Paint colour help please!

[RhubarbRocks]

We are redecorating our whole house. Our colour palette is looking like it will all be connected to wimbourne white and slipper satin as neutrals. Plan at the moment (subject to your advice!) is:

• Hallway wimbourne white walls, bannisters all white
• Double reception room - front half slipper satin, back half Calke green
• Master bedroom - Parma blue with woodwork wimbourne white
• Second bedroom/ my dressing room! (Couldn’t have children and this is an upside!) - light blue
• Husband’s study - Lichen
• Main bathroom - wimbourne white walls, skylight panelling, pointing units
• Spare room - Mizzle walls and slipper satin built in cupboards
• Shower room - Blue gray

We now need to decide on the kitchen. Units are dove grey from Howdens. So I am thinking we need to go with ammonite, cornforth white or blackened?

So my two questions:

1. Does anyone have dove grey units from Howdens - what colour did you paint the walls?
2. How do I make the flow work from the hall and reception room into the kitchen (see plan). Should we take the wimbourne white all the way through (could it work with dove grey units?) or can we switch from a yellow based neutral to a grey neutral between rooms? The doors between the hall/reception room are glass.

Sorry for the long post. Help?!

How exciting, I really like all your choices and have similar in my house. Personally I would carry the same colour through but you really need to see it with the Dove grey to be sure, the whites are all so different. We have gone for Wimbourne white in our kitchen too (walls and ceiling) and we have the Wickes Chester kitchen in grey which looks...similar(ish - maybe slightly cooler).

Thanks that is helpful to know. I think we will need to take the colour cards to Howdens and look at them colours next to the dove grey cupboard doors (we have to decide before the kitchen arrives as they want to paint before they put the kitchen in)

Farrow and ball Amonite. X

I love your blues and greens. It will be a lovely relaxing palette.

I think however that there may be too many similar whites.
I've laid out the colours on your floorplan.

It's best not to mix cool greys with warm beige toned greys. The dove grey looks like a soft cool colour. I'd match it with a grey neutral like blackened (which is very pale in real life) or a slightly darker grey neutral like pavilion grey.

DO you have an F&B showroom near to you? If so, I'd suggest taking a Dove Grey unit sample to them, and then laying out all their little wooden board paint samples around it so that you can see the flow from room to room.

I'd be very tempted to vary the wall colours like you have, but to keep the paintwork a consistent colour. I think that you have too many creamy neutrals.

Best of luck! How exciting to be doing the whole house! xx

Thanks for the advice and great to see it all on a plan.

When you say keep the paintwork the same colour Oakpine, is it the skirting boards, doors etc I should keep the same? Eg have those in all white and then everything else in the colours I have here (or do I count wimbourne white as our neutral even though it is currently in line to go on our hallway wall (very little natural light in there).

It is exciting but a bit overwhelming!

Sorry I should also have asked what counts as a creamy neutral. Is that wimbourne white, pointing, slipper satin? Should I pick just one of those?

We have a grey kitchen from Howdens. We had a neutral light grey colour on the walls (dulux pebble something) of the kitchen/diner (had a wall knocked down to create kitche/diner at same time as kitchen refit) and then (because I'm a bit whacky) had one or two orange (Moroccan something.....dulux) corners. All grey cupboards and walls would have been a bit dull....but usually I am blandness personified.

Hello. When I said "keep the paintwork the same colour" what I meant was to paint doors, skirting etc all the same colour, at least on the same floor of the house. This would give some continuity through the rooms, and would help with the flow.

I'd count Wimborne, pointing, slipper satin all as creamy neutrals. They are all lovely, but quite difficult to see the difference between in practice. I'd probably just pick one. The wimbourne you have chosen is lovely.

Best of luck xx

Your decoration scheme sounds lovely but I just wanted to add a word of warning about blackened. I had it in a bathroom with Calacatta marble and it just looked grim. It should have worked but it is a very cold colour. After eight years I've changed it and I'm so pleased I did.
PS I've loved every other F &B colour I've ever used.

This is my grey Howden’s kitchen. Not sure if yours is the same? We have a slightly warmer white, but I think it still works ok. The grey is quite cool so although something like blackened might go well I would take your samples in like you say as you might find the overall thing a bit cold.

Ah thank you, this is super helpful. Yes I’ve not only looked at the F&B website but also got both the books for Christmas. Think I have just got a bit overwhelmed!

I do like wimbourne white so maybe that is the answer. But if that is our neutral for woodwork etc can I still have it on the hallway walls too or do I need to think of something different? Sorry, bit thick when it comes to this!

Onthetrain thanks for the photo, really helps to visualise it. Love the crackers!

Yes, you can have Wimbourne on the walls and on the woodwork. It will look slightly different on both (not in colour, but in finish because the woodwork will be glossier).

You might want to consider using Modern Emulsion on the hall walls rather than Estate Emulsion. It is a little less matt, and easier to clean should you need to.
If you look at the back of the paper F&B paint chart you can see the finishes.

Thank you all for your help. Pressure now on as builder has asked for a decision by tomorrow morning!!

After a trip to Howdens we have landed on wimbourne white for the hallway and for the kitchen walls and skirting.

Any advice on bannisters? Should they be wimbourne white too or something darker or lighter?

Front half of double reception room will be slipper satin - I know it is another creamy white but wimbourne white looks too white in there and slipper satin is too dark in hallway. