How many rooms in your house are painted white?

[Dan Mages]

I have spent the majority of the past month stripping wall paper, prepping walls, priming, and painting the majority of our house. I want to keep a good portion of the house white to reduce work and keep it simple. However, SWMBO feels that white walls with white trim is "institutional" and "boring". So far, I have painted the master bedroom a dark greyish blue, the office a dark olive green, the upstairs hallway burnt orange, the front room & dining room beige, and the front hallway beige below the chair rail and white above it. The guest room, hall bath, closets, and lower level hallway have been kept white... so far. With Sherwin Williams Duration paint at $40 a gallon, it adds up quickly, especially when she does not like the colour she... er we picked.

So... in your house, how much of it is painted white, vs a colour?

Dan

[Steve Sawyer]

I'd like to introduce some color, but SWMBO in my house prefers the neutrality of white, and in her defense, we have so much of our walls covered with framed paintings and prints and photographs that maybe the white works better than a color.

[Brad Wood]

there is not a single room in our entire house (garage excluded) that has white, or anything even close. With the exception of the bathrooms and the office, I am pretty sure every room actually has two colors

[Joe Pelonio]

We have no white at all, in ours. When we moved in here the master was navy blue! Also, had to remove wallpaper in nearly every room. Our walls are now light colors, the closest to white is beige.

[Scott Loven]

Every room in the house is white on the walls ceiling and trim.

[Matt Meiser]

If off white counts, about 1/3 of our house is off white. Our family room, dining room, kitchen, and hall all have walls that run together. There's no corners to stop a color at to make one room one color and another a different color. But every other room is a color.

[Neal Clayton]

i'm steadily eliminating white. reproducing the trim to be stained rather than painted, etc.

ceilings will still be an offwhite probably, but that's it.

[Rob Russell]

You needed a 75% button.

We're introducing more color into the vacation house we bought last year. Our primary residence is mostly offwhite. The addition is all colored rooms.

[Benjamin Dahl]

just the ceilings in my house.

[Dan Mages]

You needed a 75% button.

We're introducing more color into the vacation house we bought last year. Our primary residence is mostly offwhite. The addition is all colored rooms.
Yeah. I noticed that afterwards. I cannot edit it though... Will one of the moderators please help?

Thanks,

Dan

[Danny Thompson]

Ceilings, trim, built-ins, panelling below the chair rail in the dining room, and garage.

[Chris Padilla]

Does the garage count? That is the only room in my house white...we've painted everything else. I hate white...'cept in the shop. :)

I adjusted your poll...is that okay?

[jerry nazard]

My basement shop is white... kind of white... is sawdust white a color?

[Jason Beam]

Everything white feels like all the rental apartments I lived in before I bought my house. When we bought our first home, one of the first things we did was played with color because it was OURS to do so :D

[Jim O'Dell]

At our previous house, everything, and I mean everything was Behr Pure White. At this house, all but one room was beige, and it was PINK (pink carpet, pink walls, pink crown moulding....). Kitchen walls are a mostly blue wall paper, and the Family Room (both are actually one big room) has flat paneling. Both will eventually go away. My wife's studio and the former "Pink Room" are now faux painted, and the glazing makes it look faintly yellow. I/2 bath attached to studio is beige with one wall "papered" with old sheet music. (LOML is a piano teacher.) The guest bedroom is khaki on 2 walls, and burgandy on 2 walls. It was our first non white paint we have ever done, and I actually like it. The entry was done with the Venitian Plaster that while smooth, has the appearance of texture because of the variation of color. Neat look, but very labor intensive. Might be ok for a bathroom wall, but not for a bedroom or larger unless you have a lot of time on your hands!! The master bedroom/bath will eventually get some green, probably hunter green, and probably only 2 walls. May go back to the khaki for the other 2 walls again. Jim.

[Anthony Whitesell]

Almost all the rooms in my house are white, or close to. The baby's room is off-white over light blue and the bathroom is a red pattern on white. The rest of the rooms are off-white (Sherwin-Williams Bone China) with bright white trim. Low maintenance, easy to repair and to clean, and the two shades of white allow the painted wood trim to be separate from the sheetrock walls.

