Please help me through a paint crisis! Which cream?

[CreamPaint]

Okay, have NCed as I'm ashamed to admit how clueless I am about paint. I live abroad, and will soon be moving back to our UK flat. My brother is a builder, and has kindly found contractors who can go into the flat and plaster/repair/paint after over a decade of renting it out. They will finish the flat before we return, which is amazing. They start work tomorrow.

However, I asked for white walls, and DB and contractors both reacted with mild horror - stark, clinical. It's white on the walls now and I see their point, it doesn't entirely work. They suggested magnolia. I have no idea what magnolia even looks like, but pics online seem to veer either a bit yellowy (not too bad) or peachy (the horror!).

Clearly I'm not in a position to try out little test pots of the stuff (where I'm living, you paint the place white, because that's what is available). So, if I tell you that I like white, but accept that a warmer neutral colour is probably a better idea... what might you suggest??

If it helps: the flat is an upstairs, 2-bed, late Victorian place with all the Victoriana stripped out by previous generations of owners - bland, blank canvas. Fairly bright.

I need to make a quick decision, sight-unseen. Help me, please! And many thanks.

I was in that position... Having to choose a colour at a distance. Ended up with Dulux Timeless as I couldn't be sure the many, many creams I looked at would come true to what I was looking at on my screen.

DH went to the UK first so I needed something easy for him to find in the local, rural stores.

When I went back to redecorate the rest of the house I was thrilled with the result. Timeless seems to pick up other colours around, so where the carpet was a blue/great the walls look a gentle white and where the floor was wood it looks a very pale creamy white. Curtains and light fittings also had an affect.

We've just used white Jasmin in our kitchen. South facing so lots of light, and it looks clean but not harsh :)

Natural Calico.

I posted the same question here a year ago and this was the colour recommended. I went with it as a stopgap but will probably never change it, it is a totally neutral cream which works with all my pictures.

Natural Hessian and Magnolia had very pinkish undertones and looked very dated to my eye.

PeriPathetic (love your name) With Timeless did you do the ceilings/skirtings in pure white? How do they look together?

Thank you!
Skirting and other woodwork was an ordinary white gloss. And the ceilings were white emulsion. It looks fine with the Timeless. Doors are faux dark wood of some description.

Should add the house is small and modern with early morning light. By evening natural light was mostly all gone. Even in the summer!

Also, I was painting over some hideous blue and yellow, so anything was going to be an improvement tbh!

Another vote for Dulux Timeless. It goes with everything and not at all a stark, grey clinical white.

Beware dulux natural hessian & natural calico. They are definitely in the magnolia spectrum and will not give the light fresh modern look it sounds like you are after.

Dulux jasmine white can have a slight yellow tinge and almond white a slight pink tinge.

Ps if you want to keep your decorators happy I would avoid F & B

[scoots over into the Timeless camp] I'm now thinking Natural Calico for the darker bedroom. Does Natural Calico come up a hint yellow/gold?

Should it be all one colour throughout the flat, or does chopping and changing work?

bambi75 I suspect if I want to keep DH happy I will avoid F&B. He wants the whole thing done on something he referred to as a 'budget'.

I like Crown Ivory Cream.

What is the light like and what aspect is the room?

I used Dulux jasmine white in my dual aspect, north-facing front room, which has fairly modern Scandi furniture. I was extremely dubious about using it, but my friend (who is a decorator) got exasperated with me and explained that it was virtually the same colour as Farrow and Ball's Pointing, at a fraction of the cost and much easier to apply.

When it first went on, I totally panicked because it is very light indeed and I was painting over plaster so it seemed almost blinding! I nearly cried at one point thinking I was going to have to do it all again. I really love it now, though. We have quite high ceilings, and a new brushed oak floor, and it gives a lovely quality of light both in the day and the evening. My Mum has the same colour with a beige carpet in a south-facing, single aspect room with pine furniture and it looks horrible and dingy.

Similarly, when I put Timeless in a north-facing room with very blue light (at the top of a hill) it was too stark. South-facing, it was lovely. I guess aspect matters?