White Walls

We've always leaned toward soft neutral colors on our walls (Meredith's room being a notable exception) because it makes the house feel very open, airy and restful to us. Most of our common space is painted "Almond" by Olympic. We painted it when we first bought the home is 2007, and while I do like the color, it's starting to feel a bit "blah" to me, a little too close to the infamous "builder beige" that seems to dominate every newly built home around here.

I find myself being drawn to rooms with walls painted in lovely shades of white. It's somewhat ironic that I'm now loving white when I consider all of the times I teased my mother for her refusal to paint her home's walls any color other than "antique white" from Sherwin Williams. She did, by the way, get over her fear of color and now has a beautiful home with yellows, blues and greens on the walls.

Anyway, every time I see a well-decorated room with white walls, I swoon a little bit. Here are a few I'm loving right now:


Kitchen painted in Farrow & Ball's James White:


Anne Turner Carroll's renovated kitchen. Walls and upper cabinets are painted Lime White by Farrow & Ball. Bottom cabinets are Farrow & Ball Mouse's Back, which is similar to the wall color we just used in our master bedroom.


Benjamin Moore White Dove:


More lovely white rooms.



As you can see, white walls don't have to be blah or boring. The absence of color on the walls makes the art, furniture, textiles, accessories and basically everything else in the room really pop because they aren't competing with a strong wall color. I especially love the contrast of rustic natural wood tones with white walls.