simply white

Instead of collecting images from the internet that show my love of white, I decided to take pictures of all my favorite white things I use on a daily basis around my house. I love white as it implies simplicity and cleanliness and I think it epitomizes summer living.

White dishes. I think food looks best presented on white dinnerware.



I only eat cookies that match my decor. You know I'm kidding - but did you know that oreos are vegan!



I love to serve grilled vegetables on platters like these from the restaurant supply store.




White slipcovers are a favorite of mine. I wash my Pottery Barn slipcovers about once a year.





Is there anything more refreshing than white cotton sheets in the summer?




Sweet dreams






Here is a little secret of mine. I buy my white cotton towels from Big Lots for $3 each. If you like big thick towels, these are not for you. But if you like a normal size towel that dries really fast, you can't beat these.




white orchids




white roses




feverfew




converse all stars




Hanes v-neck mens small t-shirts. Perfect for around the house and yoga class.





who am I kidding, I wear these everywhere!






This is a photo of our last cottage. We painted the floors white and I loved them. They were hard to keep clean but I really miss them.


As you can see, my love of white runs deep.

58 comments

  1. Dear Janet, what beautiful photos, your cottage looks wonderful, so impressed by the neatness of your kitchen cupboards too!! Zut, must go now, being besieged by savages (small boys) Bxx

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  2. Gorgeous pictures, love your style! BUT, Janet ... how did oreos get to be gevan?

    S

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  3. So many fun things to see in this post! I love sleeping in small men's Hanes t-shirts. and I always love your kitchen. I'm not sure I could go all-white, all the time....dogs just aren't conducive to that :) But I do dream of it.

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  4. I LOVE YOU HOME!
    It's so comfortable looking.
    I too have painted white floors and would miss them even if they get dirty quicker. I have recently discovered steam mops though and they make my life super easy!
    Have a blessed evening,
    Hugs,
    Donna

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  5. Janet,
    What beautiful images of your beautiful home. I love white too - you made me realize it with your great style! I only buy white towels too so I'll have to look into Big Lots.
    Love your head board and the sconce above it, so lovely.
    xoxoTrina

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  6. Wow, these pictures are beautiful and the epitome of summer.

    The beach house we just stayed in was all pine walls and white tables,white slipcovered furniture , and the occasional jolt of color from a beautiful painting (our friend owns a gallery in NYC) or a pitcher of sunflowers.

    I felt ethereal. I am not, but I felt it dammit.

    Your kitchen is inspirational. As are you.

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  7. Love these photos, so much better than a collection of internet ones. Your home is a constant inspiration to me to continue paring down and be focused on the look and feel I want.

    I love your subway tiles, kitchen shelves and sparse kitchen bench. You may joke about the Oreos, but I bet you wouldn't have bright pink iced cookies in that jar. They wouldn't look right!

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  8. hi sue,

    they took the whey out of oreos a few years ago. yeah. here's a link for more vegan snack foods.

    http://www.peta.org/accidentallyvegan/veganshoppingqs-snacks.asp?category=snacks

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  9. too funny! i wear mens size small white vnecks too!! they are the best! and i had no idea oreos were vegan. i'm starting to go vegan again. wish me luck!
    i just adore your beautiful white home:)

    xo,

    grace

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  10. Hi Janet!
    I'm a white girl myself- white kitchen, white dishes, white platters- have tons of antique English ironstone platters, white flowers- have white orchid in the master bath/white roses by my bed/and white mini-carnations in the guest bath ALWAYS!, white towels and white sheets. And the only thing better than cotton sheets.... linen!!
    I loved seeing all the photos throughout your house! And as always, you're too cute!
    joan

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  11. oh I just love your post! Amazing and inspirational..Sinead

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  12. O Janet....what a beautiful whites !! your home is wonderful....i love it !!! happy summer.......love.........Ria......

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  13. I love your Kitchen area....the mix of subway tiles and beaded board is lovely. Can I borrow your design? Please....Love it!

