Radiators - white, black or painted? Help!

[TyrannysaurusXXrightshoarder]

I’m about to have a whole load of decorating done. Three large rooms, bathroom, hallway and stairs. I’ve been gradually going round the house and doing a room at a time and replacing the radiators in each one with a nice big column rad, so far all in white, as that fitted with the room colours. These are the last rooms to be done and I’ve decided that two of them (both are reception rooms) will have very dark paint work. Not entirely settled on the exact colours but will be like F&B Duck Green, or Dulux Woodland Fern, Everglade Forest, Palm Night - the other will be something close to Dulux Teal Velvet. I may do the skirting in the dark colour too, undecided They both have a picture rail above which will be painted white, along with the ceiling. I think I will have to do the doors in white too as they both open out in to other rooms that are painted quite light colours. But my dilemma, and given I have to order them in the next few days it really is urgent, is do I get white or black (or possibly very dark grey) column rads for the dark rooms or do I get them painted the same colour as the walls? They’re big so not going to be cheap so I don’t want to get it wrong, but no matter how many rooms I look at on Pinterest and the like, I can’t decide what to do. It’s not so much the aesthetics I’m struggling with, it’s more the pros and cons. I can’t help but think, if I don’t love the dark walls, or just want to change them in future, I’m kind of stuck with a certain palette if I’ve gone for the dark rads. Any words of wisdom?

Well, as all of my walls are various shades of white my rads are white too. But, if my walls were a statement colour, I would paint the radiators to match and disappear. A friend has done this in her dark green sitting room and it looks good.

Does painting them have any adverse effects though? In terms of efficiency?

I can't answer the question about whether paint affects the efficiency but when we were advised by a structural engineer to get a certain brand of column radiators (Acova) he specifically mentioned the white ones in preference to the other colours on account of efficiency - I don't know why though.

We have white radiators throughout - even though a few of them are on dark coloured walls (navy in one room and dark green in another). We have white wood work though and white walls above the picture rails so the white doesn't really stand out. I think out of your options, if you don't want to go with white, I'd paint them the same colours as the walls, but then you're stuck with getting them re-painted every time you change the decor.

Ohhh interesting - following - have just painted the hall bright yellow
Was wondering if I can paint the radiator yellow or if I should just stick with white

My dad said I have to use gloss paint - but he didn’t say why 😂

There is paint you can buy called radiator paint, I thought you had to use that. I assumed it might be for safety-maybe other paint is flammable at high temperatures? If you can just use normal paint I'll be fuming, as radiator paint is more expensive.

I found this online:

www.littlegreene.com/advice-hub/help-with-paint/paint-for-radiators

They detail two of their paint formulations (Interior Oil Eggshell and Intelligent Eggshell) as being suitable for radiators. Little Greene paint comes in hundreds of colours too.

Painting them does make them less efficient. I'd also hate spending hundreds on a brand new rad just to paint over it.

I've painted the older ones before that I knew would be replaced at some point. New ones are white regardless of wall colour.

You cant use ordinary wall emulsion. A lot of eggshell say for wood or metal but you would need to get it mixed to match the wall colour unless you get a brand that does all it's colours in any finish.