15 fabulous white paints

What is white? Look at a parking lot full of white cars, and you quickly come to see that it’s actually a whole range of shades. No other colour—and make no mistake, white is a colour—has the range of moods that white does. It can be warm and embracing, crisp and clean, or change its character according to the time of day or the time of year.

We asked some of our favourite paint companies to show us their best whites, and they responded with a rainbow of ways to use this, the most versatile of shades. There’s nothing shy about any of these beautiful whites!


Slipper Satin
Farrow & Ball

White kitchens may be classic, but there’s no reason they have to be dull. As this kitchen painted in three classic Farrow & Ball whites shows, choosing a suite of white tints rather than just one makes all the difference. Here, the walls are done in Slipper Satin (No. 2004), while cabinets are Pointing (No. 2003), with the skirting boards painted in Lime White (No. 1).