White walls rock! If you need color . . . a pillow, a book or maybe a new kitten!!!!

This 1min video tip is a great idea. I prefer light gray walls which have more character and still do the trick of making the room bigger.
For me the sofa, lamps, pillows and a rug are the accessories to color the space.

Does anyone have a recommendation on a favourite "cool" white/off-white/very light grey?

I've found Benjamin Moore's Misty Grey and White Wisp to be "almost" there, but I don't want to miss out on any other really great cool, light neutrals.

I think it's time for me to paint my bedroom white. I will probably be ok.

As an aside, Ms. Ross' pillows are stunning. I have two and hope they are just the beginning. If you want to have an instant mood lift, go to her website. The colors are dazzling.

100% agree; color sofas + anything adds color

You are cracking me up. Thanks.

White/off white walls - always and forever.

white is for color weenies.

white is for color weenies.

I don't think it's accurate to white walls are for people who are afraid of color. I have a very brightly colored exterior to my house, but after years of having color saturated walls inside, we discovered that we got more light and brightness in our Pacific NW winters by having white walls. Everything else in our house is very colorful. And I would say it was harder to pick the right white for walls than any other color. I think some people leave their walls in stock neutrals like beige or white because they are afraid to make a decorating mistake, but that's not true for everyone.

I have a small 600 square foot pad, and I painted one long bedroom wall black. I love it. The white-framed windows pop, it feels rich and extravagant, and the white walls opposite to it feel less cold and staid. I am not against all white. But certain rooms can handle a rich color and still feel spacious and, zoomy! It also makes the most lovely backdrop for my bright abstract art.

I think it is very much a matter of taste. When I bought my house in Seattle, in the winter, all the walls were white and I thought is looked dingy. White only looks bright when there is something reflecting off of it. I painted my living/dining room bittersweet orange and all the sudden the place was warm and bright. If I ever painted a lighter color it would be something warm like cream or ivory, never just white because of that. And I love gray but only use it as an accent for the same reason.

I like off white walls. For some reason, the stark white walls just make a space look more messy to me when adding a pop of color. It's the way all the color pieces just pop out, in a messy way individual, instead of cohesive way. When the walls have a subtle color, it feels more like they are still airy, but ground pieces better together. It's a little hard to explain.
The only way I really like white walls is when the whole look is very neutral.

Nice apartment.

As someone else commented, white can look dingy when there is not enough light in the room. I live in a small 1930 apartment which gets almost entirely indirect sunlight (that is shaded by nearby buildings as well) and only a sliver of direct sunlight for a few hours a day. My walls are all white but they look dingy. It's still better than an off-white though- my kitchen is a pale off-white yellowish color and it looks like it's dirty (unless you turn on a ton of overly white LED lights).
The best thing in my case would be bright and bold colors I suppose.
Apartment Therapy has done many articles on small spaces and how to make them seem bigger, but I think I'm not the only one who lives in a dark city apartment... can we have an article on dark spaces?

White walls yeeeeeah!

i had to live my whole adult life with white walls (as a renter) and thought i'd do the drastic color thing once I bought my own place. I haven't though. My bathroom is just about all white, and my living room walls, which I took months to repair and skim coat are Benjamin Moore decorators' white. I have decent enough indirect light for NYC and the white just looks superclean and rich. It's a perfect backdrop for my danish modern pieces and colorful rugs, art, and upholstery. I think that an additional color would be just too much.

Absolutely agree. White walls make small spaces look larger and brighter. Now we have a larger space with ten feet high ceilings and white is still working its magic. Our kitchen is signal yellow with patterned antique tiles. No other color would work with that combo.

Back when white walls were first becoming 'trendy' I tried it out. They lasted three months. I live in the upper Midwest, and honestly during the white-washed winters, it was horrible. The white didn't "brighten up the space". It didn't make the "rooms seem larger". It was.. blah, even with my wonderful art pieces. And honestly, made my tiny rooms feel even smaller.

