm really happy I went ahead. It's amazing what it does to lighten the room. I don't know what white I painted it, though, it was just latex white paint I got at Home Depot.
posted by Anonymous at 2:19 AM on July 26, 2005

I think it depends on the other decorations in the room. From what you said it sounds pretty varied; if your other furniture and things were white then it would look like an art installation.

Food for thought: my friend painted his room a sort of auburn red, and with all the wood already there plus lots of ambient lights, it looks really cool.
posted by zardoz at 4:13 AM on July 26, 2005

Some off-white variant is good, it is lovely with your beech (my stuff is all beech too, I like light). Your blue carpet will be nice with the white as well. The biggest worry is how much effort to cover the blue that's there.
posted by Goofyy at 4:32 AM on July 26, 2005

It took me 9 coats of white (admittedly very cheap white paint) to get over the dark-purple and dark-green colourscheme of one of my worst ever lodgers. I like white though. With other colours in the room (windowframes, door, paintings etc) it's not too overpowering and it does make it a lot lighter.

It was after this event that I decided change my policy from "want your room redecorating? I'll buy the paint" to "want your room redecorating? hey let me do it".
posted by handee at 4:46 AM on July 26, 2005

My room is white. I wouldn't have it any other colour. It's like a blank canvas, to which you add colour in the form of furniture and other furnishings. If the walls are a particular colour, it restricts what you can do with the rest of the room. Go for it.
posted by krisjohn at 4:47 AM on July 26, 2005

i grew up with nothing but white walls. i wouldn't recommend it because, if nothing else, it's boring. i know you are tired of your dark walls and want to rebel against them, but you should find the happy median.

i suggest a light color on all but one wall, then make that last wall a bit darker. my friends and i call it "the power wall". it makes the room look bigger than it is.

most hardware store paint departments have a nice list of colors that compliment each other well. i would advise taking their advice.

also, making light walls dark is easy; making dark walls light is a horse of a different color, so be prepared.
posted by bryak at 5:38 AM on July 26, 2005

Response by poster: my walls are papered at the moment, so it'll be a simple case of stripping the paper off and painting them (they're even white under the paper).

I like the idea of a "power wall", its something I had thought about for a while. Maybe!

Any advice for getting the bare walls nice and smooth first? There are some really nasty palces where holes have been made, and then filled.

krisjohn, what shade of white did you use? or is it a stark white?
posted by lemonfridge at 6:09 AM on July 26, 2005

Not all whites are alike. Compare the whites of sunlight (blue) with fluorescent (green) with tungsten (red). Bluey-whites are harsher, reddy-whites are warmer.
posted by cogat at 6:12 AM on July 26, 2005

Pure white walls make me a little crazy, personally, but I prefer to live in rooms with warm colors on the walls. You may really like white. If you really like it, then go with it, but I would personally choose a less-harsh white (antique white, candlelight, etc). But, YOU have to live there, so do what you want.

I would also like to second the "power wall" idea. It's a really great device and is the only way I'd be able to cope with all white walls on the other three surfaces. Good luck!
posted by Medieval Maven at 6:17 AM on July 26, 2005

Use a primer to cover the dark blue paint. Don't use a stark white, high-gloss paint - try a velvet, and select something that won't be 100% pure white. And go for it. If you don't like it, it's no big deal either in terms of money or time to paint the room again, because the prepping and the priming will all be done.
posted by orange swan at 6:23 AM on July 26, 2005

For the holes, pockmarks and filler - get an electric sander, some filler and a couple of grades of sandpaper (one coarse one fine). fill the dodgy bit, let it dry completely, then sand back with coarse then fine. You can get this ceiling paint stuff - solid emulsion - which is expensive but useful. A layer of that over the filler before you paint will hide a multitude of sins.

If you're going for a "power wall" (never heard it called that before, but I've been the owner of several!) choose the wall with the most pockmarks and holes, as colour's a bit more forgiving than white.
posted by handee at 6:25 AM on July 26, 2005

If you go with white, choose a flat or eggshell finish to hide the imperfections in the wall. If you ask in the paint store for "renovation white," they'll mix up white with two drops of black per gallon, and that will help mask imperfections, too.

If your walls are old, you might also find that after you strip the wallpaper, you need to do some repair... lots of old plaster walls are wallpapered to hide cracks.
posted by iscatter at 6:26 AM on July 26, 2005 [1 favorite]

After taking down some wallpaper I had to use a sanding block over the entire wall, but it didn't too long. You might want to get some sort of face mask with a filter because if you sand there's going to be a lot of dust in the air. After priming and painting, though, the wall is very smooth and you'd never know how rough it was after the wallpaper came down.
posted by stopgap at 7:10 AM on July 26, 2005

Off- white paints tend to go in two directions: towards gray-yielding a cool modern feel; or towards brown-- yielding a warm feel. Given the rest of your room, I would guess that a gray white would fit the best.

You almost never see a pure white anywhere. No only is it overly harsh, but it is almost impossible to put on without leaving lap marks. I have seen cases where three coats of white-over an off-white-still doesn't look right. The more "off" an off-white is, the better it will cover.

Orange swan is right-if you ar covering a dark color, resign yourself to the fact that it is going to take more than one coat and invest in a primer. Kilz makes a couple of good ones and it you can stand the smell, go with an oil based one. Just get a cheap brush and roller for it that you can throw away when you are done.
posted by rtimmel at 7:15 AM on July 26, 2005

Best answer: all the walls in our house in santiago are white. all the walls in our old place in the uk were white. we regularly get praise from people about how attractive the places we live are (how "lucky" we are to live in such places etc).

it goes well with anything, makes the space feel open, and lets you hang art without constraints. not only that - it doesn't go out of style. everything else is fashion (for a while it was off-whites, then bright colours, then dark colours, etc etc).

i wouldn't have it any other way, and when we finally redecorate the house in la serena that will have white walls too.
posted by andrew cooke at 7:32 AM on July 26, 2005

The "power wall" idea works great. (I believe it's actually called an "accent wall" or "feature wall.") Back when I lived with my parents I insisted on having three white walls and one bright red one. I added red bedcoverings and matching lampshades -- it was quite nice and modern.
posted by kindall at 8:47 AM on July 26, 2005

I had a white room and a "power ceiling" of red, and door/window trim of blue. It was comfortable and 'trippy' back in the day.
posted by DBAPaul at 11:45 AM on July 26, 2005

If the walls have lots of holes and deep dents, you want to coat those places with spackling compound. Get a big spackling knife (it's like a really wide putty knife) and put multiple thin layers of spackle over the crappy places. Feather the patches out onto the solid areas to minimize sanding. When it's dry, sand it smooth.

Buy a quality paint. Cheap paints are going to waste a lot of your time, because the cheap stuff just doesn't cover. If you try it on dark blue, you'll need a ton of it. I've found the paint at paint stores costs about the same as at Home Depot, and is much higher quality.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 4:40 PM on July 26, 2005

Buy a good paint - I use Benjamin Moore. They have many off whites. I often finish a room in a creamy off white with high gloss super white trim around the doors, windows and base boards. Very finished, clean look.
posted by trii at 8:58 AM on July 27, 2005