Interior Paint Colors

Peggy sent "What to Know Before You Paint Your Walls White." The Houzz article is all over the place--use warmer whites when the the outside is cold, or you have no direct sun, but use cooler whites when you want to make the spaces seem larger. Paint trim, walls, and ceiling the same color to de-emphasize the details, like an art gallery, but for God's sake don't do that because your life isn't an art gallery.

What comes through is:

• I probably should use a warmer, not a cooler white
• The trim can be gloss white while the walls and ceiling planes should be warmer. "Make the mistake of painting everything white, and your home will look like a builder's 'flip.'"
• Kimberly Jermain suggests painting the smallest room one shade, growing increasingly darker as the rooms get larger

I like this last idea--hall one color, BR2 and Dining a shade darker, BR1 and Living a shade darker still.

To the color fan!

Assume a bright Extra White (SW 7006, LRV 86) for the trim.

In the hall and the smaller rooms (and maybe the kitchen, too), paint all the non-trim something like Paperwhite (SW 7105, LRV 87).

Medium rooms--Dining, BR2 something darker, like Summer White (SW 7557, LRV 83).

Largest rooms--Living, BR1 go darker still, like Décor White (SW 7559, LRV 79).

I don't like BR1 as it is--it's a yellow with white trim. Well, guess what? It looks like Décor White.

So, maybe go with a reddish, not a yellow tint?

Small: Steamed Milk (SW 7554)

Medium: Moderate White (SW 6140)

Large: Kestrel White (SW 7516)

I like that better, since they're more tan than yellow.

The more orange tints lead to:

Small: Gardenia (SW 6665)

Medium: Champagne (SW 6644)

Large: Faint Coral (SW 6329)

I really don't like warm whites. My eye keeps going to blues and, better, cool grays. I like the lightest color I painted in the living room in 2015: Glidden "Distant Ocean Grey." On the Sherwin-Williams color fan, that looks like Sky High (SW 6504)--it looks like medium gray in the room, faint blue on the card.

Last thought: I like looking from living room to kitchen and seeing different shades on the walls. Also, I like changing shades at corners (as I did in the 2015 experiment). I could go darker on an accent wall (like the wall opposite the window in the Dining room), or lighter (like the walls opposite the window in BR1 and BR2).

In their brochure "Perfect Whites," Sherwin-Williams points out that white is the only color that can't "clash." They emphasize a line of tan-whites that they call "soft whites." Colors like Greek Villa, Origami White, Neutral White. They suggest that yellow whites are good backgrounds for pops of red and orange, and that cool (and blue) whites work well with black furniture and art.

It's a tough call, but I really don't like the yellow in BR1. If we're going to have bright white trim, the walls are going to reveal the way in which they are not bright white--they'll scream yellow or blue or whatever. I like the more medium gray:

Small: Snowbound (SW 7004, LRV 83)

Medium: Incredible White (SW 7028, LRV 74)

Large: First Star (SW 7646, LRV 69)