HomeThe Best Paint ColoursBENJAMIN MOORE & SHERWIN WILLIAMS: Paint Color ReviewsSherwin Williams High Reflective White SW 7757: Paint Color Review

Sherwin Williams High Reflective White SW 7757: Paint Color Review

Posted on July 12, 2022 by KylieMawdsley

Sherwin Williams High Reflective White: a TRUE white paint color?

When it comes to specifying white paint colors for my E-Design clients, High Reflective White is one that I refer to all the time. Why? Let’s find out!

Paint colour review of the best super white paint colour, Sherwin Williams High Reflective White. Undertones and more. Kylie M Interiors Edesign, online paint color consultant and edesign expert

What type of paint color is High Reflective White? Is it a TRUE white?

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High Reflective White is PRETTY DARN WHITE and is Sherwin William’s TRUEST, most genuine white paint color.

Best gray paint colour. Open concept kitchen and living room, Stonington Gray, stone fireplace K2. Kylie M INteriors Edesign. Vaulted ceiling

Is High Reflective White a warm or cool white paint color?

High Reflective White is neither cold nor warm; it’s a neutral white paint color with no noticeable hue.

Kitchen cabinets painted Sherwin High Reflective White, marble backsplash, white quartz, home decor on countertop. Pewter hardware. Kylie M Interiors Edesign, online paint colour consulting

North, East, South, West – Which Paint Color is the Best?

What’s the LRV of High Reflective White?

High Reflective White has an LRV of almost 93. With an LRV THIS HIGH, it’s one of the most LEGIT WHITES on the market (learn more about LRV HERE).

Not sure what LRV is? It could save your paint-lovin’ life – read all about it HERE.

The best white for kitchen cabinets with marble. Sherwin Williams High Reflective White. Kylie M INteriors Edesign, online paint colour consultant

What are the undertones of High Reflective White? Will it pick up undertones of blue, yellow, violet or green?

Whites are hard because while they have their own UNDERTONES, they’re VERY SUSCEPTIBLE for picking up reflections from their environment. Everything from the cool gray-blue of northern light to the reflection of your grass, your neighbour’s brick wall or your bright red sofa can reflect onto white walls, changing how they’re perceived.

However, at heart, High Reflective White is a pretty darn neutral white.

Romantic farmhouse style bedroom, Sherwin Williams High Reflective White board and batten, vaulted ceiling, chandelier. Kylie M Interiors Edesign, online paint color consultant

What’s the best way to sample High Reflective White?

Like with every paint color, I highly recommend using SAMPLIZE. Samplize is a peel & stick paint sample that you can easily move around your room for over HALF THE COST of traditional sample pots – and they deliver right to your front door!

Paint colour review of tool Samplize, peel and stick samples. Benjamin Moore, Sherwin Williams, Farrow and Ball, Home Depot. Kylie M Interiors Edesign, online paint color consulting

Just be careful when sampling. The undertones in white paint colors can be OVEREXPOSED if you compare them to the white paper or poster board. The best way to pick a white paint color is to compare it to OTHER white paint colors that are similar.

Learn all about Samplize HERE

If I’m painting my walls High Reflective White, what’s the best white paint color for my trim or cabinets?

HIGH REFLECTIVE WHITE! That’s right; I would do the same color on the walls, trim and ceilings and just let the change in sheen do any shifting for you (and there will be shifting).

Should my Walls, Trim and Cabinets be the SAME WHITE PAINT COLOR?

White kitchen cabinets, white quartz countertop, whitewash wood floor. Magnolia Teak Cups on island, Sherwin High Reflective White cabinets. Kylie M Interiors Edesign CLIENT PHOTO

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The 4 Best White Paint Colors from Sherwin Williams

Can High Reflective White be used on my walls, trims, and cabinets, or is it just a base color?

High Reflective White is actually a BASE that’s used to create other white paint colors; its intention isn’t to be used as an actual paint color. However, Sherwin includes it in the fan deck, and I, for one, have used it DOZENS AND DOZENS OF TIMES.

