We have wanted a painted white brick home since three homes ago, and we finally took the plunge! Over the past few weeks, we’ve been trying out different tones of white paints and polling my IG buddies [HERE] to find the perfect (for us!) color. We wanted a saturated, creamy, warm white that felt like it could be found in nature as opposed to a cool or very bright white. White paint is so hard, you guys! We walked around our house and looked at samples forevvvverrrr, but we finally decided! Here are the 5 white exterior paint colors we tested, our observations about each one, and the final choice for our home!

Sherwin Williams – Alabaster

Source image: Mary Craven for Southern Living

Sherwin Williams Alabaster is my very favorite white to use on interiors, because it is a very neutral white that only slightly tips towards having warm undertones. Not too yellow, not too creamy…just right. It is a bright white with an LRV (light reflectance value) of 82, so it will definitely bounce the light around in space. Can’t recommend it enough for interiors to bring light into the space, but note that it is a very bright white for exterior where there is already a lot of light moving around.

Sherwin Williams – Oyster

Source image: Willow Homes via Houzz

Oyster white is darker that Alabaster on the scale, but just as creamy. It has lower LRV than Alabaster, and thus it didn’t read quite as bright, rather more like a very pale beige. We noticed hints of a green/grey undertone in some lights, and we really liked the richness of the color. If you are wanting to lean over into a pretty warm white, Oyster would be a good pick!

Sherwin Williams – Natural Choice

Source image: Homebunch

Natural Choice is another creamy, warm white color with a light reflectance value of 73, thus similar in brightness to Oyster. Neither bounce off nearly as much white as Alabaster, so if you are looking for a deep, non-stark white, this is a good pick! We noticed that the undertones of Natural Choice stayed pretty neutral with a beige or slightly peach hue underneath the white tones, and it didn’t lean too cool or too green/grey in the sunlight. This color feels like a white you’d find in nature, for sure, rather than coming across as stark or too cold.

Sherwin Williams – Shoji White

Source image: Peppeard Design

Shoji White was one of my favorites at first, because it has a tiny bit of a pink undertone to it, almost like the inside of a shell only whiter. It’s a very creamy, very pale greige-white with an LRV of 74, although surprisingly it felt just as bright as Alabaster. I would love to use this on an interior room and then use blush pinks and pretty peach tones to pull that hue out even more. It’s truly like the inside of sea shell like my neighbor said!

Sherwin Williams – White Duck

Source image: Plank and Pillow

White Duck is like the perfect middle between Alabaster and Shoji, in our opinion. It has a light reflectance value of 73.5, so definitely not as bright as Alabaster. It also is very creamy like Shoji but has a neutral undertone to it, rather than the pink in Shoji. If I wanted a bright-but-not-too-bright creamy white color that didn’t lean too beige or warm, this would be a great color!

In the end, we went with….Natural Choice (along with Dorian Gray for trim/garage)! In our lighting during different times of the day, it stayed the truest in color, it wasn’t too bright or too yellow, and it felt like a white you’d actually see out in nature! Can’t wait to update this post with finished product photos soon, and I hope the 5 exterior white paint colors that we tested on our home prove helpful to you, too!