What color to paint interior walls?

[68Malibu383]

Finishing my 28 x 42 with 12 ft ceilings. Sheetrock is up and ready for paint. I plan on installing plenty of 4' LED fixtures, so I'll have plenty of light.

Wondering about wall color. White would reflect and look bright but is a little boring and would show all dirt. I was thinking about a light grey or very light blue/grey. Just not sure how the color may "contaminate" the light and reflections.

I would use the shop for general car work and will likely paint a few cars over the years. Thanks for any input!

 

[rburke65]

Obviously you'll want a lighter color....no? It all comes down to opinion.

 

[brownbagg]

white

 

[ItsNemo]

I did the slightest off white towards grey in mine. At very least do the ceiling/upper walls in white where the dirt won't be a problem. Can do the lower half in a different colour.

 

[ob355]

I did white to reflect the light and keep it bright and the bottom 4 feet gray so it will not look dirty if you touch it

 

[Bluedodge]

White.

 

[StreetGLi]

If you're going to do painting you're going to have to put up a booth so I don't think wall colour really matters.

If you're just doing general home auto stuff you probably don't need lab white.. especially with the extra lighting.

For what it's worth I have one wall that is deep VW blue and the rest are light grey. Celing is white. Tile is white. I have no issues wrenching.

 

[garage guy1of38]

White

 

[Parrothead]

White

 

[glentre]

Opinion...Off white to the grey shade with a darker grey bottom. Ceiling flat white. Suggest using semi gloss or satin sheen so you can clean it. Flat paint shows all kinds of dirt and is hard to keep looking nice.

And, paint the ceiling before installing the lights.

Glen

 

[logan_gibson]

White upper, Darkish Grey on bottom. Blue Strip around the middle.

Looks good, bounces some light around.

But its a garage, I've gotten paint and grease on the white part of the wall, no biggie. Just shows that I use my garage. Not going for a showroom look.

Color shouldn't have a big light contamination issue.
Unless you have some bright blue/green/red color on the entire wall.