Using a pure ultra white paint color in your home’s interior

I get a lot of questions about the white walls in our home, and the short answer is that almost every room is painted with ultra-white paint color and has been for years. Not a tinted white, not an off-white, just pure ultra white straight off the shelf. I know that sounds intimidating, but I want to show you exactly how it looks in our bedroom, kitchen, dining room, and more because I think the photos will surprise you. I also made one exception in our living room, and I’ll show you why, which might actually help you figure out which direction is right for your own home. When you hear how many of our walls and furniture are painted with ultra-white paint, you may picture a stark white home without character, but that is definitely not the case. Let me explain a bit more below.

Rooms in our home painted with ultra white paint

I’ve used Valspar ultra white 7006-24 (eggshell for walls and flat for ceilings) throughout our home. When I look at the swatch on their website, I have to say that I think it’s completely off and doesn’t match the paint in real life at all. You can maybe see what I mean in my image examples.

Our bedroom walls painted ultra white

Did you ever buy white furniture and when you brought it home, the rest of your white paint just looked off and dirty? Well of course only if you have white paint in your home. This can also apply to just white painted trim. My Ikea dressers as nightstands are good examples. The ultra white walls are a perfect match for the white Ikea dressers. This is definitely a reason why I love using ultra white paint so much.

The ultra white walls and trim don’t look cold at all in our bedroom. Here is a view into our bathroom. I used the same ultra white on my fluted dresser makeover.

The ceiling in the bathroom is also ultra white and goes great with the white toilet, white in the floor, and the white Ikea vanity.

Our kitchen walls and cabinets painted ultra white

Our kitchen walls are also Valspar Ultra White however, I painted the trim and cabinets with Sherwin Williams Emerald Urethane Trim Enamel and Behr Urethane Alkyd Enamel. I wanted to try those paints for trim and cabinets and love them. They are slightly different but not really visibly different as you can see. All are in their pure form right off the shelf without being tinted.

You can also see that it goes well with my quartz countertops, marble backsplash, and white refridgerator.

We live in a twin home community and a lot of the homes are the same. When my neighbors enter our home they are always surprised at how much bigger and brighter our home looks even though it’s the same size as theirs. I attribute that to the ultra-white you see when you enter. I mentioned earlier ultra white has the ability to reflect light, which can help to make a room feel brighter and more spacious which applies to our home. It still doesn’t feel stark white and our home still has a cozy feel thanks to the other colors and wood tones I added.

Our dining room walls painted ultra white

Our daughter’s bedroom painted ultra white

Our daughter used to have a dark blue girls room until she changed her mind and wanted her bedroom to be the same white as the rest of the rooms. She’s very happy with the ultra white.

The white dresser from Target looks great against the ultra-white walls and the white album frames are also a match.

Our son’s color-blocked bedroom walls with ultra white

The walls in his bedroom are color-blocked and only the upper half of his room is ultra-white while the rest of the room is a deep shade of dark green paint color.

Our powder room walls painted with ultra white

The base coat for my stenciled walls in our downstairs powder room is also ultra white.

Warm tinted white example compared to ultra white paint

I also want to show you the difference to a tinted warmer white in our home. I made an exception in our living room.

Our living room

The powder room is off to the left side where the door is. You can see the hallways view from the ultra white paint leading to the living room which is actually a tinted white called Valspar Quail Egg 7002-12.

You might wonder why I changed it up a bit in our living room and used a warm white. The reason for that is that I have a lot of home decor accessories in our living room that are off-white like our neutral sofa and curtains. An ultra-white would make those off-white, ivory, and cream accessories look dirty. Let me show you some examples…

You can also see that the swatches from Valspar are definitely off for both colors. Their swatch looks tan-ish and it’s not like that at all.

The only item painted in ultra white in the below photo of our living room decorated for Christmas is the white pedestal end table. The curtains, sofa, throw pillows, furs, and pouf are all in a warm creamy white. It just would look off if the walls were ultra white with those furnishings and accessories.

On the contrary, I wouldn’t like this tinted warm white on the rest of our walls in the house with colored furnishings and accessories that we have.

The same view below is not decorated for Christmas and with a bit of different lighting since the warm glow from the Christmas trees and candles is missing. It just flows really well.

Here is another great example of the other side of the living room with the curtains, sofa, and throw pillows. Again the ceiling is a flat ultra white and the walls are Quail Egg.

The stair treads and molding are ultra white and the walls are Quail Egg again.