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  14. I don't like slow drying towels at all!

    the best are those you bought in Florida in the 1980's on vacation, once thick. They became so thin, almost transparent.

    After reading how much you love the colour white I get it why you dislike the red facade of the cottage.
    I love white houses in the Bretagne. so crisp and fresh. :)

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  15. I love your whites....especially your kitchen...so zen.
    I find that this palette is very calming and elegant.

    I have some chartruese green dishes that I am not madly in love with anymore...they feel too retro and they are scratched from years of use...
    I just may get some all white ones like you have here.
    Imitation IS the sincerest form of flattery!

    You look so cute in your white top and jeans Janet...that is one of my favourite looks...today I have a white tank top on under a large white cotton shirt and my old faithful worn DKNY jeans.

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  16. How perfect to read this after posting my question about painting the table! I love your use of white. And the tip about Big Lots? Thank you! I am just about ready to buy more towels and that is a great idea.

    Who wouldn't love vegan oreos? I've had them, too! Oh, and I buy men's t-shirts often - perfect for that white t-shirt, jeans look.

    xo
    Claudia

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  17. Oooh fabulous! I now have to go and paint my whole house white!

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  18. Lovely pictures. I love white too, but I am totally a red girl! So I try to have the best of both worlds! For all those who love white towels...Costco has great white towels. I use them for my spa parties...lots of makeup, and they always bleach clean! They are soft, fluffy, and a generous size! Love them!

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  19. I can't do all white as I need color, but it is beautiful and fits you. That's all that matters and those white sheets look cozy! ;)bb

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  20. Hi J, you look so pretty in these photos and sort of serene too. I love your home it really is tranquil. Take care x

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  21. I love white linens the best. Sheets and table linens. I agree - food does look best on white plates, and I use them most frequently, but have lots of other plates as well.
    Beautiful simplicity in white.

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  22. Love white and love this post Janet.
    Are you happy with your fireclay kitchen sink? Am doing research for our next house reno and I like the look of these sinks but hubby is not convinced.
    Oreos are vegan..who knew!
    xx

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  23. anne marie - to tell you the truth, i could take it or leave it. it cost a thousand dollars and to me it's no big deal. i doubt i'd ever buy another one. a regular sink would have been fine. live and learn.

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  24. Thanks so much Janet for your honest appraisal, it's much appreciated and valued.
    xx

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  25. Janet- these images of your home are gorgeous and so are you! I share your love of white- white sheets, white towels and for us cream plates... the color displays food so beautifully...

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  26. Good Evening!
    Every time you show your home, I see something else that I love and put on my wish list! Love the rabbit pictures...
    Your house has such a calm feel to it ~ it seems very peaceful. It seems for as much as I am getting rid of things, I just can't get that same feel.
    I'm going all white in my house...white and simple.
    Janet, you are absolutely adorable! Did hubby take a break to play photographer? :)
    Looks like you were having fun...

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  27. I too love white. My kitchen is shades of white (yes there are shades!) and I am in the midst of the project to paint my kitchen floor white (ok - vermont cream). I love white sheets, and white plates, and white flowers, but my terriers preclude white slipcovers. I have the Pottery Barn ones in sand :) they go so well with paw prints. I'm coveting those white converse sneakers to go with my v neck Ts too!! Are we related?

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  28. What a beautiful post Janet... I am going to mark it to drool over from time - I so LOVE your house. You look fab in your Hanes T shirt and jeans too. Agree with white floors - I love them too and in the cottage before last I sanded and painted a wooden floor white - lovely to look at but a nightmare to keep looking good! x

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  29. Hi Janet, thanks for showing us more of your beautiful house! Love your kitchen BTW! And white towels are my favorite too...

