How to do white walls??

[LowLevelWhinging]

I love Scandinavian style interiors and to get the look it seems de rigeur to have white walls, but how do you do it properly? We've had white walls in our old house and somehow it just looked dingey.

These are the kind of looks I mean here.

I have two rooms to decorate and would like white walls with colourful accessories. One room is NW facing but with big bay window so nice and bright. The other (dining) room is actually S facing but has tiny little slim high windows so it's really dark. It's currently got very dark wallpaper which is fine in the evening, but awful during the day.

So, what kind of whites do I need? Pure brilliant white? or something else?

I also like really cool blues and greys, but I'm worried that they would be too dingey in a dark room.

Any advice gratefully received!

Photos are always photo-shopped. You don't get walls that dazzling white in RL.

Use a really good paint such as Dulux Brilliant White. I use Matt as I think that looks whiter than their Shot Sheen or the Silk - they are more reflective.

And at least 4 coats are needed. Having said that my walls still look slightly creamy against the Satin finish Dulux Brilliant White woodwork.

I have white walls and ceilings everywhere and wooden / neutral tiled plain floors.

It's easy to touch up marks if you stick to the same paint throughout.

I get the colour from the objects that are placed in the room.

Thank you! I was half expecting, "PBW, are you MAD?!"

Would PBW work in the very gloomy room do you think?

Brilliant White matt paint, 3/4 coats, good lighting.
Woodwork should be Dulux trade undercoat, then trade brilliant White gloss. It's not the easiest paint to use but it gives the best finish.
I love crisp white rooms, am doing it at the moment for the family room with a red sofa, White everything else.

I don't think it will work in the dark room....

I found that Satin white woodwork is definitely whiter than gloss white. In the holiday cottage I had this year I noticed all their woodwork was eggshell finish which gave a very dense white look.

Wonky's right about lighting - makes a huge difference. I changed to a 'daylight' strip lighting tube in the kitchen and any artificial yellowness has gone

Thank you.

kitsmummy I tend to agree about the dark room. Anyone got any thoughts on how to get a scandi look in a dark dining room?

what about one of those light and space paints? Though I guess they can only do so much.

Our family room is a dark room as its in the middle of the house & only has light through the doors from the conservatory.
It's in the middle of being decorated at the moment... and the gloom is already lifting.
When finished we will have a light oak floor, brilliant white walls, ceiling, woodwork, white curtains, white shelving, white fireplace (which was a bugger to paint) bright red sofa, white central pendant shade (very sculptural), white shaded table lamps and sparkly led lighting in the built in shelves, huge bright painting canvas above fireplace
Mines quite contemporary in style but could be tweaked to give a scandi look with different lights/accessories.

Matt and eggshell get dirty and do not clean well, but once you get the hang of it and use good dustsheets you can repaint a wall in a couple of hours, or a room in half a day, when you are not changing colour and do not have to repair damaged plaster.

Silk and satin are much easier to clean and more durable.

Some recent oil-based white paints go yellow if they are not exposed to sunlight, even through a window. Water-based paint doesn't, but is less glossy and less durable.

People think with white it is the easy option and once up it is as you can touch up etc But to get that top end look you need lots of coats and to fill and sand really well. PBW is my absolute favourite though no poncey whites can beat it for the look you are after

Some recent oil-based white paints go yellow if they are not exposed to sunlight, even through a window.

Yes - I had this problem when the EU changed the rules on VOCs and the Dulux brilliant white gloss yellowed within weeks. They claim to have solved the problem now. I took advice from someone in the trade who said their satin and eggshell finishes never had the same yellowing problems. I do find that they don't 'harden off' as well as gloss does.

wonky your room sounds right up my street! Our dining room is similar with light coming through the conservatory but somehow doesn't manage to reach through the gloom! Probably the current dark wallpaper sucking up all the light it can. Can you link to your pendant light? I'm searching!

Is it right that silk and satin show up imperfections more than matt? No idea on the state of the plaster. I'm expecting to have to plaster as when we stripped the hall it had ancient distemper - is that what it's called?

We've used cross-lined lining paper on other walls to cover the bumps. Is that going to ruin the effect if we do that again?

So true, noddy, about the sanding and filling. If your walls aren't perfectly flat and smooth, there's no forgiveness in plain white paint. On the same vein, I think you need to strictly edit the rest of the look. If you just paint the walls white and hang onto an assortment of furniture and accessories with no common thread, it might just look unloved.

I'm going to swim against the tide here, and disagree with the PBW consensus. I think a bit of contrast adds depth and texture, and you can adjust according to the aspect of your room. Looking at those images, many of them use very subtle variation of tone... Walls in the lightest grey, or woodwork in milk white, contrasting with cleaner, brighter whites.

BrownSauce I'm nervous about using grey in a dark room, any tips on what kind of grey might work?

This is the shade... I got it as a stopgap when I couldn't find a light I wanted but actually love it and have some other similar ones in other places in the house.

MN just ate my long post about using white!

Have a look at these lampshades.

designer-lights.com/brands/Normann-Copenhagen.html

wonky I LOVE that light and have just ordered one of the smaller ones for my landing

mootime you are spot on, we already have one of the Norm69 and it was an absolute BASTARD to assemble! I do love it though.

Lowlevel

Yes, shinier paints make blemishes more obvious.

After making the wall perfect, I like to paint it white matt (it's cheaper than colours) and use bright lights to see any remaining defects. A broad metal scraper is cleaner and much less dusty than sandpaper.

Remember to mist coat again over any scraped or filled patches.

I used just regular Trade White. Not the PBW. Just normal matt.

Kitchen and Hall I used Crown Matt Endurance white (only non PBW one I could find).

I didn't want the blue-y glare of PBW - especially as we have gone neutrals/grey-green accents - the blue would have not sat well.