Alternative to magnolia...

[vvviola]

We're in the process of buying a house that will need a fair bit of work, although most of it can be done over time.

It does need a bit of freshening up, and I was thinking of repainting the walls - but rather than having to decide on colour schemes now, I was going to just paint it all one colour (because we'll probably end up redecorating after various bits of work have been done).

So the plan was to get a few of those massive tubs and just paint it all. Except all I can see is magnolia. Which I really don't want.

Can anyone suggest an alternative?

[imabeautifulfennelcalledjoan]

We painted ours all white with a view to introducing colour at some point. That never happened as we decided we loved the white walls. I much prefer white to magnolia, having previously lived in magnolia painted rented flats.

[MintChocAddict]

Agree with white. Can look amazing.
However if you want something with a bit more colour then Natural Hessian is your friend.
Also like Almond White and Egyptian Cotton. All dulux.

[LaceyLee]

White or pale grey

[imabeautifulfennelcalledjoan]

I've heard pale grey being described as the new magnolia. I love grey walls. We may even be brave enough to paint a few walls grey in our new house

If you go for white, get a hard wearing satin. We have it and it means that marks rub off with a wet wipe.

[imabeautifulfennelcalledjoan]

Hhhmm....or do I mean eggshell? Sorry. Not much help there!

[Nancery]

Jasmine White - Dulux do it, and it's been our colour of choice for what you describe. Its basically just a less harsh white, a softer version, and it works really well. (I hate magnolia)

[ccridersuz]

White if you are buying the big tubs of paint. If you have kids or stairs are involved a washable Satin is better than Matt.
Then if you want a bit of colour you can get a small sample pot from DIY stores (about £3) in a tone of your choice and add it to any leftover white to get a feature or gentle colour on one well.
I do this all the time, you can in fact get 3/4 shades of the same colour from a 10 ltr tub of white paint. I am at the moment doing a room Grey and having not found the shades I wanted, have yet again gone down this route, with as others have said "amazing results to-date!.

[MintChocAddict]

If you want to go down the grey route, Just Walnut is lovely too. Very light grey effect but blends well with beiges/ neutrals too.

[willfuckformichilenstarfood]

Natural Calico is the posh magnolia :-)

[GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER]

Stark white everywhere can look very cold. But there are so many 'nearly whites' it can be terribly hard to know which one. What I did last time was buy several of those little 'try me' pots, slosh them over sheets of white A4 paper and hold them up to the walls to see which looked best. A nice 'nearly white' can look very good against a 'really white' ceiling.

[msrisotto]

I hate magnolia with a passion. So yellow.

We use nutmeg white or timeless white from Dulux I think.

[msrisotto]

Nutmeg white is a touch warmer than timeless.

[redhat]

Grey is very easy to live with. We are in the process of having our whole house redecorated and many of the rooms will be having grey/greige tones rather than very creamy tones. The kitchen is already very pale grey which is very easy to live with. The tv room is a dark grey which is really cosy. Its a dark room anyway so we went with it.

If you do go grey get a few testers and try them in different places/lights since some are warm (these are the best IMO), some are cool and some are almost purple.

[MargotsDevil]

Timeless is quite yellow as well - Nutmeg White looks very very different in different rooms though, so might work for you and break up the "sameness"?

[FinallyHere]

We have ivory creme, white with a very pale, but warm yellow undertone.

[Rupster]

For a warm neutral, you could try Dulux Natural Hessian. For a creamy white, Dulux Timeless is very popular.

[RobotandPenguin]

I was about to start a thread on the very same subject! We moved house last summer and are now in a position to do some much needed freshening up. The walls in most rooms are magnolia and I really dislike the yellow-ness. DH, on the other hand, hates pure white and all shades of grey (sob) so we are looking for creamy-but-not-yellowy-like magnolia.

So far, Natural Wicker, seems to the best option for us but I'm watching this thread with interest to see what other options are out there. Going to look out for Natural Calico, Ivory Creme and Natural Hessian. Have already sampled Nutmeg White and Timeless - I liked both but DH didn't.

LTB or keep sampling various shades of off-white?

[willfuckformichilenstarfood]

Natural Calico is a Dulux brand and it doesn't look yellow at all X

[msrisotto]

Has anyone tried cotton white, Dulux?

[Madbengalmum]

Jasmine white by dulux or eygptian cotton but i know jasmine comes in large tubs and is not stark like white, very easy on the eye.

[yadrosh]

Will say I am a magnolia fan, here. Quite a minimalist person, too. I think living in the northern hemisphere, a light grey can seem cold and sterile, depending on the house's orientation (north facing, etc). Want to be warm and cosy but have a huge aversion to strong colours or patterns on the walls!

We tried white in the previous property, which looked lovely, but the windows were huge and the walls would change colour with the day, it was such a lovely, light house. But it can be really austere in Victorian properties, as we have learned!

Your mileage may vary.

[leoniethelioness]

I like the colour of Ivory Cream by Crown but it's really watery. I'm thinking about trying Ivory Lace by Dulux when I redecorate.

[hollinhurst84]

Yep my living room and kitchen are cotton white. It's white but not glaring brilliant white

[vvviola]

Lots of great ideas :) thanks.

I'm now confused as to which one I should choose, but that's better than being stuck with no idea at all

[msrisotto]

OP, try not to think about it too much....I've now got three different whites in my house (just did the hall, stairs and landing in cotton white, thanks for the pic hollinshurst!) and they all look nice. I don't really think you can go wrong with white.