How To Clean White Walls With Flat Paint

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Cleaning flat paint walls can be a real chore. Flat paint's matte texture is great at covering up old imperfections on your walls, but this finish's low sheen and high porosity also make it show new blemishes easily. This only gets harder if the walls you're cleaning are painted the color that shows marks most often: white. Cleaning white walls with flat paint takes a little extra care, but with the right tools and know-how, it can still be easy and effective.

Before you get ready to clean your flat white painted walls, check to make sure the paint is actually a flat finish. If you painted the room yourself, you should already know, but otherwise you can check by shining a flashlight at the wall. Glossy paint will show a defined circular outline of the light, eggshell or semi-gloss finish will show a slightly less defined circle, and flat paint will glow without a defined outline of the light.

Generally, to bring scuffed flat paint walls back to their former glory, you'll need to clean the walls with a mild soap, warm water, and a soft sponge or microfiber cloth. Begin at the top of the wall and scrub lightly in small circles — flat paint's porous texture makes it more susceptible to trapping dirt and less water-resistant, so it needs a gentler hand when scrubbing. Rinse the walls with a clean damp cloth, then dry them with a soft cloth like microfiber.

White walls can brighten any space as long as you avoid these white paint mistakes. But since flat white paint is so prone to showing scuffs, you may need to clean white walls more often than more colorful walls, ideally deep-cleaning twice a year and spot-cleaning as needed in between. On the bright side, flat painted white walls give you a spot cleaning option that won't work as well with any other finish or color: melamine sponges, which you may know as the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. The abrasive surface of the sponge can leave dull spots in gloss or semi-gloss paint and rub away tint from colorful walls, but since your walls are matte and white, you can break out the melamine sponge without too much worry. That said, stop using the sponge if you notice any of the paint color transferring to it.

Before you resort to melamine sponges, you can also try a more gentle way to clean your interior walls with baking soda. Use a ratio of three parts baking soda to one part water to create a paste, then spread the paste over the spot you're attempting to clean. Leave it for 10 minutes, and when time is up, gently wipe the spot with a damp cloth before wiping it dry. If all else fails, flat paint layers well over unsealed flat paint, so it may make sense to add a little touch-up paint as a concealer.