    ~kelley

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  30. Your collection of white pieces inside your home is very heavenly and serene. So many good choices in there. Luv 'em all!
    -marie

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  31. Hello Janet! Simply white and simply beautiful! It is great to be back and visiting you again. Thanks for the touching comment. Have a wonderful day! verbena cottage

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  32. I love these images~ so peaceful. I am also a HUGE fan of converse white tennies and mens Hanes tees~Love it!

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  33. I much prefer to see original pictures of your house. I like that you haven't taken white to the extreme. Like you, I love white orchids, white sheets, towels, plates etc. And, once had white floors that I liked the look of but they are soooo hard to keep clean. Love it. You wear mens undershirts so well--Never saw them look so chic!

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  34. Janet, I love seeing pictures of your peaceful cottage and you are so cute in your white T and converse. I can't wait to have my settee reupholsterd and have a white slip cover made. Seems like everything else keeps getting in my way...someday.
    Londen

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  35. I sure do admire your restraint, Janet. I just don't have it in me to decorate with so much white though I love to look at it in others' homes. Beautiful images, as usual. And thanks for the towel tip! Next time, I'll pass on the Macy's hotel towels that I was afraid to get dirty because they were too expensive!

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  36. What do you mean, Oreos are vegan?!?!!! If I gain 30kg in the next month, it's your fault.

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  37. Also, re: the towel issue, I mostly use beach towels! Towelling on one side and velour on the other.

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  38. Oh how I wish I could have a white couch but with two dogs that will never happen. It looks so refreshing! And I love the white floors!!!

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  39. When you have all white dishes and serving peices, do you find that there are a lot of different whites? I love the look of all white in the kitchen but if they were all different colors, I think it would drive me crazy. And isn't "Simply White" the name of your paint color?

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  40. steve - you are correct. my whites have a range from cream to blue-white but i love that. when the different pieces are on the table it gives the tablescape depth so it doesn't bother me at all. simply white is the interior color of my house.

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  41. Just painted the floor of my new studio glossy white--or rather, DH did. I love my plain white plates, white sofa slipcover (even with evidence of gray cat), white sheets and duvets, and white Becky shasta daisies. All the walls are a creamy white, the cotton curtains are white, the blinds are white and it's still not too much white!

    Happy blog birthday, too!

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  42. Beautiful white details from your home. Your home is beautiful!! Have a nice weekend:)

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  43. Gorgeous! All of it! I would love to do all white. But with four dogs of varying breeds and colors and a black cat, I think it would be a disaster. However, when my celery green dishes are replaced, I will be choosing white. It's so clean and fresh looking.
    Beautiful blog too....

    Adrienne

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  44. I, too, adore white. I just bought a white IKEA Ektorp couch which looks very much like yours. Two weeks into its life and it's already looking dingy. I'm amazed that you only wash your slipcover once a year!

    I adore your home and your blog. Thanks for sharing!

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  45. darling Janet, you are a so good looking girl!!! just my style for summer, lots of white shirts and jeans!!!
    all your inside and outside whites are absolutely lovely, so simple yet so charming!!! but, my god, white floors is a lot of work... do you want that for this new house? Hope not!!!!
    many hugs, my friend,
    maria cecilia

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  46. I have just this minute been contemplating whether I could get away with a wall of floor to ceiling frames in my bedroom...and there was yours! Thanks for showing me it can be done!

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  47. Your home is just beautiful- I ♥ it!!

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  48. Your home is gorgeous and I love, love, love all the white. I'll be renting again when I move, but my new place will have as much white as I can possibly give it. I'm now decluttering my old dishes and changing over to white. As a photographer, I totally agree, food looks so much better on white. ♥

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  49. I love it! Your cottage is so clean looking compared to my messy house, I have shirts all over the floor and you have things all nice and neat.

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  50. hi
    i would love to feature your home on my blog and also request you for a vegan recipe guest post on my food blog..pl let me know

    sudha

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  51. Hi Janet,
    I just recently found your blog and I'm systematically reading it all. I subscribe to CL, and probably saw your cottage featured there, but was too hurried to check out your blog, unfortunately.

