Tips for Choosing White Paint for a Basement

One of the first things we did to our basement was to change the paint color or colors I should say in our case. There were about three to four different colors that we had in our basement according to our painter. Today I wanted to share our process of picking the right white paint for our basement. Who knew that there were so many different white paints? So if you are looking for a white paint for a basement, read on to find out all my tips for choosing white paint for a basement.

Basements can be dark and dingy mainly do to a lack of natural light. We knew that we wanted to paint our basement white to really brighten it up. Chris, my husband, works from home and his office is in the basement, so to have a light and airy space was very important.

Painting Process Tips

Tip #1

Switch out your lighting with LED bulbs first before picking out a paint. We used these GE Refresh LED daylight bulbs for our lamps. For the canned lights we used these LED bulbs. This was huge you guys! We have canned lighting down in our basement with warm light bulbs. It was an investment to get these new bulbs, but it was so worth it! It completely transformed the space.

Tip # 2

Grab all the paint swatches at your local hardware store or paint store. I literally went through the whole Sherwin Williams section at Lowe’s and grabbed all of the whites swatches I could. I then taped them on the wall in our basement hallway, and then we edited down them down from there. Can you believe the difference in all the “whites”?!!! As you can see we numbered the ones we liked.

Tip # 3

Pick your top 3 paints going off of the paint samples. Once you have your top 3 picks go back and get those paints mixed in a small sample jar. We chose Bohemian Lace, Oxford White, and White Cotton as our three samples. I did two coats on these sample squares you see below.

Tip #4

Paint small squares all around your space since it will look different in different areas of your home. You can tape the swatch sample above the swatch like I did above. Try not to draw on your wall since it will be harder to cover. So for the other rooms I just made sure to paint the swatches in alphabetical order so I remembered what paint swatch was which. In our opinion, the first was too stark white, the middle one was too gray and the last one was juuuust right.

Tip #5

Pick the right finish for basements. We picked a satin finish. We didn’t want anything super glossy or shiny. The previous paint we had up was a semi-gloss so as you can see from the before pictures it did give off a shine. You can still wipe the satin finish clean which is nice for bathrooms as well.

Tip #6

Get enough paint. Our basement is around 900 square feet. We decided to just go with the 5 gallon bucket. It’s better to have enough than to have to make another trip to go back and get more. Our basement needed two coats to get a nice finish. I highly suggest doing two coats especially with lighter colors. With one coat you could still see where the painter “cut in” from the trim and ceiling.

Tip #7

Sand down your paint swatches on the wall before painting. Our painter did not do this, and I had to go back and sand them down after he did the first coat.

Tip #8

If you are hiring out for this process be sure you see their past work. Our painter was super slow, and it took him over a week to complete the process. It should not take this long you guys! Looking back on it I should have just done it myself.

What Paint Did We Chose

We went with White Cotton by HGTV Home Sherwin Williams, not to be confused with Cotton White by Sherwin Williams. That is an entirely different warmer white shade. White Cotton was a nice contrast to the white trim and white cabinets in the kitchen. It had a tinge of gray to it so it wasn’t so stark white.

Here are some Before and After shots so you can really see the power of paint!

Thank you so much for flying by today friends! Let me know in the comments what you favorite white paint is. I’d love to know! Remember our choice may look completely different in your space, so be sure to test it out before jumping in. Happy Painting!

Pin For Later

If you’d like to read about my other home paint colors you can read all about that by clicking here.

xoxo,

Robyn

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