Monday, January 11, 2010

Boring is as boring does....

White.

Atlanta Bartlett
You should have seen the look I got today when I said we plan to paint our entire downstairs white.  It was something else. 

I take a lot of flack for my favorite color, but I stand by my choice.  I love white. To me, white is the perfect backdrop for beautiful living.  White makes any color you pair it with shine.  White bleaches, which is super-important if you live with children, dogs or husbands.  It's comfy, elegant and crisp all in one.

Coastal Living
And hard.  For me, white is the very hardest thing to figure out.  Picking color is easy.  And I do love color (hey, you've seen what I do for a living!)  But for me, picking a white that doesn't look shadowy, or golden, or flat, is really hard.  I've been trying to wrap my mind around the beheomath that is Color Me Happy to see if I can figure out why all the whites I bring home end up getting painted over.  I'm a little afraid it has to do with available natural light, and since I'm not too handy with the sledgehammer, I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do about that one. 

via the amazing Atlanta Bartlett's website-- now that lady knows her white

So for now, I'm drooling over beautiful images of white living, and saving them all away for later.  My goal is to have people walk into rooms that are awash in light and white, with just a few beautiful splashes of color---like these, that we love so much.

So my spare minutes these days are going to be spent researching white.  And it's not going to be a bit boring.  Just you wait and see....

8 comments:

paula said...

I adore white. we painted our master snowbound white by sherwin williams. love it.

Joy said...

I can't wait to see. As you can tell from my house, we aren't exactly into white walls. However, I'm confident you can make it gorgeous. :)

Anonymous said...

I think all-white rooms are so dreamy. Good luck!

Lacey (schoolhousefarm) said...

my fear...the children. It's hard enough to hide smudge marks on gray walls. but, the open feeling a white room gives is SO enchanting! love the pics.

~Grace Happens~ said...

we painted every single room in our house white. and the funny part is that we LOVE color. that is exactly why we chose white, so that we can incorporate so many different colors and change them out when we get bored. it's the best! go for it, you will love it!

~Grace Happens~ said...

Hey Melissa! Our paint is the low-voc (the non toxic paint) from sherwin williams in Pure White. Also, Erika from Urban Grace Interiors posted her favorite paint sources here. You can't go wrong with any of them. All great colors!

http://blog.urbangrace.com/?p=696

I'm off to catch up on your blog now:)

anellesgardening said...

I'm not too far off from you. I fought with my husband when we bought this house. It was painted a just barely off white with white trim in every room. He wanted to immediately paint EVERY room. I think it was leftover from dorm and military living where you were forced to live with white walls and couldn't paint, but either way we had a good fight. It ended in a few walls in the house being painted. I just feel like the white allows you to decorate more fully, and the pieces you choose to really stand out. When you put something on an already painted wall, i can easily get confused and swept away. That, and everything I own is designed for the before mentioned white walls, so they fit best there. :)

Melissa Elle Cole said...

Have you tried Farrow & Ball's All White, Wimborne White or Pointing? I'm a white lover too...oops I guess that sounds kinda awkward! Anyway, I LOVE white and these are some of the best white paints I've used. Can't wait to see what you choose!!