How Do We Like Our White Walls?

It’s been 6 years since we opted to paint our entire house–walls and trim–in Sherwin Williams “Snowbound” shade of white. We even used it in the kitchen which was remodeled in late 2019.

But really, how much do we like having white walls?

The few things that went through our head when we decided to neutralize the walls to a single, uniform color, and I thought you’d like to have answers to those questions now that we’ve lived with it awhile:

• Would we get bored of lack of color? Verdict: Nope – I still really like that anything goes. We’re just free to play with as many colorful accents as we want, and embrace those we love the most. We added a colorful boucherouite Moroccan rug to our living room, and pink pillows to the couch, and it all works really well together.
• Would white paint get dirty? Verdict: Not really, but kids definitely make their mark. We wash the “most touchable” spots with a soapy cloth. If you have white trim, you know what I’m talking about; it just gets dirty. We can also tell where they put their feet on the walls when they’re on the couch, or playing in bed.
• Would it brighten our home? Verdict: Absolutely. Nothing quite like sunshine flowing into a light colored room (it’s especially good through the fall and winter, when our sunshine is limited). The house was previously beige (so much beige) and the memory of that is still stifling.

• Is it cozy? Because I like cozy. I don’t know if I can answer that. There are days and moments where the lighting can make it feel more sterile and less warm than a colorful room, but then the light will do something wild like this against the stone wall of the fireplace and I’ll forget that it ever entered my mind. We’ve added a lot of light wood accents both via furniture, cabinetry, and even vinyl adhesive maple wallpaper. They all help add warmth to the white, but it’s still less intense than colorful wall paint.

• Will we regret not choosing some other shade of white? Verdict: Not a chance. In this consistently white-walled craze, it can be easy to overlook that beauty shots of rooms online are color corrected for best case natural lighting. I kind of side with the stance that white’s white. If you want white, Snowbound is a good white. There are probably also a few dozen other “good whites” at the paint store. The light bulbs in your fixtures and the actual natural light flowing through your windows have more effect on whether white paint looks white-white vs. white-yellow vs. white-blue, and there are fixtures where we’ve opted for compact fluorescent just because LEDs make the room look weird, or vice versa.