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Colour guides · White
'Ceiling white' doesn't exist in our range, and that is deliberate: a ceiling is a fifth wall, the largest and least-lit surface in the room. The white you put there decides the height you perceive and the warmth of the walls beneath.
Here are our eight ceiling whites, and for each, the walls it goes with.
Updated September 2026 · by the Mylands France colour team
The short answer
The right ceiling white follows the undertone of the walls: Pure White No.1 or Charterhouse No.4 above cool walls or deep colours, Maugham White No.2 or Holland Park No.5 above warm walls. In a dark or low room, a ceiling in the same shade as the walls — or one step lighter — enlarges more than any white.
At a glance
8 colours
The brightest
Our purest white, the one that returns the most light — 91% — with no undertone at all. It is the ceiling for bright rooms with cool walls: pure whites, cool greys, blues, water greens. Above warm walls or in a dark room it looks blue and grey; keep it for rooms that get sun.
Our tip — Above Morning Blue, Sloane Square, Copper Green, or Pure White walls.
The universal ceiling
An off-white faintly grey-green, barely softer than Pure White — the ceiling white we recommend most often. It has enough grey not to look blue above coloured walls, and enough brightness to add height. Above greens, deep blues and greys it is almost always right.
Our tip — Above Sorrel Green, Brompton Road, Proper Blue, Lots Road.
The cotton white
A soft, crisp white between Pure White and Charterhouse, with no marked undertone — the colour of a cotton sheet. It is the ceiling for rooms whose walls are themselves a cool off-white: it matches without merging, and it looks neither yellower nor bluer than what it hangs above.
Our tip — Above Charterhouse, Belgravia, Notting Hill, Bridge Blue.
The warm off-white
Our reference off-white, barely warm, with no marked undertone — neither yellow, pink nor grey. It is the ceiling for warm walls: above a powder pink, a stone neutral or an old rose, it brightens without cutting. A pure white in the same place would look blue and split the room.
Our tip — Above Kensington Rose, Soho Pink, Bloomsbury, Observatory.
The warm white
A warm off-white, balanced between yellow and pink, that goes absolutely everywhere — and on the ceiling above every warm neutral: stone, sand, greige, plaster. In a north-facing room it is the ceiling that never looks grey, and it slightly warms the light it returns to the walls.
Our tip — Above Cadogan Stone, Fitzrovia, Hoxton Grey, Temple Bar.
The north white
A soft, slightly greyed white, with enough warmth not to turn blue in cold light. It is the ceiling for north-facing rooms, whatever the walls — it stays white where Pure White looks grey — and the natural ceiling for every soft grey on the card, of which it is the lightest cousin.
Our tip — Above Sloane Square, Ludgate Circus, Mews Blue, Early Lavender — and any north-facing wall.
The ceiling for deep colours
Not a white, but a pale grey-beige — and that is precisely why it makes the best ceiling above a deep colour. A white above Huguenot or Brompton Road looks dazzling by contrast and cuts the room in two; Limestone softens the transition, keeps the height, and the colour envelops without crushing.
Our tip — Above Huguenot, Brompton Road, Observatory, Downing Street.
The stone-grey ceiling
A pale grey with a beige undertone, barely stronger than Limestone. It is the ceiling for partially colour-drenched rooms — walls and woodwork in one colour, the ceiling just close enough not to break the envelope, just light enough to breathe. Above greens it is especially successful.
Our tip — Above Sorrel Green, Myrtle Green, Damp Leaf, Artillery Ground.
1. The ceiling follows the undertone of the walls. A pure white above warm walls looks blue; a warm white above cool walls looks yellow. Cool walls — blues, water greens, cool greys, pure whites — → Pure White No.1, Charterhouse No.4, Cotton Street No.3. Warm walls — pinks, stone neutrals, creams — → Maugham White No.2, Holland Park No.5. North-facing room → Sleet No.91.
2. The ceiling is always darker than you think. It receives no direct light: the same white looks a tone darker there than on the wall. That is why a ceiling in the same shade as the walls looks lighter than expected — and why a ceiling 'one step lighter' is almost always enough, without going to pure white.
3. Above a deep colour, no white. A white ceiling above Huguenot No.49 or Observatory No.34 dazzles by contrast and cuts the room: you see nothing else. Limestone No.55 or Frieze No.84 keep the height without the shock — or, better still, the same colour everywhere: colour drenching enlarges a low room more surely than any white. See also our warm whites, our cool whites, our off-whites compared and which finish for a ceiling.
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