Paint in France

[Living]

French mumsnetters help needed on first world problem!

Ok so we're in the process of buying a house in France and it needs painting throughout. Aim is to paint in something fairly neutral. In the UK we'd be going for magnolia throughout.

DH was there a couple of weeks ago and discovered that magnolia doesn't really seem to be a thing in France (or not in our bit of France anyway) and it was expensive. Only paint in big pots seemed to be white. I'm not a big fan of plain white - I think it's a bit stark. However, I'm also a tightwad and don't want to pay out a fortune on paint.

So (getting to the point eventually) is there a French equivalent of magnolia I can buy in bulk that we can use?

Thanks!

We have lived in France for ten years and we always buy our paint in the UK. The French stuff is expensive and the quality is generally dire. You can buy Farrow and Ball at their (few) shops here and we have also had it delivered by post at vast expense.
Undercoat isn't bad, but we have tried several different sorts of topcoat and the paint is thin and the coverage poor.

The French paint their walls white, not magnolia. White is the local answer to neutral walls.

Buy your paint in England, as EmilyAlice suggests.

We always bought paint in the uk. There just isn't the same quality of paint, it has such a runny consistency and I could never find a colour I liked.

Agree 100% We too have lived here ten years and after listening to such advice about bringing it over all this time, I thought this is ridiculous can it really be that bad here and have proceeded to ruin our bedroom ceiling using French paint. It's just dreadful. Patchy, smelly, runny. Don't do it. Bring paint!

Meh. Get some mixed to order in your local leroy merlin.

Thanks all. Unfortunately we live in the Gulf and, whilst luggage allowance is probably decent, I don't think flying in paint is really possible! Will need to investigate ordering online (sounds expensive though).

May just have to accept white.

You can get magnolia paint - at a price - it's called "lin".

Alternatively, you could order it from either B&Q or Wickes and get it delivered via Sterling or one of the other shopping delivery services.

Thanks tb - good to know what it's called. I think we'll just have to decide how much I we care versus keeping the costs down.

House is not in an expat area (Haute Saone) and looks like none of the shopping delivery services go anywhere near unfortunately.

Haute Saone isn't too far from Switzerland, right? You can get magnolia type paints here, but more expensive than France.

I've used this type of concentrated pigment to create the colour that I want,

www.hennydonovanmotif.co.uk/universal_tinter.htm

Not too far and we'd potentially fly into Basle / Geneva anyway.

I've now discovered lots of places that deliver English paint in France (hadn't realised it was a thing!). See here if anyone else is looking www.pontneo.com/paint/british-paint-in-france.html

Pigment option is a thought though.

If you go to a big DIY store they will mix any big pot of white paint up to a different colour for you on site. You can choose from a zillion colours on a chart. Leroy Merlin or Castorama.

'Blanc cassé' is the term for off-white paint