Painting Tip: In Search of the Right White

The Bunny Bungalow Balustrades in the right white

The Bunny Bungalow fence painted the right white

As Robert Frost has written, "...good fences make good neighbors..." and I say that if the fence is not the right white, it can be unsettling to a bungalow dweller. When we purchased The Bunny Bungalow (known as Toad Hall at that time) it had just been repainted but there was something slightly off about the look. The tan with green trim was very Ralph Lauren, which pleased the eye but the balustrades on the front porch did not seem to go with the house. One could tell that the balustrades had been painted white in an attempt to make the white picket fence go with the bungalow but there was still a visual discordance. As Tall Husband and I discussed this, he pointed out that the white was a bright, blue white that actually clashed with the bungalow colors. (Here, I must confess that we took two years to select the right white for the interior of another home.)

It was during this discussion that I recalled reading a design tip in a magazine that went something like this: If you are painting the ceiling of a room white and the walls a different color, start with adding a cup of the wall color to a gallon of white ceiling paint to arrive at a white that coordinates with the wall color. So Tall Husband mixed some of the tan paint left from painting the body of the bungalow with the white fence/balustrade paint. We painted various combinations on the fence and balustrade and looked at them during different times of the day. Voila, we found the right white! As we had put a numbered sample of each on wooden paint stirrers, we simply took the stick with our color choice to our local Sherwin-Williams for a computer match.

Then the fun of painting a picket fence began! This was my first fence job. Not fast, not fun. As I live on a corner with lots of foot traffic, I had plenty of job offers, advice, comments and questions. Most were civil and helpful, however, one man informed me that I had to get a union card!

Although, you cannot tell the difference in the above after photographs, believe me the right white is so soothing to the soul.