P.S. The outside is white and the ceilings are white, too, as well as the sheetrock walls in the shop in the basement (because I had the paint left over from the upstairs)

[Lee Schierer]

Only the ceilings are painted white in our house.

[Michael McCoy]

I've only been in my house for a year but all of my down stairs rooms are painted pastel colors except for a spare bedroom. That currently has my shop over flow but it will get painted when things leave for the shop. :) Upstairs is all one big room but it will be a light blue by the end of this month.

[Jim Becker]

Ultimately, white might not be the best overall choice for "interest" outside of some very specific design choices, usually in the contemporary world, but it's certainly an excellent starting point when you are making a home "your own". As to white trim...I prefer it for painted trim work and doors. That's a unifying theme in our home, at least the portions, including the addition that we have addressed to-date. Our "public spaces" are all the same comfortable shade of creamy yellow and the private spaces carry bolder color on the wall.

[Glenn Clabo]

No white here...even the ceilings are not being painted white anymore. They are painted a lighter shade of whatever the walls are....which are usually something fairly neutral. It makes all the rooms look bigger.

[David G Baker]

I like bright white semi-gloss on the walls and egg shell on the ceilings but have been out voted by SWMBO when ever the topic is addressed.

[Jude Tuliszewski]

All white, except where the kids and dog/s have made it not so white. Out side getting done first then some color on the inside.

[Rob Mathis]

Only my shop is white.

[Scott Shepherd]

A good friend of mine is an interior designer and I've spent some time looking at work she's done in people's home and offices. I was so impressed by what she does with color. She sees it, where as I don't. She's really into what colors trigger what emotions. So your den has a color that's visually relaxing and warm, where as the bedroom would be peaceful. I used to think it was all hooey until I started seeing the rooms she'd done. Now I'm a convert and I'd never consider painting any walls white.

It's all about the moods and emotions you want people to feel when they visit that room.

Come on, get rid of that white!

[Von Bickley]

Ceilings and closets are white. Color everywhere...
When Mama's happy, everybody is happy....... ;)

[Lee DeRaud]

Pretty much everything is white, except the dining room and the wall of the master bedroom behind the bed. It's not that I have anything against color, but I'm a believer in the "color in the furnishings" approach. Mostly I just like the freedom of being able to shuffle furniture/rugs/artwork/whatever from room to room with worrying about whether it goes with the walls.

(I have also long since embraced my role as "statistical outlier" in pretty much all aspects of my life.)

[Jim Becker]

She's really into what colors trigger what emotions. So your den has a color that's visually relaxing and warm, where as the bedroom would be peaceful. I used to think it was all hooey until I started seeing the rooms she'd done. Now I'm a convert and I'd never consider painting any walls white.

Bingo...

Our master bedroom is a darker sage green color. Very soothing to us. Our guest room and my office are a very light, creamy sage color. Public areas are the creamy yellow I mentioned before and the multi-purpose/media room is a shade darker...almost gold which is very rich. The white trim ties everything together, but the colors fit the purpose of the rooms and help make them more comfortable spaces.

[Chris Kennedy]

When we bought our house, I figured that Virginia was undergoing a white paint shortage because all of it was on our walls.:D Since then we have repainted all but one room, and it remains white because we still haven't decided exactly what to do with that room.

Having a house that was painted all white, which made it essentially a blank canvas, it was a lot of fun. Every little bit of color softened the stark look of the house, and actually, we had a great time experimenting with sample colors. We found it interesting that a lot of colors we wouldn't have thought a good idea on a wide expanse of wall actually looked a lot better than we had expected.

Cheers,

Chris

[Ed Kilburn]

All of my walls are white, the kitchen and baths are gloss white. The rest of the house has skim coat plaster that has never been painted. My last house was unpainted except the bath for 14 years, if the kids messed up the walls; a rag with bleach cleaned them right up. The home I have now I painted the rec room because it is finished with dry wall. Some day if I can find on of those decorators that has some ideal of what colors, maybe I’ll paint the walls eer more like I’ll pay someone, I HATE to PAINT!!!!!

