Living Room Makeover – How to Choose the Perfect White Wall Paint

How To Choose The Perfect White Wall Paint — Transforming your dull apartment into a bright space can elevate the entire home! We’re sharing our tips on how to choose the perfect white wall paint..

Choose the Perfect White Wall Paint - Sugar & Cloth - Home Decor - Room Makeover - Houston Blogger - Colorful

The Easiest Way To Transform A Living Room

When it came to conquering Kayla’s living room makeover, transforming the somewhat dull, traditional apartment into a brighter modern space seemed like the obvious first step.

Rather than give you the whole scoop on how we teamed up with BEHR Paint for this undertaking, I figured I’d let Kayla do her own little intro to you all by writing from her perspective!

She’s our very first full-time employee, and we’re pretty pumped to have her! She covers all of the day-to-day in’s and out’s, plus some of our social media. I’ll her take it from here! — xo Ash

Choose the Perfect White Wall Paint - Sugar & Cloth - Home Decor - Room Makeover - Houston Blogger - Colorful

Hey everyone! I, Kayla felt it was important that the space feel inspiring, light, and ethereal — after all, Jared & Ashley do refer to me as their, ‘magical unicorn.’

It’s basically a loving term referring to the fact that I happen to love all things sparkly and feminine.

I often get restless with my surroundings. But the right white can elevate a space to be the perfect blank canvas.

Having simple walls and furniture allows for a room to constantly grow and transform, by keeping the focus on small items that can be easily shifted around.

(And if you’re like me, I arrange things almost weekly, ha!)

 

Choose the Perfect White Wall Paint - Sugar & Cloth - Home Decor - Room Makeover - Houston Blogger - Colorful

Testing With Different Shades Of White Paint

You can see the original color of the wall below, and how each color looks slightly different in the light of my apartment.

We finally settled on BEHR Ultra Pure White (PR-W15) in a Satin finish for the walls and a gloss for the trim after some paint swatch testing.

We decided this particular shade of white went perfectly with the cooler tones in the room and daylight situation.

It instantly transformed the entire space to be MUCH brighter.

The rule of thumb Ashley used for choosing the perfect shade of white for the space was painting on to the wall in various white tones — one cool tone, one neutral, one warm tone, and a standard white, which you can see below.

Choose the Perfect White Wall Paint - Sugar & Cloth - Home Decor - Room Makeover - Houston Blogger - Colorful

How To Choose The Perfect White Wall Paint

When we laid the paint chips all out on a white board in the studio, they looked almost identically.

But when Ash painted the swatches on the wall, they looked very different because of the specific lighting of my living room.

Once we had one we thought we loved based on the final dried wall samples, we placed the other white colors we’d be incorporating into the room up to next them (i.e.- the coffee table and white wall art prints and frames).

We’ve found that’s the easiest way to pick a perfect shade of white that both matches your room lighting as well as the furniture you’ll be styling with so that you’re not mixing warm and cool toned shades.

Choose the Perfect White Wall Paint - Sugar & Cloth - Home Decor - Room Makeover - Houston Blogger - Colorful

Ashley custom designed the prints for me, which says a bit about my personality, ha!

I also got the brilliant idea to have the photo of Jane Fonda made into an engineer print from this A Beautiful Mess tutorial!

It was photographed in the 1960’s, on a rooftop in Paris. Does it get any better!?

Choose the Perfect White Wall Paint - Sugar & Cloth - Home Decor - Room Makeover - Houston Blogger - Colorful

Living Room Makeover | Choosing The Right Decor

Because the space is small, it’s important to me that every piece be as comfortable as it is beautiful.

You can pretty much always find me cozied up on my custom velvet couch and upholstered chair from Hayneedle!

Choose the Perfect White Wall Paint - Sugar & Cloth - Home Decor - Room Makeover - Houston Blogger - Colorful

Choose the Perfect White Wall Paint - Sugar & Cloth - Home Decor - Room Makeover - Houston Blogger - Colorful

My pink Pari rug and coffee table really helped to ground the room.

I’m also super in love with my bar cart. Drinks, anyone? I love making all our cocktail recipes.

As well as this white pouf and gold side table. 

When it comes to accent pieces, Lulu & Georgia is the absolute best and we were super excited to work with them!

Choose the Perfect White Wall Paint - Sugar & Cloth - Home Decor - Room Makeover - Houston Blogger - Colorful

Choose the Perfect White Wall Paint - Sugar & Cloth - Home Decor - Room Makeover - Houston Blogger - Colorful

Choose the Perfect White Wall Paint - Sugar & Cloth - Home Decor - Room Makeover - Houston Blogger - Colorful

Choose the Perfect White Wall Paint - Sugar & Cloth - Home Decor - Room Makeover - Houston Blogger - Colorful

Choose the Perfect White Wall Paint - Sugar & Cloth - Home Decor - Room Makeover - Houston Blogger - Colorful

It’s been a lot of fun joining the Sugar & Cloth team, thanks in part to the fact that I get to call these two my bosses.

Between the macaron painting and crying over cupcakes, we’ve managed to squeeze in a few bingo nights, sushi lunches, and pool days.

I feel super lucky to spend my time working hard for a company that I’m passionate about, with creative people I love!

Plus, now I have a super ballin’ living room. And don’t mind Jared, he secretly loves being out-numbered! ;)

Choose the Perfect White Wall Paint - Sugar & Cloth - Home Decor - Room Makeover - Houston Blogger - Colorful

How To Choose the Perfect White Wall Paint Styling & Room Sources

Thank you to our friends at BEHR for partnering with us on this post!

Please note that we may earn a commission for some of the above affiliate links. However, products featured are independently selected and personally well-loved by us!

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12 Comments

  1. Hi. Great ideas in the post. Wondering what color the ceiling is painted? Looks like it may be warmer than the ultra pure white walls? Does this make the height seem shorter at all? Thanks!

  2. OMG I love how this came together, Kayla!! It’s gorgeous and shows off your fun personality :) Would you be willing to share the link to that fab Jane Fonda photo? I am obsessed with it, and would love to try the print out in our house!

  3. Hi Kayla. I love your space, that coffee table is absolutely beautiful. But also, I like the white wall colour that you chose. We are in the process of looking at white paint as well to lighten up the house. My issue isn’t finding the right shade, it’s finding a shade that won’t clash with the already white trim throughout the house. I suppose everything could be painted one colour, but that’s a lot of work! We’ll be doing two floors like that. So, it’s really not easy picking white paint!

    1. Hi Antonella, Kayla here! Thanks for the kind words — I’m really loving the color we chose. Seems like a tough decision for your home.. We’re always fans of one tone color over here, although it always ends up being quite a bit of work! Let us know what you come up with, I trust it will look beautiful! xo

    2. Hey Antonella! Have you tried getting multiple white paint swatches to take against the trim to compare what the best fit would be? I like to leave them up for a few days to be able to see them in lots of different kind of light throughout the day. if you’re still striking out, I definitely second Kayla on going the one color route! :)