This Is the One Color Nate Berkus, Leanne Ford and Other Designers Would Paint Every Room
It's many a designer's worst nightmare: having to select just ONE paint color to use for the rest of your life. Well, this week at a design panel in Los Angeles, Chairish founder Anna Brockway posed just that dilemma to a panel of celebrity designers. Between Nate Berkus,Jeremiah Brent, Bobby Berk, Leanne Ford, Mary McDonald, and Nathan Turner, five out of the six chose the same color. But before you get too excited at the coincidence, the color of choice isn't exactly, er, interesting. What is it, you ask? White.
For Leanne Ford, whose comfortable, casual interiors on Restored by the Fords tend to favor neutral palettes, the decision was an easy one. "Well, obviously I love white," she quipped, right off the bat, while the other designers groaned at having to decide. Jeremiah agreed, while his other half went more specific: "Alabaster white," Nate specified. "Our whole house in LA is two colors: white and putty. We’re really adventurous," he joked.
Mary eventually agreed—though it wasn't an easy decision for the designer, who is known for her bold use of color. "How could I decide?" she lamented, before admitting, "If you’re making me pick one, I’ll just say white." Her compromise? "I could have all colored furniture."
Bobby Berk specified, "it would be between black and white. I used to do tons of black but have recently been into white with black accents."
As for Nathan Turner, the one outlier? Well, he strayed FAR from the blank canvas territory of his peers. "Hague blue," he proclaimed.
Inspired? Check out House Beautiful’s gallery of the best white paints.
White Dove OC-17, Benjamin Moore (my go-to white!)
A perennial decorators’ favorite, White Dove softened the lines of a beachside Malibu cottage designed by Christine Markatos Lowe. “This creamy shade balances out blues reflecting off the ocean,” she explains. “The white helps scatter the light throughout the house; the effect is dazzling!”