My BR is not yet finished, but I am going for a similar theme. You said 'soothing and light', my mantra is calming, organic and peaceful. My inspiration room is similar.

[Transitional Bedroom[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/transitional-bedroom-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_715~s_2112) by San Francisco Interior Designers & Decorators Artistic Designs for Living, Tineke Triggs
I have completed the painting and I LOVE SW Antique White. My trim is painted SW Alabaster White- which provides a nice contrast without being jarring. My room will have natural woven blinds in a off-white. My bedspread adds a bit of color and pattern as it is a muted print. My floor is pumpkin pine so that adds a bit of punch too, and I also have quite a bit of woodwork from post and beam framing. I dont have a finished product to take photos of-sorry. I am still working on lots of details.
I think one of the keys of a successful offwhite room is to ensure it feels warm, through natural elements and to incorporate lots of different textures.
Good luck, I love your inspiration.

I don't have an off white room, but I will say texture, texture, texture. What keeps a room from going boring is a blend of textures. And off white need not be strictly off white, but you can use subtle stripes or patterns or prints that are white on white or very soft .

[Contemporary Bedroom[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/contemporary-bedroom-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_715~s_2103) by Boston Photographers Mary Prince

[Traditional Bedroom[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-bedroom-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_715~s_2107) by Salt Lake City Architects & Building Designers THINK architecture Inc.

[Traditional Bedroom[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-bedroom-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_715~s_2107) by Charleston Interior Designers & Decorators Margaret Donaldson Interiors

[Traditional Bedroom[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-bedroom-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_715~s_2107) by Atlanta Architects & Building Designers Castro Design Studio

I love the looks of both those rooms. As said, use of different textures, architectural shadow lines, matte and gloss finishes. I've read that mono-white is much easier to pull off in rooms with good architectural detail, like localeater's it sounds like, and sitting in my white living room, boy, do I see how that's true. I lost my strong open-beamed ceiling to a builder goof-up, so I belatedly added some beadboard wainscot as a pallid cover for too much drywall.

In any case, bringing in some specifically good quality pieces as you finish can add richness to keep it from going flat too.

In looking at both of those pictures, both are very strongly monochromatic top to bottom -- off whites on all surfaces, with dark contrasts and colors used crisply but delicately, just in sufficient, restrained amounts -- and locations -- to make the off-whites look their best.

Your medium-stained shutters and furniture sound like a nice start to a nice look, Superchick, but could they lead to a rather different effect if the proportions and distribution of light and dark are different? (Might you like that better anyway?) Will your mediums come off off-white or crisply contrasting, or neither? Maybe look for inspiration pictures that bring in medium values?

I also love the look of those rooms. They're definitely not boring to me, but creamily soothing.

I am a huge fan of SW Antique White and have it throughout my house, except my bedroom. It's great on ceilings too.

Thanks for the responses. My bedroom has been dark for so long, the thought of changing to the opposite side of the spectrum has me in hives. Haha! I have antique white on my ceiling right now and really like the color. I have the next shade down (Believeable Buff) in the rest of the house, but it reads more like SW Blonde. VERY golden. My windows are north facing and everything looks completely different than what it should and I've never been able to have anything white (like furniture or sheets) because it clashes terribly. I think I'm afraid that I won't be able to mix and match different shades of ivory and white to get the texture and depth I'll need to keep it from being boring. I'll try to post a pic of my trim and furniture so you know what I've got going on.

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Oops. Let me try that again.

Here's a great blog post about the "values" of the tones presented in a room. It's not about the color, but the range of tones you're using.

You'll notice the 4th photo (copied here) is primarily "off-white" but certainly isn't boring because it incorporates other neutral tones in the dark floor, medium console, and so on.

Here is a link that might be useful: A polished room

Peony, excellent info! Thanks!

I want that rug from A Polished Room! All of the bedrooms look so fresh, clean and inviting! Love them!

Take a look at work done by Phoebe Howard...she is a master of monochromatic, restful schemes in which she uses a lot of textures.

From your pic, it looks like you already have the coverlet for your bed that will work...

Here is a link that might be useful: Phoebe Howard

"Anyone have suggestions for how to keep an off white room from being boring?

I'm aiming for something soothing and light."

Tell yourself, "It's not boring, it's soothing and light"!

Use multiple shades of off-white, use multiple textures (plush, rough, silky, embossed), use multiple prints in pale off-whites.

Lazygardens' post sounds like a conversation between me and my DH when I propose an element for our MBR.
"Isnt that boring, shouldnt we have more color-something bright?".
"No this is calm and peaceful."

