White has always been a safe color. Everything goes with it, it isn’t offensive, and it has a nice, clean aesthetic. But, in the past, white has typically been an accent, never the focal point. But now, as The Wall Street Journal reports, interior decorators, paint manufacturers, and real-estate developers have fallen for the white on white look as the dominant color while more traditional luxury color palettes, such as blacks, are taking on the supporting role.
Shades of white can often make a smaller room in a home or apartment look bigger by creating the illusion of space. White walls and accents also have a clean, bright appearance that can make an overall design scheme appear more uncluttered.
Benjamin Moore offers over 250 shades of white and Sherwin-Williams 100 shades of its own and each company selected one of those shades as their color of the year. Benjamin Moore selected Simply White OC-177 while Sherwin-Williams went with Alabaster. Meanwhile, 30 percent of Sherwin-Williams’ total annual sales, in gallons, is made up of untinted whites.
