Few colours provoke a stronger reaction than white, and white is not technically a colour at all. Most people have an opinion about it. To some, it looks cold, basic or soulless. To others, it is the ideal backdrop for art.
The author and academic Wendy S Walters has made the case against it at book length. Her book, A Dead White: An Argument Against White Paint, was nominated for the National Book Award for Nonfiction in the US. She examines white’s associations, its role in the collective psyche and her own growing dislike of it.
Why designers still make the argument against white paint
The argument against white paint did not start with her. For a while, white paint faded from the design conversation. Images in magazines and online leaned toward amber, stone, tea-stained silk and buttermilk. Deep jewel tones became popular for rooms with little natural light, and yellows, greens, pinks and blues appeared across kitchens. Designers such as Brandon Schubert built widely admired schemes around moss and goldenrod.
Schubert admits that white is hard for him. “I’m actually someone who struggles to use white in interiors,” he says. “There is something about white that feels like such a missed opportunity.”
For Schubert, colour is the most direct route to emotion in a room. People broadly agree on what makes a palette calm or gentle, and on what makes one feel moody or energetic. He also warns that poorly handled white can signal “lack of thought, inattention, carelessness.”
The case for white
Defenders of white make a simpler reply to the argument against white paint. The thrill of a bold colour fades over time. White set against brick, wood or glossy trim keeps its appeal.
White only works when its surroundings do the heavy lifting, and softer natural finishes show how texture can replace paint. Limestone-inspired porcelain tiles that soften interior spaces shows how stone-like neutrals create warmth without relying on bright white.
Architect William Smalley is one of those defenders. “I don’t much like being in coloured rooms,” he says. “The colour can feel insistent. White tones seem truest to a true life, honest and without artifice, especially in the sun.” He also published Quiet Spaces, a book of calm, porcelain-washed rooms.
Smalley says that calling every white simply “white” misses the point. “White is not a colour. It’s an absence of colour. It’s the reason paper is white,” he says. Painting a wall white is neither aggressive nor a cop-out, in his view.
He goes further. Smalley says he could write a book arguing the reverse of Walters’ position, that white is true and pure while excess colour is false and evasive. He often specifies natural clay plasters from Cornwall, sold under the name Clayworks. The plasters catch light across a room and give walls a soft, subdued finish.
Interior designer Guillaume Alan, who has used white across projects in Paris and London, recalls a trip to Greece. “I remember an old whitehouse on a rocky point on the island of Sifnos, in Greece, in September,” he says. “The brown and rust tones of the rock warmed the white walls, and the sun reflected off the sea. Place matters a great deal.”
Alan admits that white interiors can feel cold. Balance decides the outcome. “I often think of architecture and decoration as a musical score,” he says. “Each element has its own presence, but it is the balance between them that creates harmony.”
Five years ago, Alan mixed a custom chalky white he calls Craie. In a Paris residence, it sits beside raw stone, marble and white-brushed parquet, and produces “contrast and luminosity.” He does not treat white as a default. “I don’t believe white should be the default for an elegant interior,” he says. “But used with sensitivity, it brings simplicity and elegance. It also allows for play with lighting.” For Alan, white is a material to work with, one tool among several for building a coherent scheme.
The calming effect of the right white is hard to dismiss. Pantone named a creamy white, Cloud Dancer, its colour of the year for 2026. The company described it as “an antidote to the noise and angst going on in the world.”
Reaching that kind of near-invisibility takes trial and error. Smalley describes the goal as invisibility. “I want to walk into a room and not think,” he says. For his own office redesign, he worked with London designer Marianna Kennedy, who added pipettes of umber and siena to a vat of white paint until she reached a milky tone.
Alex Eagle makes a different kind of choice. Her studio and boutique are in 180 Quarter, next to her residential project 180 The Thames and her hotel project St. Clement. For non-bespoke work, she favours Farrow & Ball’s Slipper Satin and Lime White. Together, she says, they create the restrained palette of a gallery or cultural institution.
Minimalist schemes like this one depend on restraint and light, much as Eagle’s galleries do. A minimalist Shiga house built on essential design is worth a look for how pared-back walls and openings shape a room’s mood.
Farrow & Ball says Slipper Satin takes its name from the pale silk of traditional ballet shoes. Without cool blue undertones, it often reads as a pale grey chalk, which is why it works as a neutral in older interiors.
Eagle sees white paint as a counterweight to modern life. “There’s something incredibly beautiful about white paint in a world where there’s so much going on,” she says. “We’re inundated with screens, bombarded with advertising and different aesthetics. There’s something appealing about the simplicity and minimalism of it.”
In her projects, white acts as a medium that plays off other materials. “We make them creamy or give them a specialist gloss or plaster finish,” she says, “so that when there are paintings on the walls, specialist lighting and beautiful light switches, those rooms feel special.” Handled with care, white can carry character.
Smalley offers a final example. He brought a friend to a home he had recently completed in Wimbledon, with oak panelling and pale grey carpets set against Farrow & Ball white walls. “He walked in,” Smalley says, “and he just said, ‘Dior’.” Done well, white stops being a blank and starts framing everything else in the room.
Via thespaces.com
Frequently asked questions
What is Wendy S Walters’ book about white paint?
Wendy S Walters wrote A Dead White: An Argument Against White Paint, which was nominated for the US National Book Award for Nonfiction. In it, she examines white’s associations, its role in the collective psyche, and her own growing dislike of it.
Why does architect William Smalley defend using white paint?
Smalley says he doesn’t much like being in coloured rooms, which he finds insistent. He believes white tones seem truest to a true life, honest and without artifice, especially in the sun. He also argues that white is not a colour but an absence of colour.
Why does designer Brandon Schubert struggle to use white in interiors?
Schubert says there is something about white that feels like a missed opportunity to him. He also warns that poorly handled white can signal lack of thought, inattention, or carelessness.
What is Pantone’s colour of the year for 2026?
Pantone named Cloud Dancer, a creamy white, its colour of the year for 2026. The company described it as an antidote to the noise and angst going on in the world.
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