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Every do-it-yourselfer has to buy white wall paint from time to time when renovating or redesigning the living space. It should cover well, be productive, and spread well. The opacity is specified in the wall paints white in classes. Some manufacturers advertise their paint buckets with the highest opacity “Class 1”. Our test of a total of 4 white wall paints showed that most wall paints cover well or very well, however, even without this labeling.

However, the coverage can vary relatively strongly: Per square meter, the paint consumption varies by up to 100 g. This affects the price-performance ratio: The cheap wall paint with a high consumption is no longer so cheap in the end.

We have tested branded products and DIY store owns brands for opacity and yield. In addition, the tendency to splash was also tested. A paint that spatters little is more pleasant to work with than one that spatters heavily.

White Paint for Walls - Best Choice

Rust-Oleum Ultra Matte Interior Chalked Paint Linen White

 4,9 Rating

Rust-Oleum Ultra Matte Interior Chalked Paint

Features:

  • Exterior Finish: Matte Finish.
  • Easy Application.
  • Soap & Water Clean Up.
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Rust-Oleum Ultra Matte Chalked Paint creates an ultra-matte finish that can be easily distressed, giving any project a unique look with a vintage feel. Rejuvenates furniture and home decor with timeless elegance. One last coat dries for at least 8 hours, apply top coat for extra protection. Apply 1-2 light even coats, waiting 2 hours between coats.

Quick Tips: Using Chalked Ultra Matte Paint by Rust-Oleum – Video

Buyer’s guide for white paint colors for walls

Once the wall was white, now it looks rather sadly gray. It’s about time for a new coat of paint. Anyone looking for white wall paint is faced with a confusingly large selection. Polar white, premium white, super white – how white should it be?

Best white paint colors for every home

White Paint Colors for Walls

Reviews of the white paint colors for walls

All our reviews are based exclusively on expert judgments or practical experience with most of the white paint colors for walls we have tested. We strive to make our guide as independent and as detailed as possible.

Best Versatile White Paint

Montage Signature Interior/Exterior Snow White Eco-Friendly Paint

Montage Signature InteriorExterior Eco-Friendly Paint
  • Low Sheen Finish.
  • Superior coverage & protection.
  • Material: Water-Based.

 4,8 Rating

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Easy to care for on a daily basis

Montage Paint is formulated as a quality, water-based, paint, ensuring a better experience for your next paint job. This paint applies smoothly and has superior hide and coverage making a new paint job simple! Montage Paint is easily clubbable, and defends against mold and mildew for easy cleaning! Marks from everyday wear can easily be wiped clean without affecting the beautiful color and finish!

Best Eco-Friendly Interior Paint

Boomerang Eco-Friendly Moonlight White Interior Paint

Boomerang Eco-Friendly Interior Paint
  • Finish: Eggshell finish.
  • 4X Fewer Greenhouse Gas Emissions.
  • Excellent hiding power and cover-up.

 4,9 Rating

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Universal paint for most premises

This paint is certified by ECOLOGO. This interior paint from Boomerang is made from unused portions of recycled domestic paint. Washable, it features a low gloss and can be used on the walls and ceilings of most rooms. This finish latex paint offers superior hiding power and great adhesion.

Best White Matte Paint and Primer

KILZ TRIBUTE Interior Matte Paint and Primer in One

KILZ TRIBUTE Interior Matte Paint and Primer in One
  • 100% acrylic advanced technology paint and primer.
  • Durable and washable long-lasting paint.
  • Up to 400 sq. ft. per gallon coverage on smooth surfaces.

 4,8 Rating

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Acrylic paint without odor

KILZ TRIBUTE is Green guard Certified, meaning it meets strict criteria for low emissions of VOCs in indoor air. It also features a low odor. Formulated for great hide and coverage, KILZ TRIBUTE is a unique paint and primer that saves time and money. Use TRIBUTE on its own for light to dark color changes and previously coated walls with minimal staining.

What characterizes good white paint colors for walls?

Whether you want to design your living room, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, or children’s room, the emulsion paint (as the wall paint is technically called) should not limit you in your interior design ideas and wall design. Therefore, you should be able to mix all the colors you want. The color palettes and color tables are quite large, so you are only limited by your own imagination when designing walls with paint and wall decoration.

Dispersion paints, as the name suggests, consist of a dispersion of fillers, binders and solvents, pigments, and other additives. Most paints and varnishes for painting are dispersion paints, and most people understand the term wall paint to mean the simple paint buckets with the color white for interior use from the hardware store. Exterior emulsion paints are called facade paints. You can also use facade paints on the masonry in the garden. For a quick paint application, you can also use a paint spray gun.

