Do you love a lil’ bit or a whole lot of white in your interiors? From my experience, it seems one tends to be either or.   I’m on the side of “a whole lot of lovin’ of white on my walls.  We have been in our home for seven years and I have painted nearly every room Benjamin Moore’s White Dove OC-17 in flat finish.  The only room that has not been finished is the mud room.   The walls are white dove and the built-in cabinets are either going to be Farrow & Balls Dove Tale 267 or Elephant’s Breath 229 with a hint of black.  So chic.

My husband and son love the color blue so I had to make an exception for them.  My son chose his favorite blue for the children’s bedroom and my husband wanted to see some blue in the kitchen.  As for me, I wasn’t completely resigned to the decision to paint blue in the kitchen.  Not until one rainy summer day, I took some paint off the shelf that was left here from the previous owner, and mixed up a pretty fantastic custom blue color.  As I painted over the kitchen walls, I realized that I was quite pleased with the color.  I was even more thrilled when my husband, children, friends and family loved it as well!  When asked what the color is on my walls, I simply shrug and say, “I’m not sure….it’s a custom color”. 

I am going to do away with the blue come mid-September.  We are redoing our kitchen in a soft palette so those blue walls are going to go.  We haven’t made a decision on the color but it will feel cohesive with the rest of our home.  Our favorite accent colors of azul, chartreuse….colors of the sea,  will be in the art, swivel chairs, rugs, etc.  So excited to see the transformation!

Sometimes when I get restless and need to change up a room, I’ll say to my 6 and 8 year old children, “I’m thinking I want to paint this room”.   No sooner do I say those words when they come back and say in unison, “No Mama, not another white room!”  Do you think they have me figured out?

We do have our “go to’s” when it comes to hues and I have no desire to change at this time in my life.  My world is one of patterns, colors, creative brainstorming, designing, re-designing…..living and working in a home with white on my walls helps to ground me.  It allows me to slow down my breathing and to clear my head. 

I recently read the book, BRILLIANT:  WHITE IN DESIGN by LINDA O’KEEFE.  This book is a must read for anyone who is drawn to white in their home.  It confirmed to me just why I have my own love affair with white in my interiors.  I highly recommend you pick it up this book, get comfortable in your favorite reading chair and spend an afternoon pouring over its gorgeous pages.  The photography is amazing!  I don’t think you will find it difficult to get caught up in the opulence of white.  Oh, I know what you are thinking, white is so hard to keep clean.  Yes, that is true.  In fact, if there isn’t a commitment to white, over time it becomes, well, gray.  Who wants to live in a dirty white house?  Yikes!  Not me!  So, yes, it does take upkeep and that is why I keep a gallon of paint on hand always for those touch ups that need to happen. 

Enjoy,

Rosanne