How to Pick White and Grey Paint Colors (or Any Color!)

Here are some tips on how to pick the best white, grey or any paint colors for you home.

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Originally published in 2016 but updated in 2026.

Picking paint colors for your house is hard but picking whites and greys colors is even harder!

Whites and greys are so difficult to choose because they look so different in various lighting. Greys can have odd undertones and whites can have yellow or even pink undertones. The lighting is so different in every room. One white paint color might look amazing in my house but very yellow in your house. There are so many different things that come into play with how paint is reflected in your space – artificial lighting, natural lighting, and what is outside your windows. At my house, outside my windows it’s a rainforest with dark grey clouds (kidding but almost!). Your house might have no trees and desert sand.

How to Test Paint Colors in a  Room

There are three ways to test paint colors in your home and we’ll start with the most obvious: testing paint colors on your walls.

1.Test paint colors on your walls.

Pick a common area to test your paint colors in. The photo below was testing colors for my kitchen so there wasn’t much wall space with all the windows.

It’s also important to paint on at least two coats to get the full infused color effect.

If you can’t paint it directly on a wall if the wall is painted white. Painting a white paint color over a dark color will not give you the same reading.

It’s also important to make a note of what color you put where. I usually put painter’s tape underneath or you can write the color above it on the wall in pencil.

If you are trying to match paint up to flooring, paint a sample close to the floor as well.

2. Paint onto white poster boards.

The second option is to paint color samples onto white poster boards. Once you have the colors painted, you can move the poster boards to different parts of the house and at different times of the day as lighting will be different from dawn to dusk.

For example, say you wanted to paint your walls this grey/green color but your walls currently are taupe. Just putting a sample against the taupe (or painting the grey/green color right over top of the taupe) will not give you the same reading of the true nature of the color. It’s always best to have a white background.

So rather than painting your walls white (which is a crazy extra step), place a white poster board on the wall then the sample OR the painted samples on the white poster board.

It sounds complicated but I assure you it’s not. Seeing your colors with a white background is always best to get an accurate reading of the color.

3. Using peel-and-stick paint samples.

You can now order large peel-and-stick paint samples to try on your walls which save you the time and inconvenience of buying paint cans. I use Samplize and they ship to the US and Canada now which is great news! Just order the samples you need, they arrive within 1-2 days, and place on your wall to see what color is best. Each sample comes with 3 smaller stickers so you can place them in different rooms throughout your house.

Click here to check out Samplize’s website

I hope this has helped you feel confident to out pick white, grey or any paint colors for your home.

Check out all my paint color posts:

• The Best Timeless Paint Colors
• Simply White by Benjamin Moore
• Edgecomb Gray by Benjamin Moore
• White Dove by Benjamin Moore
• The Best Greige Paint Colors from Benjamin Moore
• The Best Black Paint Colors from Benjamin Moore
• Chantilly Lace by Benjamin Moore
• The Best Green Paint Colors for Kitchen Cabinets
• The Best Navy Paint Colors for Kitchen Cabinets
• The Best Brown Paint Colors
• The Best Gray and Greige Paint Colors from Sherwin Williams