[Craig Nickles]

There are only two rooms in my house that are white. Both of those are my den and my wife's office. All of the other rooms in our house are a different color or white with at least one wall painted another color.

[Neal Clayton]

A good friend of mine is an interior designer and I've spent some time looking at work she's done in people's home and offices. I was so impressed by what she does with color. She sees it, where as I don't. She's really into what colors trigger what emotions. So your den has a color that's visually relaxing and warm, where as the bedroom would be peaceful. I used to think it was all hooey until I started seeing the rooms she'd done. Now I'm a convert and I'd never consider painting any walls white.

It's all about the moods and emotions you want people to feel when they visit that room.

Come on, get rid of that white!

i agree, and learned alot from hiring a decorator for my last house.

i don't understand why people don't hire them more often. they don't cost much. the deal i worked out with the guy that runs one of the local furniture stores was i pay his commission that the store normally pays him in cash on everything he picked out. he did all the shopping, arranged for his delivery guys, and took care of the painters and any other such stuff as necessary. i didn't even have to set foot in a store. he'd show up with a truckload of stuff and set it up, i kept what i liked and he took back what i didn't.

yeah he's obviously evading taxes but that doesn't concern me, so let him as far as i'm concerned ;).

so everything i got from his store cost me nothing extra, everything i got from other places wound up costing me 10%, which was collectively less than 5% of the total spent.

lots of us can build nice things but to fit right in the right building they need some art and architecture influence as well, which not alot of us have.

there's no shame in hiring someone who knows what you don't know, imo..

[Jason Roehl]

Not a drop of white in my house. The closest surfaces to white are the ceilings and closets, which are a 50% of Glidden's Antique White (looks white to the untrained eye, though). Most rooms are 2 colors then. I still have to strip the heavy, old wallpaper in the basement and figure out exactly what colors to put there. The "theater" area is causing me quite a dilemma. A deep red would be a traditional theater room color, but would clash with the framed Indianapolis Colts poster I have hanging on one of the walls. :D

I still need to address the garage, too, and that, due to the low ceilings, will likely go white or close to it, and the floor will probably get some sort of cream or beige epoxy.

[Scott Shepherd]

i don't understand why people don't hire them more often. they don't cost much.

Exactly. You don't have to use them to "do" your entire house. Most of them will come do a color consultation for less than $100. They'll walk through, see what you have, tell you what colors each room should be and them it's up to you to do the rest. Spend $100 and get the colors picked out. If you spend $40 a gallon and get 1 room color wrong, you've blown that $100 in paint, so why not start with the colors they should be from the beginning!

I wasn't aware they even did stuff like that, but my friend does it full time and does quite well with it.

[Jim Mattheiss]

All of the ceilings are Ben-Moore CEILING SUPER WHITE.
99.44% of the trim is Ben-Moore WHITE DOVE (slightly off white).
Closets are WHITE. Everything else is light to medium colors.

The only thing I might live to regret is the Millstone "Granite" paint used in the powder room off of the family room. It's medium beige with darker granite "Sand" mixed in. It looks cool but the walls will need to be skim coated to be smooth again.

We were talking to a decorator and she was proposing a $3K custom built pullout couch, a $3K entertainment center and more. Too rich for my blood. . .

Jim

[Wyatt Holm]

What other color is there? All the rooms at home are white. Any other color does not look clean to me.

[Larry Edgerton]

None here. I consider white and beige chicken colors.

The owner is too chicken to choose a color.........

[Jason Roehl]

White is not a color, but the absence thereof or the reflection of the whole visible spectrum... ;) :D

[Belinda Barfield]

Ceilings - white, all walls Navajo White. Not by choice, but by indecision.

We bought the condo three years ago and just haven't taken the time to paint. Also, we can't agree on a color. SO likes earth tones, I don't. I like soft blues and nice light buttery yellows - he doesn't. In our last house we had a lovely green in the office as that was where he spent most of his time. Dining room and living room were a lovely deep rose - particularly pleasing late in the day when the light was just right.

We are also stuck with several coats of paint over wall paper. I say we need to strip everything and start fresh, he says that's too much trouble.

Every time we talk about painting one of use points out that the trim absolutely has to be replaced, so why paint, replace trim, and then have to paint again. Oh, and while we're at it, the carpet needs to be ripped up and wood flooring put down, the tub has to go so we can replace it with a shower, I really want new cabinets in the kitchen . . .
I know, I have to start somewhere. He's leaving today for the weekend and just might come home to a new paint color, at least in the master bath. I'm sneaky that way!

[Joe Hardesty]

What other color is there?

How about NONE.

We built our log home 13 years ago and made the decision that there would be no paint used, inside or out. With the exception of the garage doors (brown) and the steel entry door (green) there is not a drop of paint in our entire house. 100% wood with clear wood finish (including ceilings and floors).

[Don Bullock]

Our present house is full of wallpaper. The previous owner had every room, including bathrooms and even the laundry room, covered with different paper. Like you, I'm now in the process of removing it all. What a job!!:eek: We're in the process of getting the house ready for sale or lease. That means that we'll be painting every room with some neutral tone paint that will go with just about anything.

Our new house was all white except for two rooms when we bought it almost a year ago. It has now been painted and none of the rooms are white. It is mostly a beige with some blue "accent" walls. The master bath is a light blue. Two of the bedrooms and one bathroom are tones of yellow. I like the color scheme much better than the white. We do have a screened in deck in the back that will be mostly bright white (didn't include it in the survey response). The lower walls and ceiling are white melamine and the top half of the walls will be white semi-gloss. That "room" is going to eventually be decorated like a 50s diner with white and black checkerboard tile floor and bright red accents such as some molding, upholstery in chairs, etc., "soda shop bar" and the exposed trusses. So, perhaps that counts as a white room. Oh, my garage workshop building is gloss white.

[Phyllis Meyer]

All the ceilings are white, kitchen and dining room a dark wine (red), and living room a shade tan that really matches the other two rooms. Everything is wide open with lots of windows so the red really is cool. Our bedroom is white but will be changing that this spring to a shade of green. We used to be all white, but adding color is so much fun!

Phyllis

[Art Mulder]

I want to keep a good portion of the house white to reduce work and keep it simple. However, SWMBO feels that white walls with white trim is "institutional" and "boring".

:confused::confused: reduce work? Painting is one of the easiest things you can do to "renovate" your house and update it to a new look. For less than $100 I can totally rejuvenate a room. (Though I share your dislike of wallpaper. ugh.)

So needless to say, I agree with your wife. :p


... and closets are white.

Closets are WHITE.

This.

We've gradually repainted the inside of 4 closets to be basic white. None of the rooms are white, just the closet interiors. This is great for reflecting light in a dark little space. It is almost never seen, so I don't think it matters that it isn't the same as the room colour. And here, Dan, is one place I'd go with you on reducing work. Painting inside a closet is a pain in the neck, so now I can just leave the closets white if/when I decide to repaint the room.

...art

ps: The kitchen is white between the cupboards and counter, and the vaulted entry is a sort of white ("December Lace" from Behr, IIRC) which was mostly done to brighten up the space and bring light into the interior of the house.

[Wyatt Holm]

Good point there, I would not want painted logs, it would ruin the wood. Oh there is places painted in houses that I like that are other than white, and that is murals. One of the most beautiful rooms I have seen had bright white walls and ceiling. The trim was oak stained with cherry, very nice looking to me.

[Dan Mages]

:confused::confused: reduce work?

When you are repainting three hallways, a bedroom and a bathroom at the same time, it is far more easier to use one roller and paint and not have to switch every hour or so.

Interesting response rate. Either mostly white, or none at all.

Dan

[Brian Elfert]

My entire first floor is painted a few different colors including a vibrant burgandy color as an accent on a low wall and over my kitchen island.

The basement and second floor are all off white. I used a paint that cost about $25 a gallon now.