Choosing the right white

More rooms are repainted because the white was wrong than because the workmanship was. It is the hardest colour to choose and the one people spend the least time on.

Every white is a colour

There is no neutral white in a tin. Each one is white with a small amount of something else added, and that something is what you are really choosing.

• Yellow or red undertones read as warm. They soften a room and suit north-facing spaces that get cold, grey light.
• Blue or green undertones read as cool. They look crisp in bright rooms and turn faintly clinical in dark ones.
• Grey or black undertones knock the brightness back. Useful in a room with a lot of glass, harsh in a room without.

Hold three whites next to each other on a sheet of paper and the undertones become obvious. Hold one on its own and it just looks white, which is exactly why choosing from a single card goes wrong.

Which way does the room face

This matters more than the colour card.

North-facing rooms get indirect, cool, blue-grey light all day. A cool white in here goes flat and slightly grey. Pick something with a touch of warmth in it.

South-facing rooms get strong warm light for most of the day. They can carry a cooler white easily, and a warm white in strong sun can look creamy or yellow by mid-afternoon.

East-facing rooms are warm in the morning and cool by evening. West-facing is the reverse. Both are more forgiving, but look at samples at the time of day you actually use the room.

Pick the white for the light the room gets, not for the white you liked in someone else's house.

Test properly, or do not bother

Painting a patch straight onto the wall is the most common way to test and the least reliable. The old colour bleeds through, and the patch is surrounded by the very colour you are trying to replace.

Do it this way instead:

1. Get sample pots of no more than three whites. More than three and you will go round in circles.
2. Paint two coats onto A4 sheets of white primed card, not straight onto the wall.
3. Leave them a full day to dry. Emulsion looks different wet, and most whites dry slightly darker than they go on.
4. Move each card around the room over a whole day: by the window, on the darkest wall, next to the skirting, next to the flooring and the curtains.
5. Look again after dark with the lights on. Warm LED bulbs push a white noticeably yellow, and cool bulbs drain it.

The card that still looks right in all of those places is your white. It is rarely the one that looked best in the shop.

Walls and ceiling do not have to match

A common instinct is to use the same white everywhere. Two adjustments usually work better.

Use a flat brilliant white on the ceiling and your chosen white on the walls. The ceiling then reads as light rather than as a colour, and the walls keep their character.

On woodwork, matching the wall white exactly can look unfinished. Either take the same white in a satin or eggshell finish, so the sheen does the separating, or go a shade crisper for a deliberate edge.

Finishes, briefly

• Matt on walls and ceilings. It hides imperfection better than anything else, which matters most on old plaster.
• Washable matt in kitchens, halls and anywhere with children. It costs more per tin and pays for itself the first time something is wiped off.
• Satin or eggshell on woodwork. Water-based stays white; traditional oil-based gloss yellows within two years, particularly on anything out of direct light.

If you want it decided for you

We bring a fan deck to every quote and will happily narrow it to two or three whites that suit the room, the light and the flooring you already have. It costs nothing and it saves the far more expensive business of repainting a room you have just paid to have done.