Sherwin Williams Tricorn Black and High Reflective White in laundry room, pattern tile floor, red washer and dryer. CLIENT PHOTO of Kylie M Interiors Edesign

DAMN, I have some talented clients! 

Why isn’t it used as a ‘color’? It doesn’t have enough tint/colorant to offer any hide. ‘Hide’ refers to how well a color covers another color. If you take Sherwin Williams High Reflective White off the shelf as it is, you’ll be five coats deep and might STILL SEE your old color through it.

And while I could go into gratuitous detail here, I’ve written a helpful blog post showing you HOW to get High Reflective White made.

Why is Sherwin Williams High Reflective White SO HARD TO GET? (and how to get it)

Is High Reflective White a good white for kitchen cabinets?

YES! While there are MANY gorgeous white paint colors for cabinets, High Reflective White is a great one to look at if you prefer a cooler paint color palette or some of the popular white quartz or marble countertops.

Bathroom vanity cabinet High Reflective White, white countertop, subway tile accent feature wall. Kylie M Interiors Edesign, online paint color consultant

Hexagon marble tile on wall behind vanity, quartz countertop, High Reflective White cabinets. Kylie M INteriors Edesign, online paint color consultant

Is High Reflective White a good color for the exterior of my home? 

If you’re wanting a white house or white trim, then HRW could be a great choice for you. It’s bright and simple and will be WHITE looking. Just remember, it WILL pick up cues from its environment based on the exposure of your home and other factors like grass, trees and water.

5 Tips for Choosing an Exterior Paint Color

Is High Reflective White one of the most popular white paint colors?

These days, softer whites are on more people’s radars, but for those looking for a cleaner, whiter approach, High Reflective White is VERY popular, right up there with Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace.

The best paint colours for cabinets, white, with marble backsplash, countertop. Kylie M Interiors Edesign, online paint colour advice and consulting

What type of paint colors look good with High Reflective White?

As far as white paint colors go, High Reflective White is one of the more flexible ones and can accommodate a WIIIIIDE range of colors. It’s more about what you might NOT do vs what you can do…

  • if you have warm Tuscan products in your home (i.e. golden beige tiles, countertops, carpets, for example), you might find High Reflective White just a bit too stark and clean
  • if you have beige/almond windows or bathroom fixtures, HRW could be too stark

Staircase with lights, carpet, wood flooring, white railings. Stonington Gray paint color. Kylie M Interiors Edesign, online paint colour expert

WHICH PAINT COLORS ARE COMPARABLE TO HIGH REFLECTIVE WHITE?

If you’re having difficulty getting High Reflective White or want a few alternatives for comparison, check out…

  • Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace. The difference between Chantilly Lace is that it’s a tiny bit softer than High Reflective White (read about it HERE)
  • BEHR Ultra Pure White. The difference between Ultra Pure White is that it’s a tiny bit WHITER and brighter than High Reflective White (read about it HERE)
  • Sherwin Williams Extra White. The difference between Extra White is that it’s a touch COOLER than High Reflective White (read about it HERE)

Not sure if High Reflective White is right for you? Want a bit warmer or cooler? I’ve got more!

READ MORE

Paint Color Review of Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace

Paint Color Review of Sherwin Williams Pure White

Paint Color Review of Benjamin Moore Simply White

The 8 Best White Paint Colors

Not sure which paint color is best for YOUR home?

Check out my Online Paint Color Consulting – I’d love to help!

The best paint colors for your room. Benjamin and Sherwin. Kylie M Interiors Edesign, online paint colour consulting. Home Decorating and diy ideas blogger.market

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN IN 2019, UPDATED FOR YOU IN 2022

Chat soon,

Kylie M Interiors, decorating blog, e-design, online colour consulting expert. signature



Comments

  1. I love your advice. It’s always spot on. Quick question…I’m painting an accent wall in my northern facing master bedroom SW Naval and I’m not sure which white would work best everywhere else. Lots of good light from 5 large windows (bay.) I want a clean look, thinking of SW High Reflective White for tray ceiling, trim and other 3 walls. New carpet being installed after I paint so I’m not committed to a carpet color yet. Do you think that will work?

