Which White?

[Sunisshining12]

Sending DH to get ceiling paint later..

Trade Paint
White
Brilliant White
F&B All White

Which is the 'purest'? ie not cold & blue..but no yellow undertones either?!

Hi - it’s a surprise to most people, but every paint colour belongs to a measurable Hue Family, including blacks, whites, greys.

It’s possible to compare different attributes of ‘white’ paint colours by looking at their colour DNA.

Hue - tells you in which Family they belong.
Value - tells you how light they appear. 0 = black + 10 = white
Chroma - tells how colourful a colour is. Lower = nearer to neutral.
LRV - tells how much light a colour reflects.

Many people often perceive high value & low chroma ‘whites’ from the Green-Yellow Hue Family as feeling more neutral.

Here are some popular white paint colours to compare.
The higher the Value - the lighter the colour.
The lower the Chroma - the nearer to neutral.

P.s. I have swapped out the Dulux colour for All White.
All of the colours can be plotted in teir Hue Family location on the inner ring of this wheel. So you can see how they sit in relation to their Hue Families.

Whites & their colour attributes

@colette100 could you explain a bit more? I have a white on some of my walls and it makes me think of ice!

Hi - yes., here goes.

In order for paint companies to conceive of a paint colour in the first place and be able to reliably match a paint chip to a sample pot, sample pot to a tin, they use a system of colour measurement.

We can now use that same system to compare the similarities and differences between colours.

Every measured colour has a Hue Family location, a Value, Chroma and LRV. So we know in which Hue Family it belongs, how light or dark it is, how colourful or near neutral it is, how much light it reflects.

Knowing that info allows us to compare them in detail.

A white which reads icy to you, is likely to be a low Chroma white, (near neutral) possibly from the end of the Yellow, or from the Green-Yellow Hue Family.

Near neutral colours from the Green-Yellow neighbourhood are prone to shifting blue in imbalanced lighting. They aren’t blue and don’t have blue ‘undertones’. It’s simply an effect of light quality and context.

To find a white which reads somewhat warmer to you in that space, I would suggest a white with more Chroma and possibly from a different neighbourhood.

You may find the blog and colorographies of interest at
The Land of Color .com and on Instagram. Also the_glassroom on Instagram.

🌈

We don’t have access to Sherwin Williams but the fabulous paints from Benjamin Moore are available in the UK.

Here you can see how lots of their popular whites compare and where they sit in their Hue Families.

@colette100 - this is awesome! Thank you for sharing. I spend hours obsessing over paint!

I’m still not understand the difference between bog standard white trade & brilliant white? Just the cheap tubs from B&Q?

Ha - me too! 🌈

One difference between bog-standard white and a higher quality white can be the quality & ratio of pigment to the medium which carries it.

Titanium dioxide particles can be of varying size & milled differently too, before being added to the resin. All these are just some of the factors can affect ‘whiteness’

But nearly all paint companies have difficulty with the ‘hide’ of whites, even many which maybe considered up market products. They might still be able to produce a ‘whiter’ white than the B&Q option, (if that is what you are looking for), but it could take 4 coats to do so.

It’s also why some colours just aren’t successfully copied from one brand to another. Many can be, but many cannot be without a perceptible difference.

P.s. How is a Hue Family determined for a colour?

A standardised light source is shined on the surface (e.g. paint chip).
The dominant wavelength of light which reflects back from it, can be measured. This tells us in which Hue Family a colour belongs because each each Hue has its own wavelength. That’s how we can plot it on the Color Strategist Wheel above.

Even the whitest white architectural paint colour available to us, still contains this information: Its colour DNA. So it’s no longer necessary to guess,,,,

@colette100 thank you.

Just comparing Wevet to All White on your table above.

So does that mean Wevet would be more yellow & darker than All White?!

Thanks

@Sunisshining12 I've just started a thread about my hall which is currently painted in All White with pictures if it helps. There are definitely no yellow undertones.

Hi - Both Wevet and All White are high Value and very low Chroma near neutral colours. So low, they have very little discernible Hue. It can be tough to tell in which Hue Family they belong.

But by comparison,
All White is the touch lighter. (higher Value)
Wevet is slightly more neutral. (lower Chroma)

Both are great options for near neutral trims, even to pair with other off-whites as they will read more neutral by comparison than many.

Do remember though, because they are so low in Chroma, if used as a wall colour near bolder, more saturated colours, such as orange wood floorboards or next to a window with overhanging trees, they could easily pick up some of that bolder colour from reflection. They don’t have enough inherent colour of their own to withstand it.

So always sample in the space they are to be used.

🌈

All White is a perfect pure white, but somehow it isn't harsh. It's fantastic TBH.