At least they're interested. With DH, it's, "Whatever you like, I'll like." Of course, last year there was an unexpected, "That's the ugliest lamp I've ever seen." It really wasn't, and I was bumfuzzled trying to figure out how it appeared to him, but out it went.

Regarding your off whites looking off color, Superchick, would the bedroom be a place where you could close the shutters/window treatments and not have to deal with the effects of outside light, perhaps coming through tinted panes, on interior colors? Then you'd only have to choose the artificial light effects that worked best.

We both hop out of bed on waking in the morning, and evening is the time we like to snuggle in bed and enjoy the room. So choosing for what looked especially good under artificial light would work for us.

A big part of the look of those rooms is the lighting. Remember those rooms are expertly lighted by pro photographers, and there's a lot of photoshopping going on to lift shadows, add highlights, & emphasize textures, which is a lot why all white rooms look so great in the magazines but can go flat in real life. Notice how many lights are turned on, and the photographer is probably bouncing a flash off the ceiling too. Look at the video below at around 7:28 to see how a pro interior photographer adds lighting to the picture -- fascinating.

So I think if you go into the project knowing you're not going to end up with the same glow in your all white room as the pictures, you'll be okay. And play with the light that you have or what you can bring in (mirror? can lights? accent lights?) Hoping pal or beverly27 weigh in with some pro tips.

I just got a sudden urge to go all whites in my BR too. Peony, great web site! Thanks for that.

Here is a link that might be useful: how a pro brightens a room picture

Our MBR had been done in shades of white and cream for almost 15 years now and I still love it. As has already been mentioned, using a variety of textures and subtle patterns, etc. I do think that what helps it work for me, is that the furniture is not light but a warm fruitwood. I like that contrast, which is soft and not harsh. I added a tree in the corner, which brought in a natural color. I've also used a small, pale rose and green print on one chair and a soft rose velveteen on the other chair (out of the picture). I've tried to keep the lamps and art in harmony with everything else. Nothing is stark or bright, just soft, adding a bit of contrast here and there. Fifteen years later and it still feels very calm and soothing year-round. It's warm and cozy on a snowy Winter day, but feels cool and airy now that it's Summer.

BTW, I've also done our living room in creams, and love that, too.
Lynn

Ahh, yes, that first photo. I had that as inspiration for my bedroom a few years ago.

awm beat me to it, but lighting is what makes picture #1 so fabulous. Besides the photos being professionally lit, there is natural light coming from more than one direction in the room. The bedroom I had when I was looking at this photo had a gigantic atrium window on one wall. There were no other windows in the room. The room had plenty of light but it was only coming in from the one direction which caused shadows on the wall when the light hit any object in the room.

Now think about that for a minute. (This is exactly when I had my a-ha moment). I painted the color that the room is painted in photo #1 on a sample board. And then moved it around. It never looked like the cream. It was always a gray because of the shadows. So that's when I had to abandon this wall color for my room, and go with a color that would look right (I think I ended up with Eagle Rock or something around that one).

So, if you have the right lighting, then you can pull this off. And I agree that textures are what gives interest, and remember that metals are colors too, and will give you another layer of your color.

Good Luck!

It's hard to take a picture of our off white guest bedroom because it is very small. I used off white painted furniture, cream/off white damask wallpaper for subtle pattern, white drapes with white lace panels behind them, cream matelasse coverlet, white duvet cover on fluffy feather comforter, and white linens.

The room seemed a little boring to me, so I added a black needlepoint rug with floral pattern to ground all that white, a gold framed mirror, brown rush seat chair, and a walnut antique armoire (on the other side of the room) for visual weight.

I like a bedroom to be serene, too, but I know myself: I would grow tired of an entirely white room.

Pinkpaula, I love love that room!

OP:
My entire house in CT in mostly shades of white, so I know where you are coming from. You need texture, patina, some bling, and something to create contrast (like dark woods or a rug like PinkPaula). In other words, it can't be all white and cream, it will fall a little flat.

Thanks for the ideas, ladies. The only time I've ever had cream colored walls was in our old house that was very "cottagey". But I think the antique white will look more like a soft cream/gold in my room. Which (I think) would be really good. I tried to go buy a sample quart of Antique White and the SW store was out of it. REALLY?! I need to find a decent way to make a sample board that will be accurate. I don't want to put it on my wall to try it out, as I will have no way to match up the paint that is currently on there!

Thanks for the ideas, ladies. The only time I've ever had cream colored walls was in our old house that was very "cottagey". But I think the antique white will look more like a soft cream/gold in my room. Which (I think) would be really good. I tried to go buy a sample quart of Antique White and the SW store was out of it. REALLY?! I need to find a decent way to make a sample board that will be accurate. I don't want to put it on my wall to try it out, as I will have no way to match up the paint that is currently on there!