Many shades of white: custom frame painting inspiration

Written by chris pink on May 29, 2015 in Picture Framing

White is a brilliant colour, and anyone who has ever bought white paint will know one thing for certain: where white is concerned…there’s more than one kind! In fact, there are hundreds.

If you apply this thinking to custom picture frames, it’s easy to see how many varieties of white can be created. All you have to do is take the smallest splash of blue, red or yellow paint and add it to emulsion.

Stir it in well and you’ll have some lovely new white paint with a very subtle hint.

Here are a few ideas to get you started, along with an idea of colours that work well for certain kinds of art and photography.

Blue tinted white paint, for bright Mediterranean themes

For bright Mediterranean themed art, plain white can be a little too plain, and a bold colour like dark red would be much too overpowering.

This is where light blue steps in. It’s a pastel shade so it goes very well with most contemporary furniture, and it’ll add a level of interest that white simply can’t achieve. A great way to compliment oil paintings or photos.

Grey tinted white – a great way to darken white

without adding too much mood

Grey tinted white? I know, it sounds a bit dull. But in fact, when you place a simple, light grey frame on a very-white wall, the effect can be very appealing indeed.

The trick here is to only use the barest trace of grey paint when you create the original mix.

Even a light shade of grey will do a lot to add interest, and this colour works excellently with black and white photo prints.

Pinky-white adds smile-inducing character

Looking to brighten a white frame up but not ready for the bold colours we spoke of at the start of this blog post? If terracotta is your thing, then light pink or even subtle orange could be a wonderful way to go.

This colour is ideally suited to sunsets and will work well with most wood furniture.

Be careful not to add too much orange to your paint, though. There again, if you have a sunset painting with a burning orb as the star attraction, that could be exactly what’s needed.

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