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      If you want a crisp look, HRW would be gorgeous with Naval! Some might even look at Extra White, but I find it a flash too cool :).

  2. I was planning to use HRW for my trim to go with Aesthetic White and SW just told me they can’t make that color in Pro Industrial semi gloss. My painters are coming Monday! Now I’m scrambling trying to figure out what to do, not to mention the shortage of paint. Eek!

  3. My contractor used extra white as the base for the HRW, and my entire basement now looks BLUE. Is there anything that can be done? Perhaps a top coat using mixing method #1 as you describe in the article (adding white to the can)? Or should we just repaint with BM Chantilly lace…

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      Author

      Oh, I’m so sorry to hear this! I can’t see adding white making enough of a difference and would recommend moving over to High Reflective White or BM Chantilly Lace (i love Chantilly).

  4. My cabinets are being refaced soon and my cabinet maker needs my white paint color YESTERDAY! They only use Sherwin Williams and the only colors I can come up with are Pure White, Extra White and High Reflective White. It is really hard to look at the colors in my home because the cabinets are that bad orange oak so the light is reflecting that on the paint swatch. My floors are a LVT in a somewhat warm color but can look yellow in the wrong light. Anyway the backsplash tile has a mixture of whites to a warm tan/beige as I wanted something a little different than plain white. To the point….it seems like everything has a gray undertone to me! So at this point I am leaning towards High Reflective White. I have 3 different samples and they all look different though. One I got from Samplize, one from the Sherwin Williams store and a piece of actual cabinet refaced material and they are all different. It is maddening and at this point I am just going to close my eyes and point to one. Is this normal to go through. Surely it cannot be this difficult!!!!! It seems like every decision I make I regret i.e. the floor color, my wall color……Thank you for all the free content you put out there to help people. I binge watch your reviews while on my treadmill!!!

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      Hi Paula, if it were ME, and I had what you’re explaining, I would choose Pure White. Extra White would be a hard no, and while I love HRW, I’ve seen Pure White turn out so STINKIN’ GOOD so many times, that it’s hard for me to not automatically go there. I know, the small samples make it so DARN HARD and things really only come to life on teh larger scale. I hope this helps :).

  5. Kylie, HRW is apparently close to Milgard’s fiberglass frost window frame, which we may use in our new waterfront house. If so, we may use it on our kitchen cabinets, because they will abut a window. We will probably go with a light beige or greige on our walls and light beige/tan with a touch of gray LVP. We are considering a navy blue gray like BM “In the midnight hour 1666” for our island cabinets, but we also like the colors in this photo of you sitting on a blue island: https://www.kylieminteriors.ca/meet-kylie/ What are the colors in that kitchen? Thanks, Kevin

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  6. Kylie,
    I am having a DIFFICULT time deciding on a trim and ceiling color! My home can be dark in the afternoon and evening but most of the house is light during the morning. I’ve decided on Alabaster for the walls with one accent wall done in Linen. I’m leaning towards High Reflective White for the ceiling and trim because it is so neutral. I’ve gotten samples of Extra White but I don’t want the blue tint, and the Pure White doesn’t seem like it would be much different than the Alabaster. With all the reviews of the problem with “hiding”, I’m afraid to use the HRW. What are your thoughts?

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      Author

      Welllll, if it were me, I would do Alabaster on the ceiling too. If you partner a whiter white with it, Alabaster can look that bit more yellow in comparison. Alabaster often likes to be the whitest white in the space!

  7. Do you consider HRW to be the most versatile and true white??

    If I choose HRW for the kitchen/laundry cabinets in our new house, should I use it for the ceilings and baseboards/trim too??

