The best cool white paint colors

Want a white color that won't look yellow or creamy? Here are the best cool white paint colors for your home!

Picking a white paint color is hard. If you want a cool white, I bet you are worried about whites that look too yellow or creamy.

Instead, you can look for a white with cool, crisp, and clean undertones!

How do you pick the best white paint color?

My process for choosing paint colors goes:

1. Get paper swatches
2. Hold them up all over the room
3. Choose 3-5 swatches to get samples of
4. Paint large samples all over the room
5. Look at the samples day and night, lights on and lights off
6. Pick your favorite white paint!

There are a few things to consider specifically when choosing a white paint color.

Here's our guide to paint undertones!

Warm white vs cool white paint

The first thing to consider is undertones. You want to note the undertones of the fixtures in your space - flooring or furniture that won't be changing - and coordinate with that color palette.

White paint can have either warm undertones or cool undertones.

Warm undertones means that it has hints of yellow, gold, or tan.

Cool undertones means that it has hints of blue or gray.

The best way to determine the undertones of white wall paint is to place a color swatch next to pure white printer paper. When in doubt, add a few swatches of other shades of white paint.

It should be pretty clear if the white feels yellow, blue, green, or even pink!

What color should trim be if walls are white?

You have a few options for trim paint colors with white walls.

One is to paint the trim the same color as the walls. You could choose the exact same shade but in a semi gloss finish to differentiate the two.

Alternatively, you can go for a contrasting color. Black, navy, or a charcoal color are all popular high-contrast trim colors.

Finally, you could go for an accent color. Usually a dustier color works better than a very bright color. Think dusty denim blue! This is a great way to bring color to your walls and break them up without having too much color in the space.

What is the best white paint for interior walls?

Unfortunately, there is not a one-size-fits-all white paint color that works best in every room.

Some rooms do well with a soft white, some need a neutral white, and some need something with more yellow undertones for warmth.

The answer is that you need to test multiple white paint samples in your room, with your lighting and your fixtures, to choose the best white paint for your room!

What type of white paint is best?

With white paint, it's very important to buy high quality paint, preferably paint and primer in one to get good coverage.

Cheap white paint can take a LOT of coats to get coverage, which will end up costing you more for the extra quantity of paint!

The best cool white paint colors

Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace OC-65

Chantilly Lace is the whitest white paint color Benjamin Moore offers. It's a very bright white, with crisp clean cool tones. It's a very pure white and a favorite of many designers for that reason.

Click here to get a peel & stick sample of Chantilly Lace

Benjamin Moore Chalk White 2126-70

This is another bright, bold white with a bit of a cold undertone to it. It has slight gray undertones to it, giving it that cool, clean look.

Click here to get a peel & stick sample of Chalk White

Behr Ultra Pure White 1850

Ultra Pure White is about the whitest white paint color that there is across brands. It has a LRV of 94, which is very close to pure white (100). While there isn't much of an undertone to it, being that bright white makes it feel cool and slightly gray toned.

Benjamin Moore White Diamond

This cool white paint color has slightly blue and gray undertones to it. This is what makes it so white and combined with its brightness and crispness, it pairs really well with other cool colors.

Click here to get a peel & stick sample of White Diamond

Sherwin Williams Snowbound SW 7004

This is another crisp cool gray with a gray undertone. It looks pretty pure white until you put it next to other whites, at which point you really see the gray undertones!

Click here to get a peel & stick sample of Snowbound

Any more questions about the best white paint colors for every home?!

Thanks for reading!