It's funny if you think about it. It seems like we have been fighting for color for the longest time, and just when it is really being acceptable (even by landlords) it is being pushed aside, even poo-poo'd. Go with the latest trend, but don't dismiss color for the reasons given, because they are completely false. Perhaps she should learn how to use color appropriately instead of pushing her "beautiful" rugs and pillow line..

Cool; I liked this one minute tip a lot. I recently moved into an all-white apartment (good friend - it's a white box...) and painted but now I'm wondering if I should have just used color accents? Great job opening my eyes to the potential of a 'white box'.

My landlord allows us to paint our walls whatever we like and I still painted them white. A clean, bright white. And I love it.

I am beginning to find the old refrain of white walls make a room look larger etc. etc. irritating. As some others have pointed out, this is not a universal rule. I think it very much depends on the kind of light you get in a geographical area or on the direction the room faces. Also small dark rooms will always be small dark rooms. They often become dingy dark rooms when coated in white paint. Sometimes a mid-tone or dark color is better. Not a primary shade but an off shade, maybe a grayed one.

I think (off-) white walls are a great place to start. But when you're stuff is all in, and you're pretty settled, it's worth thinking what a coloured wall might do for you. I found one pale blue wall lifted the spirit of a seaside living room. I like the idea of a burnt orange but will probably never do it.

Agree with what "Muesli" and "Mrs. Robinson" wrote. The "right" color can make the whole difference, whether or not it's for a small or large home.

We're in the middle of re-painting our living and dining room (to be truthful, my husband, who is retired, is painting and I'm at my job all day). We used to have fabulous yellow walls, but we realized that we last painted in the late 90s and we wanted a change. I never thought that we`d go with white, but we're going with Benjamin Moore Cloud White and we've chosen Benjamin Moore Bahaman Sea Blue for both sides of the wall between the 2 rooms. There is a set of very old glass French doors between the 2 rooms and we stained the doors a dark colour (ebony, but not so black). The contrast between the blue and the white is fabulous and I'm so happy that we went with white. (Mind you, all white would have been too much white.)

I hate white walls. Too blah and cold for me. To each his/her own. We bought our current house two years ago and the master was white. We left it to see if it would grow on me, but it hasn't. I have half a dozen paint samples on the walls now and hope to get it painted in a couple of weeks.

My mom always said, less is more. White walls are one of those things that fell into that category or her. She was right. I carry on the tradition today. It's clean & sheek. And best if all, I can change out my apartment decor when the mood moves me.

My row house, middle of the block, windows in the front of the house only, is extremely dark so white walls just look blah, not at all sheek, sheik or chic. Light grey though looks great, and it highlights the art so much better than white does I think.

I disagree with her. Sometimes, light grey or mid-tones can work wonders and look more "deliberate," rather than the college-dorm-I-can't-or-forgot-to-paint. I think a light grey would do wonders for opening up her space, for example, with or without her beautiful textiles.

White walls make me feel a little anxious. Like there's still work to be done. In my own home, they feel clinical. But it figures, now that I just got a house of my own, the trend is for white walls, so when it comes to forward-thinking advice about how to paint with color, I'm out of luck. I've almost completely stopped looking at the home tours here and at Design Sponge because they're almost invariably featuring homes with white walls. Enough.

I moved into my Chicago apartment in July. I keep all the walls white. But actually, as night rolls in they become a yellow ivory kind of color.....I always paint my walls, lately with bold horizontal bands, but I'm really into white walls right now

@Iruthg "I've almost completely stopped looking at the home tours here and at Design Sponge because they're almost invariably featuring homes with white walls."

That's because furnishings and textiles do look great against white walls. I like colourful walls in theory, and I enjoy looking at paint chips and imagining the possibilities, but I always stick with white. Also, if coloured walls are not professionally done, or a dark colour is put with a jarring, bright trim, it just looks terrible, IMO.

I appreciate people who paint their walls a color...that can work well and I have nothing against it....that goes for great wall paper too!
But for me, with a small apartment and lots of objects to bring the color in, I find white makes the space look and feel larger. My choice of white is a creamy white, Benjamin Moore White Dove.
I think it is great all the comments and I am glad there are colored walls out there!
Regards Judy Ross