    I have a question about your painted floors. You said they were hard to keep clean and I'm considering painting our wood floors. Do you think if they were a darker color, say putty-ish, that it would help? We have a dog, a rabbit & 5 cats, and are constantly in & out so ease of upkeep is critical for us.

    Thank you!

    Cara

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    Replies
    1. hi cara. i only have experience with white painted floors and i can tell you that it amazed me how hard they were to keep clean. it's only the 2 of us and we are v clean, no pets at all. i would be shocked at how dirty/grimy they got in just a few days time. i think a dark color would be v much like our wood floors now. they don't show any real dirt, just dust which is easy to dust mop up. also, something to consider would be scratching from pet claws. we were constantly touching up the floors just from our little bit of wear and tear. unless you are going for a weathered/scratched look which could be v pretty. hope this helps. xo

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    2. Thank you Janet!

      I've seen several painted floor stories in magazines where they painted a complementary color underneath just so the scratches would show the undercoat.
      I'm in South Florida and the house is dark (probably to keep it cool: we don't have AC) so dark floors would make it worse. If I had the gumption & energy, I'd paint faux marble squares so that the irregularities would mask the dirt.

      Janet, we don't eat animal products either, but will buy used wool, silk, leather, down... for the environment. I became vegan in 1985 (I'm 58) and so got rid of almost all my leather. What I found was that the imitations (shoes, especially) didn't hold up, sometimes falling apart after sitting in my closet, waiting until the next occasion. All that petroleum, slave labor, shipping energy and the rest of the embedded costs going to the landfill, or burned, producing dioxin– well, as an environmentalist I couldn't justify it so, despite the unavoidable cruelty, I buy used leather. I buy silk & wool used because they will biodegrade.

      So, because vegans don't use animal-derived clothing at all, to be accurate, my family (Gary & I) refer to ourselves as strict vegetarians who avoid eating all animal products. When I go out to eat & the waitperson says s/he had a vegetarian in yesterday who ate fish, I get so frustrated. If I'm wearing leather, I don't want to use an inaccurate label out of respect for the many animal-rights activist friends we have who truly are vegans and so eschew all animal products

      The difference is important to us.

      Just fyi, in case you aren't able to give up all the animal products in your life, you can be so proud of being a strict vegetarian. There's a great vegan blog I follow: BonzaiAphrodite. Shes a lot younger but very passionate about her vegan life.

      Thanks for the lovely blog. I made the chopped broccoli dish and it was scrumptious!


      Cara

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    3. thanks for your reply cara. i too have had trouble with vegan shoes etc. most of my shoes now are 2nd hand and the majority of my clothing is too. the subtitle of my blog is simplicity, vegan cooking and style bc i don't adhere to a strict vegan lifestyle. i do the best i can! lol

      i will look up the blog you recommend. my favorite vegan cooking blog is the simple veganista. she's an excellent cook.

      i hope you find a solution to your flooring situation. you sound like a beautiful spirit! xoxo j

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    4. Hi Janet,
      Guess what, I think I commented on one of your 2017 entries but forgot to bookmark it!

      I asked about the foliage on your round mirror. If the comment didn't come through, please let me know, and if it did, please give me the date so I can read it!

      I made the broccoli again today because it was so good. I added lots of garlic, though.

      All the best,

      Cara

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    5. i'm not exactly sure what you mean cara. are you looking for a photo of the mirror? you can see that mirror in many of the photos if you go to the archives list and click on "my house." hope that helps! xo

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    6. Sorry for delay!
      No, I've seen the photos of the mirror, especially the close up one of the foliage. What I asked before, and apparently it got lost in the ether, is do you happen to know what foliage is in relief on the mirror?

      I bought a friend a brass candlestick with the same and the best we could guess was that it's mistletoe, but I hope you'll know.

      Guessing you're consumed with a new family member, so will check back in the future.

      Cara

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kindness is never out of style.

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