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I am in search of a ceiling paint which will read as white, but perhaps have a bit of warmth or something which can counteract the dreary appearance caused by shadows.
The ceilings in my house are all painted the typical flat white “ceiling paint.” I believe they are all off-the-shelf Benjamin Moore “Ceiling White.” This is normal for my region and I’m not sure I’ve ever lived anywhere which didn’t have flat white ceilings.
The problem is that I have very low ceilings - under 7.5 feet - and although most rooms in my house get a large amount of natural light, there are a lot of shadows on the ceiling and most parts of all ceilings look grey. I like warm colors and have NOT hopped on the grey trend, and it looks very cold and dreary even in the summer, but especially in the winter. It may be even worse-looking because I have warmer light wall colors and in contrast the ceilings look even colder. The ceilings are really too low to put up crown moulding to create a transition between the wall color and the ceiling color.
Most of our trim/doors/windows are Benjamin Moore White Dove, which at least on vertical surfaces has a subtle warmth to it and doesn’t look grey in the same way, plus the paint has some sheen which reflects light to some extent.
I know ceiling paint can be tinted and I am wondering if anyone has used and liked a different shade of white on the ceiling. I don’t want to use a paint with any sort of sheen because there are some small flaws on the ceiling. I also prefer not to go with an actual color because it’s far less versatile. I need something which will read as white, more or less (nothing TOO yellow.) Has anyone put anything like White Dove on the ceiling? I’m not sure if it’s really different enough from plain old stark white to counteract the shadows. (Yes, I know the shadows will still exist but I am just trying to warm them up a bit, I guess.)
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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We just did the living room using Glidden Ceiling paint from Home Depot. Oddly, it goes on pink, then turns white when it dries, and that makes it easier to avoid missing spots. We found that it did require two coats, but then was a much brighter white than whatever was used before 20+ years ago. We do use Benjamin Moore Advance for the walls but at $90/gallon we decided to go cheaper on the ceiling ($30/gallon) and it worked out fine for us.
We just did the living room using Glidden Ceiling paint from Home Depot. Oddly, it goes on pink, then turns white when it dries, and that makes it easier to avoid missing spots. We found that it did require two coats, but then was a much brighter white than whatever was used before 20+ years ago. We do use Benjamin Moore Advance for the walls but at $90/gallon we decided to go cheaper on the ceiling ($30/gallon) and it worked out fine for us.
These ceilings were painted around 7 years ago, so it’s new-ish paint (and I’ve touched up some areas within the last year with a new can of the same type of paint and it was a perfect match) but I DO think that they missed some spots. There seem to be stripes of thinner paint and I’m not sure what was under it. A second coat would probably appear brighter.
Benjamin Moore prices have gone way up recently! I was paying $48 a gallon in my area 5 years ago for the Regal Select and it’s over $70 now. Yup, Advance is over $90. I reserve that for things like cabinets which really need a durable alkyd finish.
I think the low ceilings are really the problem. Maybe I’m imagining that they have more shadows than do high ceilings, but at the very least, they are definitely more within a normal field of view, so the shadows are really visible.
It is possible that another problem is our choice of wall color - it’s mostly warm light creams - colors which have LRV ratings not much different from “whites” but have decidedly yellow tones. Darker wall colors or somewhat more neutral colors may help the ceiling white look less cold/dreary in comparison, but I don’t really want to change the wall colors. It’s actually new paint and I know what’s “in” but I don’t like it… I like warm light colors! But in fact we have some smaller rooms which get less light and do have richer wall colors and I have to admit the ceilings look better. Then again, the ceilings are also much smaller.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,551 posts, read 81,085,957 times
Reputation: 57734
When we bought out first house in 1978 we got our paint from the defunct store called "Standard Brands Paint." I remember getting it for as little as $3/gallon. Paint inflation is even more than for houses or cars over that time period.
We repainted our house, top to bottom, in 2022. The ceilings got sherwin williams pure white. Took two coats. OMG what a difference!
Many rooms in our house get very limited natural light, while others get lots of natural light. The is ZERO grey or cream tones in our ceilings. (Note that we used the same color on the crown moldings and baseboard, in semi gloss, one coat only.)
We repainted our house, top to bottom, in 2022. The ceilings got sherwin williams pure white. Took two coats. OMG what a difference!
Many rooms in our house get very limited natural light, while others get lots of natural light. The is ZERO grey or cream tones in our ceilings. (Note that we used the same color on the crown moldings and baseboard, in semi gloss, one coat only.)
Thank you, I will take a look at it! Is it flat sheen? Is it a tinted “ceiling paint” or the same paint you would put on the wall? (If so, do you know which SW paint line?)
When we bought out first house in 1978 we got our paint from the defunct store called "Standard Brands Paint." I remember getting it for as little as $3/gallon. Paint inflation is even more than for houses or cars over that time period.
The only “good” thing is that, even at the current prices, paint remains one of the least expensive ways to really transform the appearance of a room. But there’s definitely sticker shock when I go to the hardware store and buy 2 gallons and it’s almost $200….
The house we moved into doesn’t have much natural light. I wanted greige for the walls and after trying a dozen shades of grays and greige, they all had blue or purple undertones. The whites looked yellow or pink.
I finally went with Behr Simply White in flat for the ceilings and Cottage White satin for the walls. It was a good choice for this type of lighting. Both colors hold true and the entire house is now light and looks so much better.
Thank you, I will take a look at it! Is it flat sheen? Is it a tinted “ceiling paint” or the same paint you would put on the wall? (If so, do you know which SW paint line?)
Sherwin Williams Pure White. Flat on the ceiling. semi-gloss on the baseboards and crown molding. We didn't use white on the walls, but the walls were painted in eggshell finish.
The SINGLE best thing I did when I had to select colors was buying these from Sampleize! If find selecting paint colors to be a painful process but these things actually made it FUN!
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