Cool design comes in forty shades of white

Call it ivory, oyster, chalk or ecru, white is the right stuff for decorating your home. Eoin Lyons reports

White is the perfect canvas for beautiful objects, but it's also a satisfying colour in itself. This is the premise for a new book, The White Home, by Caroline Clifton Mogg.

White is hot. Paint companies now have whole ranges devoted solely to different shades of white and earlier this year at the Milan Furniture Fair, furniture companies such as B&B Italia showed interiors with white floor, walls and furniture.

In this small book, photographs of all-white rooms show how to combine different tones, from ivory and milk white to oyster, chalk and ecru. Using more than one shade is the key to creating an effect that's neither austere nor clinical.

Styles shown vary from cute French (white wood furniture with swirling carvings); old-school chic (black, white, red and splash of contemporary art); English comfort (white linen slipcovers) and severe modernism (architect John Pawson).

Why choose white? According to the author it's about creating a sanctuary. White is pure and lets you see what's important in a room. It's about clear "head-space", as much as a decorating trend.

"I always have an all-white room wherever I live," says singer Camille O'Sullivan. "Life is chaotic. A white room is a place to relax, calm down, have a glass of wine and sit by the fire."

Cool, calm and clean or sharp and dynamic; restful or stimulating . . . the atmosphere you choose is just a matter of selecting a palette on walls and major pieces of furniture and then mixing other objects and furnishings with blasts of either soft or strong colour, depending own what mood you're after.

A white interior isn't just about white. In a house designed by Frenchman Christian Liagre, the decoration relies on differences in texture - dark wood, blond oak, woven sisal, white linen and an oriental rug - to give character. The simple beauty of these objects stands out against a white backdrop.

"Any white room needs accents of colour," says Caroline Clifton Mogg. Note the word accents - she means small punctuations rather than vast blocks. "They are the supporting act, defining the original colour, highlighting it and giving it additional interest, and it is for you to decide whether those accents be contrasting or toning."

The book is practical, explaining simple things like dressing a white bed or choosing suitable lighting for an all-white room (controlling the light with direction-focused lamps is most important). The most salient piece of advice is to choose warm whites rather than cool whites, which are more difficult to handle.

Cool whites shouldn't be confused with the once ubiquitous brilliant whites. These shades are responsible for any bad preconceptions one might have about white - they have optical brighteners added and lack any subtlety. Cool whites have a dash of blue or black pigment, while warm whites have ochre or pinks.

"Warm whites take away the clinical look," says Robbie Keating, a Dublin-based paint specialist whose company Purple Ark is renowned for working with period buildings. "

Because most rooms have a different quality of light, different shades of white are needed."

Try the new Farrow & Ball shop on Thomas Street for a selection of soft whites; or see the Irish made Colourtrend range next door at MRCB Paints.

The virtues of white are obvious: spaces seem larger. The downside is also clear: it's hard to keep clean and it's not a look for young children. Have upholstery treated to protect against stains.

It can be argued that white works better in sunnier climates, yet Scandinavians (a number of Swedish and Norwegian homes are featured) have long created interiors based around white as a means of reflecting light into the home.

One particular area the book highlights in this context is hallways, rooms which could be brighter in a lot of Irish homes. It's simple to do: choose light reflective white shades for the walls (ask at MRCB) and use lighting that shines close to walls.

Throughout the book, it's clear white is popular in bedrooms and no wonder - it symbolises peace and calm, just what you want in a bedroom. Again, choose creamy, warm whites - for example, look for any fabric or paint colour reference that says parchment or buttermilk.

The lasting appeal of white is best illustrated by the much noted drawing room designed in 1932 by Syrie Maugham for her own house in London: a perfect symphony of tone-on-tone white, it looks fresh today, even 75 years later.

The White Home by Caroline Clifton Mogg is published by Jacqui Small, €19.50