As a rule, the components do not play a major role in the dispersion of paints, because it is usually a plastic dispersion.

This can consist of synthetic resins (acrylic resins), which are made from mineral oil, or other plastics (polyvinyl acetate). The respective binder is usually stretched with a diluent (usually water) to produce a viscous compound. Other accessories can be colorants or pigments. In addition, most manufacturers add stabilizers, defoamers, thickeners, and solvents.

Above all, good white paint colors for walls should have good opacity and be washable by a wet rag. If you are designing a child’s room, you should pay attention to the wet abrasion class, so that dirt from the use of the room can be washed off quickly.

What are the types of white paint colors for wall paint?

Wall decoration should not only focus on the color palettes or color tables. Sometimes it is also important that the right type of paint goes on the wall.

White paint colors for walls, there are several types:

  • Synthetic resin dispersion paints

Synthetic resin dispersion paints are the most widespread. The great advantage is that you can choose from a wide range of colors or color tables with the appropriate tinting colors. Thus, there are no limits to your interior design ideas. They are mass-produced and for this reason, can be found as inexpensive wall paints in any home improvement store.

  • Natural dispersion paints

Natural dispersion paints do without synthetic or artificial additives. Linseed oil or castor oil is used as a binder. Mineral pigments are used for the white color. These are calcium carbonate, which is mainly contained in slurry chalk. Slurry chalk is the most important accessory of these natural paints. The choice in color design is somewhat less with these paints. You should not expect trendy colors, as the assortment in natural paints is relatively small. If you buy this wall paint, you should expect higher prices, as the products are not mass-produced. However, there are color recipes on the Internet with which you can mix the colors yourself.

  • Emulsion paints

Emulsion paints use different binders, for example with casein emulsions. However, the selection of such colors is rather small.

What should you look for when buying the white paint colors for walls?

When implementing home ideas or interior design, there are many more products in the field of painting supplies than just wall or ceiling paint. If you do not want to mix, there are also RAL colors.

RAL colors come from the range of painters’ supplies and refer to the standardized color palette. Since 1940 there is the four-digit color code system, which is used today in many DIY stores.

When buying should pay attention to the following:

  • Content & Productivity

When buying white paint colors for walls, whether as interior paint, if you want to design their living room, or as exterior paint to design the garden, you should pay attention to the content and yield. Especially if you need to brush several rooms with interior paint, you can save time and money if the yield of the paint is greater. Before buying, you should measure the rooms and calculate the wall areas. If you find the calculation too difficult, or you are afraid of making mistakes, we can recommend a laser rangefinder. It can do the measurement and calculation. A cross-line laser ensures the correct color distribution when painting.

In the wall paint comparison, most of the products were a 2US gal, which is for 54ft²-86ft² one of the gallons.

However, you should be cautious when stating the coverage, as this always depends heavily on the characteristics of the substrate. Sometimes you will use significantly more paint than specified if the wall can hold more paint.

  • Gloss level

When it comes to the gloss level, you can choose between matte and semi-gloss. You should go according to your personal taste. As a rule, matte is used, because many people do not like the glow and appearance of the silk gloss paint formulas. On the market, there are offers of both gloss levels in all trendy colors. The choice of interior colors is therefore relatively wide. The only difference between the two gloss types is their durability. Silk gloss latex paints can be cleaned better with water and a sponge than matte paints.

  • Opacity

Of course, it’s nice if the paints cover right from the first coat, because then you only have to paint the wall once. For this purpose, manufacturers specify an opacity class. It is specified in levels 1 – 4. The individual classes are divided thus:

  • Class 1: Opacity at least 99.5%.
  • Class 2: Opacity at least 98.0%.
  • Class 3: Opacity at least 95.0%.
  • Class 4: Opacity below 95.0%.

With a paint of opacity class 1, you can paint walls and the paint will cover after the first coat. With classes 2 and 3, you have to paint the walls several times. This requires more time and also more paint, even though a bucket is usually cheaper. If you buy cheap white paint colors for walls, you can sometimes get worse value for money by painting the walls several times.

  • Wet abrasion class

If you design the kitchen, bathroom, and living room, you should also pay attention to the wet abrasion class. It is given in 5 classes and describes how durable the walls are. If you paint a wall with class 1 or 2 paint, it is considered abrasion resistant and can be cleaned with a sponge or a damp lamp. With the other classes, the resistance to water becomes less and less.

