Neutral paint colour for all over?

[AliceRR]

We’ve moved into a new house and need to decorate the whole house.

I’d potentially like one colour for all over the house. In our last house we did this and had a grey pain from Dulux “Pebble Shore”. It was actually a really lovely grey colour and many people commented on it and copied us!

Anyway we don’t want grey again this time as it seems like everyone has it and also we want something slightly different to the last house

DH doesn’t want white but we’d consider an off white.

I’d like something not too warm and not too cool, not a full in grey but not a cream either.

Maybe these sorts of colours

www.dulux.co.uk/en/colour-details/h_white/l_Living%20room/s_Walls?tab=2#white

From a quick look I like Vintage Chandelier, Milky Pail and Summer Linen

If you have any specific colour recommendations of colours that work for you then please let me know

I almost feel we got lucky with Pebble Shore as it was the perfect grey. Now I want the perfect beige / brown / greige

(DH has expressed and interest in “brown”)

I should probably have got some undercoat before trying the samples too, thinking about it now ... the bedroom walls are currently each of yellow, orange and green!

My last home was all Natural Calico from Dulux and it wasn’t particularly sophisticated looking but versatile and very easy to live with.

Skimming Stone is really beautiful and one of my favourites. I also love Ammonite and Strong White is a calm, slightly lighter grey, but not too cool. It makes a good all over house colour.

I was struggling with something like this a few months back when renovating a house top to bottom and I think that the best money I spent was on getting an F&B colour consultation. The cost set against the impact of having the right colours on the wall was well worth it. If you happen to be in London, Scott from the Marylebone store was amazing and saved my sanity.

Natural Calico looks very cream but it sounds like a lot of people like Skimming Stone

I looked on Pinterest actually and saw a pic where elephants breath is used in the kitchen and then Skimming Stone is used in the adjoining dining area, which looks nice

The consultation is an interesting idea. I wasn’t sure if they’d do it where we are (Yorkshire). Hopefully I’ll find a colour based on our samples but if not I’ll look into whether we can do that. I mean I’ve spent nearly £30 on samples, it’ll soon as up!

If you go to B&Q to the mixing desk and ask for slimming stone from Farrow and Ball they will mix it for you. Go for the slightly more expensive one (there are two emulsions). It's great paint and better coverage than F&B. It's their own range, velspar. I use it all the time and you'll save some money too.

Skimming stone can look grey in the pot but it dries differently.

Re cation when 'slapping it on the walls'. I've seen some clients that have tiny little (A4) sized patches on their walls next to lots of other sample pot testings and it's well nigh impossible to choose this way. If you are painting on top of another colour that likewise alters the colour too. Best solution is to paint it onto a piece of lining paper (get a really big bit, there is enough paint in a sample pot to paint a square meter at least (2 coats too) and put it up in a corner so you can see what it looks like when it reflects upon itself.

Elephants breath works really well with skimming stone but is quite a bit darker.

Good luck. If you need anymore help just shout.

Have you thought about ceiling colour and woodwork colour yet?

Re colour consultations, I was a colour consultant for F&B for years (pre babies) so ask away!

Thanks @spellingtest That’s very helpful.

I really am in two minds about what colour I want. I like the idea of a warm brown colour paint and carpets (we plan to have carpets upstairs and wooden floor downstairs) but I also like the effect of a cooler paint colour which I think Skimming Stone might fit in with.

We plan to have white paintwork and maybe wooden / oak doors, although I do also like the look of all white paint work. We would have white ceilings.

It may be that we have Skimming Stone downstairs and something warmer upstairs or vice versa

We had one colour throughout in the old house but it was a small house, which we were selling, so we thought continuation might be beneficial but I’m now thinking we don’t have to have one colour throughout the house.

I really was just going to just slap it on in maybe 50cm squares but the pots are a generous size so I could try on a larger area. The colours are currently quite distinctive colours though (the room I’m in now is quite a definite peach)

Downstairs there is a Stone fireplace that we plan to keep and I think a cooler colour will go better with that and give it more of a modern look.

I use Dulux timeless

Timeless looks beautiful we have painted our whole house in it. It's a very calm, serene colour.

You might want to consider the colours of things in the house that you can’t easily change. Like kitchen units and bathroom tiles as they will set the tone to an extent. And the colour of you furnishings. Unless you’re doing everything from scratch of course.

You could consider one colour per floor of the house provided they complement and flow into each other. This is what we did because the kitchen cabinet colour already set the tone on the ground floor, as did the flooring but to a much lesser degree.

You might want to consider the colours of things in the house that you can’t easily change.

We are doing everything from scratch. We will be getting new flooring / carpets, new bathroom (although that would all be tiled anyway) and then we will be getting a new kitchen but probably in a few months / next year as we have limited funds atm.

Builder starts next week to plaster / skim bedrooms and hallway and do bathroom. I’ve just started a separate thread in the bathroom as he’s due to start work and we have chosen anything!

I’ve tried skimming stone and elephant’s breath and they look very grey. Elephant’s breath is quite dark.

I do like skimming stone but it’s not what I had in mind. I thought it might be more greige than grey 🤔

Oxford Stone is quite dark and I don’t think that’s right for us either

Haven't read other replies, but how about Shadow White or Shaded White (F&B or copied)

You could look at joas white (F and B) ? Here are snatched of it in my Ds room.

Crown Ivory Cream - a lot less cream than it sounds and not the weird beige it looks on the website ! Chosen because we have a direct north/south lying house and it was the one that seems constant despite different natural daytime light - and works in artificial light as well.

I have sample pots of shaded white, joa’s White and schoolhouse white to try too

I sort of assuming once I saw the tins I wouldn’t like them as thought skimming stone would be the right one for me but clearly I need to try them

Hubby likes elephants breath but I think it’s too dadk

I tested Dulux Egyptian Cotton but found it too white. I ended up with their Natural Hessian and it’s lovely.

What paint colour did you choose in the end please?

We had Elephant’s Breath in our old house. Really liked it at the time but it didn’t age well in areas that were exposed to light.

Current house now has Neptune’s French Grey in living room and kitchen/dining room. Like it a lot, and the decorator said the Neptune paint was a lot better to work with than F&B.