I would not go to all the trouble of using ceiling white paint if the walls were going to be some shade of white anyhow. You probably notice even now the ceiling appears to be a different shade of white compared to the walls even though they are the same color.

White walls do not make a room look lighter or brighter. Depending on what you want to accomplish in the room, white paint may not be the answer.

May I suggest that you post a few photos of the room on a thread in the Home Decorating forum and ask for suggestions of what colors might look good. You might be surprised to find that a darker color would make the room look warmer and even brighter.

IMO, unless you have really great artwork, white is probably not the best choice for a wall color.

We would consider something other than off white, but need some guidance on how to do that. In both our living room and kitchen earth tones dominate, but we have oriental carpets in the living room that have an array of colors -- in one of them, blue dominates. Our leather sofa is beige, two recliners are deep green, and another chair is burgundy. Our kitchen appliances are white, cabinets are medium tone oak, floor is vinyl richly textured stone look. Tile backsplash is beige. We achieve color in the kitchen with plates hung on the walls and with richly colored place mats. I'll try to get some pictures into a post in the decorating forum -- never did that before.

You need to host the photos on a website such as photobucket.com and then post links to them on GardenWeb.