First home & best white paint!

[Fizzie100]

Hello!
Hope everyone's well. We complete on our first home on Tuesday which is so exciting but lots to plan and wondered if anyone could help with paint! We're buying a small victorian terrace and want to paint everything white to start and then go from there. Does anyone know which white paint is best?? We want as bright as poss as going to strip floorboards too and really brighten the place up. Like the scandi look. Thoughts much appreciated. Also any painting essentials we should know about? First time!! Thanks and have a lovely evening x

[deedeelondon]

You can't beat Dulux for white paint - and there's Dulux offer on at Homebase at the moment I think. Doesn't pay to get cheap stuff as the coverage is not good and you end up having to put more coats on the wall which wipes out any money you may have saved. I've just painted my newly replastered sitting room and dining room brilliant white - so please with the results and even more pleased that I haven't had to spend days agonizing over colour charts for once!
Congrats on your first house - enjoy it!

[IssyStark]

Preparation, preparation, preparation! Don't skimp on it.

If removing wallpaper sugar soap and then wash with plain water afterwards. You will need to get all the old paste off otherwise it will cause the paint to bubble. Then fill dents with polyfilla and sand down. If the plaster has never been painted, you'll need to do a couple of thin layers of watered down paint first to seal the plaster (just ordinary matt emulsion, 1 water to 3 or 5 of paint).

With gloss, sand before painting to give a key if you aren't stripping the paint and sand between coats to give a good finish.

Get a decorating manual out of your local library as you are bound to come across problems you'll need to solve :)

Enjoy your new home!

[80sMum]

If you're wanting to paint skirting, doors and door frames etc then don't use a solvent-based (alkyd) paint, as they tend to go yellowish after a wwhile. Use a water-borne paint instea, wwhich will stay bright white.
My favourite is Sikkens Satura Rubbol BL, available online from various decorating warehouse type of shops.
A more readily aavailable alternative is Dulux Trade Diamond Satinwood, although imo it doesn't have quite such a beautiful, smooth finish as the Sikkens.

[MissMysticFalls]

Ooh useful tips for us too - congrats fizzie - we've completed on our first and are waiting for the plasterers to finish before we can get in and start painting. Also going for white throughout - Dulux Supermatt trade white. We were recommended to use a synthetic bristle brush for the 1st watered down "mist" coat and then rollers.

Presumably we/you also need dustsheets (Homebase?) and tape for skirting boards? - we're not painting ours.

[wfrances]

i prefer crown white matt over dulux
but prefer farrow & ball -all white estate emulsion over any other white paint- its just expensive.

[80sMum]

MissMystic, Dulux Supermatt is great for painting new plaster. But bear in mind that essentially it's a primer for other finishes. As it's not washable, it marks easily and will quickly look shabby.
I would recommend you consider using a more durable product over the Supermatt base; Dulux Trade Diamond Matt or Dulux Trade Durable Matt. The Diamond version is not a true matt though, it has a very slight sheen to it.

[MissMysticFalls]

Thanks, that's good to know. So use the supermatt for the base and then another dulux trade paint over the top. Is Natural Calico a good shade for a house that gets a lot of cool light? (NE and NW facing bedrooms)? I'm not wedded to pure white if it'll look too stark - it's just we don't have time to faff on choosing colours and need something neutral and bright we can live with until we can put the time (and money) into choosing something else.

Sorry OP, hope I'm not crashing!

[HoneyTits]

On my ceilings I used Dulux light and space lumitec. Lovely bright matt white and really makes a difference.

[WowWowSauce]

Dulux Timeless is pretty highly thought of and a classic. Seems to go with any light as well.

B&Q often have sales and as pp said, they have offers just now.

I really like the 'hints of' range as they're a bit less stark than plain white. Having tried both Dulux and Crown though - Crown splatters much less.

[MissMysticFalls]

Thanks WowWow.
What are you going for Fizzie?