This guide will walk you through your choices when designing a room with white walls. First, we'll look at a combination of curtains and blinds to settle the all-important question:
Which colour matches a white wall?
Before we start, we have a guide on choosing colour schemes that you might find helpful. Read on to find out our favourite tips!
Using Contrast
Before looking at individual colours, you should consider how much contrast you want to achieve.
In our illustration below, we have chosen a mid-white to be our paint and paired it with three different neutral colours, from lighter to darker, including bright white, beige and a darker caramel beige. Let's take a peek, as it will help in understanding this next bit: The closer the shade of the blind or curtain is to the wall, the more discreet it appears.
If you want a simplistic and spacious feeling interior, choose a colour where your window treatment blends into the background, such as a colour with a similar hue and shade. In this case, that is the bright white, which creates a minimal and clean feeling.
However, some of you might enjoy bold window treatments, in which case you want to create a high contrast between your wall and window treatment, as with the above example of beige and dark caramel beige, which also achieve a warmer feeling compared to the clinical white.
White Bedroom Walls
Taking what we've learned about contrast, many homeowners choose to match a white wall with a warm colour curtain or blind.
Continuing these illustrations with our white walls, we could choose a light beige curtain to bring depth and cosiness to this bedroom.
Dependable, versatile and oh-so-stylish white and beige bedrooms are having a moment. Paired with plants and texture, plain white and beige create a beautiful and natural but simple space to lay your head, relax and unwind. Create this style with minimal furniture and keep clutter out of sight.
White walls create a blank canvas, easily paired with any colour. If you're feeling brave and want to make more of an impact, you could choose a contrasting colour for your curtains and bed sheets, such as blue or green, which are popular bedroom choices due to their calming properties.
One issue people often come across with white bedroom walls is the room being too light for high-quality sleep. Pairing your white walls with blackout blinds is a great way to combat this and make sure you're still getting a quality eight hours!
White Living Room Walls
White walls create a fresh and clean space to layer personality onto, with literally any colour.
Styling a white living room in the past would have often seen the inhabitant picking an accent colour and adding this one shade across the accessories and soft furnishings. We recommend avoiding that in your living room, as it's outdated and looks one-dimensional. Instead, add a range of shades, hues and contrasting colours to keep it modern and fresh.
With a white backdrop, you can make a bold statement in your living room with your furniture and art. For example, colourful artwork with a beautiful velvet sofa in a bright colour, a lovely burnt orange, emerald green or petrol blue, makes a white interior exciting and lively.
Choose to keep your windows plain along with your walls. In our example below, the warm ivory curtains keep the focus on the statement sofa. Or, if you're a maximalist, anything goes. Bright-coloured or fun patterned curtains against white blinds and walls could complete the look.
White Dining Room Walls
Trends come and go, but there are two colours that are always in fashion, black and white.
There isn't any higher contrast than white walls and black curtains, which results in a cutting-edge look that can be modern or classic. A versatile combination for the dining room.
To prevent the space from looking stark, adding some natural elements like plants and pampas grass will warm it up, so your dining room looks even richer and more expensive.
White Kitchen Walls
The kitchen is the heart of the home, one of the busiest areas and a space you should enjoy being in.
While white kitchens have a crisp, clean feeling, they can feel sterile. Using colour against white kitchen walls injects personality into the room and makes it much more inviting. Whether you prefer calm, subtle shades or bold, saturated hues, a splash of colour will lift the space.
An easy way of adding colour is through your kitchen blinds. We could choose blue or navy blinds or a colourful pattern to bring character to this grey and white kitchen.
Other popular accent colours as of late include greens and pinks, bold bright kitchens are becoming a thing.
As well as the colour, consider the material for your kitchen blinds, especially above the sink. PVC roller blinds or aluminium venetian blinds are durable and waterproof and come in a wide range of colours.
White Bathroom Walls
White walls in a bathroom can feel cold and impersonal. Bringing warm natural elements and textures into the bathroom will create a sanctuary and a feeling of peace.
This is what the upcoming japandi trend is all about. A fusion of asian and scandi styles, japandi mixes natural elements, with white walls often chosen as the backdrop for this trend.
An easy way to incorporate the look and feel of natural wood into your white bathroom is with faux wood blinds. The perfect choice as the material is waterproof and durable.
Against white walls, the soft contrast of wooden blinds keeps in with a laid-back, peaceful aesthetic. You could opt for a light wood colour, such as an oak tone, or if wanting a deeper contrast, walnut wood shades are the way to go.
Children’s Bedroom Walls
The neutrality of white means it can be matched with an endless amount of other colours, which in a nursery can bring fun and cosy elements.
With white nursery walls, curtain colours such as sunny yellows, pretty pastels and traditional baby blues and pinks pair well. You can stick to the primary colour typically associated with your baby's gender or keep things more neutral if you prefer with soft mint green, as depicted in this nursery illustration.
Another way to bring more playfulness is to add fun patterned curtains or roman blinds, such as a star or polka dot print.
