Please help me find a white or pale grey paint for my lounge

[wonderwoo]

I have spent a fortune on paint testers for my lounge/diner - and I cannot find something that works. Please help me!

I am looking for a fresh white or pale grey. I currently have Dulux Timeless but it has a grubby look (it is probably actually quite grubby, but also never looked fresh anyway). I also have Jasmine white elsewhere and also find that the same.

I don't understand how colours/lighting works at all but the problem I have is that colours that look lovely elsewhere in the house always get a pinkish/lilacy tinge to them in my lounge/diner - in both natural light and more so when I have the lights on. Colours like look pale elsewhere look far darker too. I don't know why this is or what to do about it. My lounge diner is north/south facing.

Can anyone teach me why this happens? Or recommend a white or very pale grey that is really fresh looking?

I cannot keep spending money on testers and my lounge is looking like a badly made patchwork quilt with so many testers everywhere.

Thank you.

Dulux polished pebble. Looked awful when I used the tester pot (really dark and a bit green) but fab once on the walls.

Polished pebble in living room and kitchen. Different lighting so the kitchen looks slightly darker

You may want to look at the type of bulbs in your fixtures in your lounge. It's amazing what a difference different types of bulbs can make to the color of a room. Personally, I like to paint my walls bright bright white and then do the molding in grey. Here's a photo of the entrance way of our house when we lived in London.
Also remember that grey is not totally a neutral color. There are many different types of grey (red, yellow, blue, green) and you will want to make sure your grey goes with your floors/carpets/drapes etc.

I really can't rate Dulux's Nutmeg White highly enough! It's a lovely warm colour, sort of beige, sort of pink, sort of grey. Goes with everything. We have it in our lounge and two bedrooms and it still looks fresh 5yrs later!

We have Dulux Porcelain Doll.

Griselda we have grey steel 4 in our hallway and a bedroom (and grey steel 3 too). Its lovely and is just what I am looking for to be honest. The problem I have is that our lounge turns every bloody colour into a far darker shade, with a pink tinge. No idea why and its driving me crazy.

We have also used Dulux white mist, which looks white in my kitchen but lilac in my lounge. Argh!

Thank you everyone for your recommendations. I shall head down B&Q later with a list and hope that this time one of them actually looks white/grey on my walls.

I may try changing the light bulbs to a cool white, but I find that to be quite stark. And to be honest, the colours look just as bad in daylight, so not sure its worth the money.

We have valspar premium 'sleeping Inn ' in son's room and wanted something paler still for kitchen to make the grey marble effect on my quartz so have put ' Shetland sweater' also valspar ...perfect!

agree with pp - Farrow and Ball Cornforth White is lovely.

@Iggity if you don't mind me asking: where is your stairs carpet from? And what's the colour name? That's exactly the colour we're looking for.

I read somewhere that grey with a greenish undertone is best for northern light. I have fucking lavender up in my sitting room - very annoying. Sometimes it is easier to see the undertone on the darkest colour on the shop but the lighter colours will be the same but more useful.

We have dulux polished pebble in our bedroom.
You can download an app from Dulux where you take a picture of the room and can virtually paint the walls to see how it would look. I think crown do an app too.

Hi teacher, it's Malabar two fold in quicksilver (Cormar carpets). It's the ribbed one as they also do a weave option. Love it so much. We got an extra thick underlay which makes it feel even better. Here is a close up. Because of our patterned hallway we couldn't have striped carpet which I really wanted so this is my subtle nod to stripes!

Blackgrouse, thank you. The skirting was removed as it was ancient and new stuff put on. My DH did it all and he is very proud of it as first time ever tiling floor, 2nd time tiling anything. Tiling skills acquired from YouTube! We previously had laminate on the floor with the wood coloured trim sitting next to the skirting and I hated it. Tiled floor is nice in hall and doesn't show the dirt and not cold either as seem to pick up heat from radiator.

Thanks @Iggity - we've been looking for a while for a ribbed carpet which isn't too 'aggressive' if that makes sense for a carpet...

I totally agree, Valspar moonshot is really a fabulous color! We have it in our Kitchen, and I love it

Fired Earth Malm. It's the perfect grey in my north facing room.

Another vote for dulux polished pebble, having tested what seemed like hundreds of greys-this one is neither too "blue", too "lilac" or too "brown" and it's also not too cold

Dulux Polished Pebble is lovely

Ollivander we have a similar coloured sofa in a north facing room. It's really difficult to decorate well!

I'm also doing the same really soon. We've got a shade dulux nordic sales 2 and it's to pinky for me but a really nice option. I've got Laura Ashley white palm leaf wallpaper to go on feature wall and need a colour to compliment it.

Timeless is supposed to be formulated to pick up the colours round about it. I have it in every room but am getting a bit bored.

Just done our sitting room in crown clay white. It's a lovely pale soft grey

Our kitchen and stairs/landing is ammonite, which is definitely more greige than grey.

Ammonite looks pale blue-grey in my hall.

I'll be in a similar search soon so marking the thread. Did you find one you like op?

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