White Paint

When you’re choosing the best colour for your next project, white paint should always be one of your top choices.  

A splash of bold colour looks fantastic, especially on interior walls, kitchen cupboards, and if you want to liven up your old wooden furniture, but there’s no denying that white always looks great on these surfaces too.  

 Where to Use White Paint 

If you’re a fan of bright colours in your home, white paint is the perfect accompaniment. Wall-to-wall yellows, oranges, and pinks can be too much, especially if you choose a glossy finish – using white paint on your surfaces breaks it up without making any room look dull.  

Here are some of the best interior surfaces to paint white:  

• Walls 
• Radiators  
• Doors 
• Skirting Boards  
• Door Frames 

Those last two are almost always painted white, with a tough glossy finish that resists wear and tear. As well as framing your walls (and doors if you decided to paint them an interesting colour!), the specialist paint they’re usually painted with doesn’t have to match the exact shade – and white never clashes!  

Your doors themselves also look great in white. We always recommend a plain colour for your doors, as they create a barrier between the colour schemes in different rooms. For example, if you have a yellow kitchen but a green dining room, these will clash side by side. A white door separates both with a neutral colour that doesn’t look out of place.  

 Best Sheen for White Paint 

The sheen you pick for your white paint is almost as important as the colour itself. A high-sheen (or glossy) finish will reflect more direct light. This can be a problem if your white surface is close to an artificial light source or window, as it can be glaring at certain times of the day or reflect a circle of light from a lamp.  

A lower sheen finish like matt paint or eggshell paint doesn’t have this issue. However, these can look flat when used on a large surface. Satinwood paint is a good in-between option, but we always recommend testing your paint in an area that sees a lot of different light levels, so you can be sure it’s right for you.  

 

Using White Paint Outside 

We’ve only talked about using white paint for interior surfaces so far, but this doesn’t mean that it won’t look just as good outside!  

However, light colours, especially white, make any dirt and grime more noticeable. After only a few rainy days, your white surfaces might not look their best.  

But if you choose a tough paint, and keep the surface clean, white is one of the best colours for patios, masonry, fences, sheds, and exterior walls. An oil-based paint will naturally repel standing water more than a water-based paint, so it’s the perfect choice for many outdoor painting projects.