Farrow & Ball help!

[jellybean30]

We're in the process of renovating and painting our entire house. We've gone for Strong White in the livingroom, kitchen and dining room, with All White skirting and picture rail.

The question is: what colours do I choose for the hallway? I'm thinking School House White above the dado rail and Shadow White below, with All White woodwork. But I'm worried it'll be too dark once all painted, as it's a dark hallway (Edwardian house, only pendant lights in hallway). Should I go for All White above dado, and SHW below?

Please don't suggest non-FB colours to me I honestly can't handle any more choice. Thank you!

search on instagram for those colours and you'll see rooms painted in that.
might give you a better idea

I've done that already, thanks for the tip it's hard to see that exact combo.

I painted my living room and dining room in Strong White and it's a great colour.

I've just finished painting the bedroom today and really got it wrong with James White, it's very lemon/green and changes with the light to almost lurid neon green at times. I'd only done 2 walls and decided to admit my mistake and start again. WEVET! It's perfect. White with an undertone of grey almost pinkish, but so so subtle. More interesting than plain white, but really brightens the room.

Would you not consider painting the whole thing the same colour, skirting, dado and even the ceiling? With a white I'm not sure you'd get much of an effect mixing with another shade of white anyway, particularly in a dark area like a hallway.

There’s a fantastic Facebook group where people give advice about colours. Strongly recommend it. I ended up considering colours that weren’t on my radar and the advice was spot on. Think it’s called All Things Farrow and Ball.

FWIW I was talked out of school house white for the ceilings in my dark hallway. Apparently it has yellow undertones that would make it look dirty and cold. I went with Wimborne white and it is perfect, a very soft and warm white.

What about a pale peach colour to give it a bit of warmth? Plus white ceiling and woodwork. Looks lovely with a wall light or table lamp.

Too many whites together will make one look yellow and one look dirty. Your eye will draw to the cleanest one. Pick one white and a good off colour for woodwork - like a good light grey or green, then you have detail and a contrast. Too many whites looks strange. ( I have a georgian house so I have gone through every colour combination in the whole world!) If you continue the white theme in the rest of the house it might appear monotonous?

Agree with @Annabelle69 . We have strong white in the master bedroom and love how warm it is. We have wevet in the hallway and because of the cooler tones it really brightens it up.

With an Edwardian you can also just embrace the darkness and go for a bold colour including on the woodwork.

I think everyone is right about School House White and Strong White having quite different background colours so might not work well together.

It's often difficult to envisage though if you can't find pictures of colour combinations on line. To give me an idea of how things will work together I go to a site called e-paint and look up the colour, they have all the F&B and Dulux shades. Once you've searched for the colour you can click through and it gives you an RGB and Hex code for the colour. You can then put some shapes into a power point slide and change the fill colour of them into the HEX or RGB to see what they would look like. The colour representation isn't 100% accurate on a screen but it will be good enough to test whether a combination is.

The only really accurate way to tell though is to get samples and see what they look like in your hallway.

Whether a combination is good or not!

Thanks all - and I'll look up the fb group!

I think people are right that Strong White and School House White probably won't go together. My latest thinking is SHW above and below dado. Woodwork All White. I'd like to keep the woodwork white so if I change the walls in the future I don't have to do the woodwork too.

Lovely colours

I think both options could work

Get modern emulsion and not estate which marks if you even look at it.

There is no way to tell other than to put some on your walls. Honestly, you can look at endless photos online but it won’t show you how that particular colour reads in your house with your light.