    What sheen do you recommend for each??

    Thank you!

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      Author
  8. The previous owners painted the interior trim of my home SW Extra White. 🙁 They painted the walls SW Anew Gray with the Ceilings 50% of SW Anew Grey. Our house faces SW and NE. Anew Gray is just too dark of a color for our home, and while I’d like to do cozier colors or slightly warmer whites (like Pure White or Alabaster), I just feel that’s impossible with Extra White Trim. I love the look of Sea Salt with Alabaster, for example, but can’t do this with our trim and existing bright clean white kitchen cabinets. I can’t stand the ceilings and want to paint them white, but we have crown molding that is Extra White (that’s what they said and they left swatches of Extra White on their painting record but the paint on the walls looks different from the Samplize Extra White that I bought for comparison). I was thinking High Reflective White for the ceilings. I need flexible ceilings and trim for my colors…but I feel stuck. Also, is High Reflective White too stark for walls in my daughter’s bedroom that is SW facing?—Will that direction help warm it up? Would love your thoughts. I’ve spent HOURS on your site. Just ask my husband…he wishes I’d just pull the trigger and pick something already!!

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      Author

      Hey Sharon! It’s hard to know for sure what to do without seeing your home, but off the bat, you CAN do Extra White with Alabaster. I would also do Extra White on the ceiling. The challenge you’re having is that Extra White is a real bugger ;). The formulation changes from trim/cabinet paint to wall paint. Samplize has WALL paint on their samples, which is brighter/cleaner – Extra White on trim/cabinets is a touch warmer/softer. SOOOOO, to use Extra White on the ceiling, you would have to ask them to custom tint Extra White in ceiling paint to be a bit warmer, so it matches your trim (you might need to take a piece of the trim in with you).

      And believe it or not…well, actually – read this, it will make more sense https://www.kylieminteriors.ca/why-is-sherwin-williams-high-reflective-white-so-hard-to-get/

  9. Hi Kylie!

    Been really appreciating your reviews on color . My question for u is , I have a house ( ranch ) that faces North & south . I’m considering doing sw worldly grey walls throughout. Would HRW be a good option for trim, closets , and ceilings?

    Thanks sincerely.

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      So you have bright white cabinets and want white walls? If so, this COULD work, but it can depend on which white your cabinets are. If they look bright white but HAPPEN to be a bit cool or slightly warm, you might see the shift. I would get a large sample (Samplize) of High Reflective White and place it against the cabinets. ALSO, make sure you read this blog post. https://www.kylieminteriors.ca/why-is-sherwin-williams-high-reflective-white-so-hard-to-get/

  10. I am having my girls bedrooms painted. They are both on a second floor, across the hall from each other. So Graces room faces West and Lucy’s Room faces East.

    Our living room has 17ft tall ceilings with a big wall of windows also facing east. I did Sherwin Williams pure white in that whole room. Two of the walls can lean to the gray side depending on time of day which is a bummer.

    For the girls rooms, I put a sample of pure white in there and it looks so warm, almost dingy depending on time of day. I also did a sample next to it of Extra White and that looks good at some times of day but does lean blue I fear.

    So that leads me to this post about high reflective white! The guys at the store said it can’t be made in anything but high gloss and I thought that was odd. My painters use emerald designer so the Ultra white would be a good choice. Do you think that would be good for the bedrooms facing opposite directions? Also, would I want to do the ceiling the same white? Right now its just whatever white people “normally” use since its original to the house. I am covering gray paint in both rooms. My vision for at least graces room is to put really bold and bright colored furniture and art in there so I was thinking it would pop on a really clean white.

    Oh I’m also having a very light carpet in there, some warmth but not much. It’s called homemade ice cream from Shaw. I will be putting a big area rug over it through to try and protect it from the small children haha

    Any advice would be amazing, my husband can’t tell the difference between any of them so I’m all alone spinning in circles

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