aint chips, small as they are, inspire you to think big. They tempt you into imagining what your living room walls—or your entire first floor—will look like with a fresh coat of paint. White and off-whites remain the top-selling interior paint colors, so Consumer Reports asked two color experts for advice on finding the right shade.
White lightens up dark spaces, makes a room feel bigger, and works just about anywhere, helping to explain why it's so popular. We asked Leslie Harrington, a color researcher in Old Greenwich, Conn., to analyze popular whites from Consumer Reports' top-scoring paint brands using a device that reveals a color’s cool or warm undertones. She arranged them from cool to warm, and then we picked one of each from each manufacturer to create the scale below.
Cool whites contain blue and appear brighter—ideal for crisp, contemporary settings as well as work areas like a garage, where you really need to see what you’re doing. Warm whites have yellow undertones that create a cozier feel and work well across a variety of living areas in a traditional setting. It’s tricky to mix cools and warms without the warms coming off looking dirty.
Whites From 5 Coolest to 5 Warmest
Valspar Sweet Slumber 7004-12 (Lowe’s)
Glidden Swan White 98YY 82/022 (Home Depot and Walmart)
Behr Frost 57 (Home Depot)
Benjamin Moore Distant Gray OC-68
Clark+Kensington Chalk CW-C2 (Ace)
Behr Antique White 23 (Home Depot)
Valspar Quail Egg 7002-12 (Lowe’s)
Clark+Kensington Antique White CW-W7 (Ace)
Benjamin Moore Simply White OC-117
Glidden Parchment White 60YY 83/062 (Home Depot and Walmart)
The best way to distinguish between cool and warm whites is to hold paint chips side by side, says Susan Hable, an artist and textile designer in Athens, Ga. If you're unsure of a paint's undertones, ask a sales associate to help you compare different shades. Here's what else Hable and Harrington suggest to get the white you want: