anyone got white walls?

Doglover88

thinking of doing my downstairs, lounge/diner in white, with spots in the ceiling for a really bright airy feel. Going to break it up with some bright pop art on canvas.. Has anyone got white walls? do they fade easily or look dull?
Any tips or advice greatly appreciated
glen

Dee123_2

My lounge, stairwell and upstairs landing are all white. When I moved here (my first place) a year ago, I wanted a blank canvas before I worked out the colour scheme. As it happened, I found I loved the light feel, and got the warmth in the room from blue toned furnishings and beech wood flooring and furniture. At night it can be a bit stark, but I just use lamps with yellow tinged bulbs. If you are gonna put in spots, make sure they are on a dimmer.

I used Dulux satin sheen, by the way, just gives it a less chalky look.

Hunnymonster

We've got white walls currently - mainly due to my allergy to magnolia and moving into a new build - they make the rooms look bigger for sure, and very light (as you'd expect).

Got a 2 year old little boy ("I'm going to be three soon daddy") and there are some places where he's been 'at' the walls - but it doesn't show any less or more than any other colour. I'd be inclined to steer clear of anything other than matt finish for walls because it's a simpler job to run over patches in matt than silk, eggshell or other finishes.

BWZN93

We have white walls in our student house and tend to get shabby quickly, and I personally find it too cold and stark in the winter, I personally prefer 'wheat' shades because of this. It could be worth doing a patch of a few different types, because the white will look different in different types of light, and you may hate it in the day but love it at night with the spots on.

Jo xx

santana-mx3

We had "shades of white" (if that makes sense) throughout our house. However, we found it a bit cold looking (and I heard plenty of comments of how the house would look really good "with the right decor"). In the end we switched to shades of cream for a warmer look (though not quite as bright).

Plasticman

White paint also tend to show any imperfections in the walls more than other colours.

Doglover88

cheers people, the walls are due to be skimmed so fingerscrossed it wont show to many marks up
I was thinking of tiled/tile look laminate flooring, either light grey or black (think its called anthracite?)
What do you reckon? Have I been watching too much of 'footballers cribs' on MTV?

nightsong

Sounds nice, quite a bloke's look possibly, but great if that's what you're going for.

The best thing about white paint is it's dirt cheap

se999

Hi,

Last house we had we went for a scandinavian look with matt white emulsion walls, floors were either white ceramic floor tiles, stripped floorboards or birch laminate. Used rugs to break up the areas and to add more colour and texture. It was an active family house with lots of visitors & entertaining.

White emulsion was brilliant for 'touching' up high use areas where it gets grubby, no problems about colour matching. If you want to tone down the bright white use coloured lampshades or tinted bulbs for some of your lights, we also had dimmers on some main lights. For ceiling spots make sure they are physically reachable to change them when they fail (some of ours were about 10ft up)!! We also zoned a big open plan area so that the spots weren't all on at once, especially useful when wanting a more subdued effect for relaxing in the evening.

How long are you planning to stay there? Flooring is expensive & a pain to replace so as nightsong said about the black/dark grey, it sounds like a 'blokes' place. It could be worth thinking about something more nuetral and maybe large black/dark grey rugs to give the effect you want.

Hope you enjoy your new look

Doglover88

thanks everyone, does anyone have any photos/pictures of rooms with white walls and flooring? At present i have black leather sofas but was thinking of going white also? All the rooms have huge windows and Im hoping to make the most of the natural light
cheers again
glen

Dee123_2

Personally, I think white sofas with white walls might be a bit too much, unless you make a lot of use of colourful accessories i.e cushions, throws, vases, rugs (matching a colour scheme right through to your pop art).

Check out the Next website, https://www.next.co.uk, as their oslo range inspired me (new photos now though). Lots of their other ranges are shown with white walls too....