Mark Reuter Design
Choosing the best white paint color for your house exterior can be difficult. Let’s’ face it, many folks find choosing white colors for both exteriors and interiors challenging. That’s why you should go to an exterior paint color consultant for help! Most paint companies make many white choices. When you compare a lot of them you realize that accompanying the white exists many other tones. White can appear a tad pink or creamy with some yellow. It can contain some gray, blue, green, or a mix of more than one other color. Like other colors besides white, the color comes from a particular hue family and traces of those families are part of the white’s makeup. This concept is sometimes described as its undertone. So what should we take into consideration when choosing the best white?
The houses architecture is important.
Is the home historical? Styles like Georgian, Federal, Greek Revival and Carpenter Gothic are a few which historically were painted white (amongst other choices). Is it an old farmhouse? Is the cladding board and batten. Is it wood clapboard? Are there many decorative details? The answers to these questions might influence which white you choose. And of course, personal taste always rules. A paint color expert can help sort this out for you.
The best white exterior paint color for the region the house lives in.
A white in the sunny Southeast or Southwest of the U.S. will look different than in the NW or NE. Bright sun washes out color so in tropical/arid climates some might feel a house needs more color and more saturated color at that. No matter what’s your neighborhood, toning down the white a bit will help it look just right in the sunlight. Consider white paint colors like Benjamin Moore’s China White or Vanilla Milkshake and Sherwin-Williams’ Shoji White. They are all nice toned down white choices.
Look how different the white of this farm house looks from the first white house above. The first house is brighter and colder. It creates a more stark impression in the bright sunlight. The white of this house is softer and more compatible with the decorative flourishes and well lived in personality of the house. This home is Benjamin Moore’s Vanilla Milkshake. When considering whites (or any paint color) make absolutely sure not to choose or even evaluate the color from a photo or what you see online and be sure to weigh its appropriateness outdoors to fully appreciate how all the ambient natural light will affect the color. Just because you liked a paint color you saw on Pinterest does not mean it will look the same in your environment or you will like it in the real world. Test, test, test your choices on the house itself. It’s too big of an investment to just guess and hope.
MJ Larkin
This newly built modern farmhouse is also a soft creamy white – Benjamin Moore’s Swiss Coffee. The creaminess of the white makes the building really approachable. Because it’s not a cold, stark white there is less contrast and shadow created by the board and batten.
Maison de Cinq
This white is so stark and cold the house appears washed out. It’s always safer to choose a softer white then a bright cold one when choosing the best white paint color for your house exterior.
Amy Woolf Color & Design
Then there’s this. Sometimes the brightness of the outdoors makes a color that’s not white, appear white as with this lovely new home. It’s bright but not stark. It’s not exactly creamy but you can tell there’s something else in the color. It’s moody which is not something you associate with white paint color. Ultimately this home’s white color appears a mystery. What is it?
