Everything you need to know before using white paint for your interiors

With the summer months in full swing, it might be the right time to give your home’s interior walls some polish.

There are a wide variety of colors to choose from for your home’s interior walls but white paint has a certain charm to it and this makes it great for any home—at least in my opinion 🙂

A very minimalist color that goes great with virtually any interior home design, despite its simplicity, white instills a feeling of professionalism and class.

Now, painting your walls white may seem easy enough but there’s more to it than just splashing some color on your walls.

Here are some things you need to consider when working with white paint.

The lighting

Lighting is important in making your interiors look good, especially when it comes to white walls.

White isn’t just a single color; it has quite a few shades and lighting will complement these shades differently. For example, pure white is a very reflective color and because of this, sunlight may make your interior too bright—this can be avoided by using a shade of white, like off-white.

The direction your home faces will play a role in how white walls look when light hits them. 

West-facing walls and north-facing walls may look very different from each other even when they’re both painted white. 

For north-facing walls, use warm shades of white to help balance out the light while a shade like cool white can filter the yellowish glow of bright sunlight that hits a south-facing wall.

Stains and marks

One issue you may face with white walls is that they can get dirty quickly, and the mess will show.

There is an easy solution to this problem; use glossy paint on the interior walls that are likely to get blemished, like the walls of your home’s stairwell and corridors or even the kid’s rooms. These places are very likely to get handprints and the gloss allows you to clean them off easily 🙂 

Alternatively, you can try using a stain-blocking primer on your interior walls before painting them white.

White might not work well for home offices

Since many people are working from home these days, you or one of your loved ones may have set up their own home office.

While white is aesthetically pleasing, it might not promote productivity in a home office because of its overly sterile appearance. 

If you’re planning on painting your entire interior white, you may want to try a different color, like red or aqua for your home workspace instead.

Some textures can make a difference

Plain white rooms might look a bit too sterile for some people and any blemishes on your interior walls will stand out; some texturing can help you fix this.

By giving your white wall paint a bit of texture, you can mask any scars and indentations on the walls and give your rooms some layering.

There are two ways you can add texture to your walls: 

Using texture additives: These can be added directly to your paint and then applied to your walls. You could even add silica into the paint but be mindful of the quantity you add as it will affect the texture.

Ready-made textures: These are textures that you can apply to your walls and using a paintbrush, you can make any pattern you want. Once the texture is dry, you can paint over it.

White walls might go green

White walls will not turn green but they can appear to look green if you have a lot of foliage outside.

As I mentioned earlier, white paint is very reflective so light reflecting off objects outside your home could be cast on white walls, making them appear in different colors. While this might look charming for some, it’s not great for a room intended to be all white.

If there are any bright-colored objects outside your home, like other homes and plants, think carefully about painting your rooms white or go for another color entirely.

Using white paint for interior walls—a simple but elegant choice

Painting your interior walls white may seem basic at first but as you’ve read in this blog, white interiors take just as much planning as any other colored interiors.

Once you’ve completed your new paint job, keep an eye out for interior wall paint problems and keep your walls looking fresh 🙂