The exact classification looks like this:

  • Class 1: The paint does not rub off. Suitable for all rooms.
  • Class 2: The paint is resistant to abrasion. Particularly suitable for more heavily used rooms such as children’s rooms, hallways, and kitchens.
  • Class 3: Paint is considered resistant to washing. Suitable for normally used rooms such as living rooms or bedrooms.
  • Class 4 and 5: Colors show significant abrasion when wiped. Suitable for subordinate objects such as basements and sheds.

The most common problems with wall paint

An evenly covering wall paint is the manufacturer’s ideal. Unfortunately, in practice, the same problems arise again and again, which leads to an unsightly result. Thus, the paint can flake, spill or not cover sufficiently. We want to answer the most common questions below.

Why does the wall paint stain?

Spots and streaks are among the problems that painting particularly large areas often brings. Most likely, you paint too slowly or the paint dries too quickly. By the time you’ve started the next coat, the previous one has dried out completely. This leads to unsightly streaks.

On larger areas, it is recommended to paint in pairs to achieve an even result. Be sure to keep the same pace when painting, and work best with overlaps. If the colors overlap wet on wet, stains and streaks can be most safely avoided.

Windows and doors must be kept closed during the next painting operation. The incoming air may otherwise cause the paint to dry out prematurely.

Why is the wall paint peeling?

In some cases, the old paint peels off from the substrate. But it can also peel off the wall when it is repainted. In most cases, this is because there are far too many layers of paint on top of each other. This creates tensions that cause the paint to flake off.

In principle, the peeling wall paint can no longer be salvaged. You cannot avoid removing the entire paint. For this you will need the following utensils:

When working, you should protect your respiratory system and eyes from dangerous fumes. After all, even when sanding the old wall paint, splinters and dust can flake off and get into the eye. If the fresh coat of paint comes off, something is wrong with the substrate. Thoroughly loosen the paint and prepare the wall again for repainting.

If only a small area is affected, stick a piece of tape on the respective area and pull it off at an acute angle.

White Paint Colors for Walls Price

White Paint Under $50:

  • KILZ TRIBUTE Interior Matte Paint and Primer in One

White Paints Under $30:

  • Boomerang Eco-Friendly Interior Paint
  • Montage Signature Interior/Exterior Eco-Friendly Paint

White Paint Under $20:

  • Rust-Oleum Ultra Matte Interior Chalked Paint

Conclusions

When inspiration strikes when it comes to interior design, and you come up with new ideas and concepts for wall design, it’s time to implement these interior ideas. Of course, you can stick new wallpaper during the renovation, but most of the time the wallpaper is still sufficient and only needs to be repainted.

So that you can easily implement your home ideas and interior design ideas in wall decoration, you should use the right wall colors. For wall decoration, mostly white emulsion paint is used, which is mixed with tinting colors. So you can mix all the colors that a good color chart or color palette gives.

For white paint colors for walls, the opacity is decisive. Opacity class 1 is the highest. Paint only once. These paints can save you a lot of time and effort, even though they are usually more expensive.
If you pay attention to the low wet abrasion, the wall can also be wiped with a damp cloth. It is so easy to maintain.

Even if you design the children’s room, you should be careful when mixing colors, because children quickly become bad-tempered if the colors do not correspond to their living ideas or interior design ideas. However, if you do not make any mistakes when designing a child’s room, you will be rewarded with bright and shining eyes.

How to Choose the Right White Paint for Your Home - Video

FAQs - White Paint Colors for Walls

✅ Can wall paint get old?

Paint can, of course, get old and age. But the more important question is: can wall paint go bad? If you spend years building a house, you may need to store ceiling paint, wall paint, or other paint supplies and forget about them. Most painters will tell you that as long as the wall paint can be whisked up easily, you can use it. In the meantime, however, there are already reports that you should not paint with old wall paints because the risk of mold is too high. If your house is contaminated by mold, you should refrain from using such paint.

✅ Does wall paint need to be thinned?

Wall paint can be thinned with water, but it is usually supplied ready to paint and does not need to be thinned. Of course, you can stretch the wall paint if you find it too viscous. However, it will then lose its opacity.

✅ Is there wall paint with a high PH-value?

A high PH-value is supposed to prevent the formation of mold. The alkaline environment prevents mold spores from settling and spreading. Some manufacturers, for example, advertise such anti-mold paints that have a high PH-value and are also breathable.

Max Welder

Max Welder

Hi! I'm Max Welder (toolsproper.com). I always wanted to work with my own hands, repair something, do things. Now I combine my knowledge with computers and my own knowledge in the field of mechanics in order to understand which tools I like the most. I hope to convey some knowledge and experience.

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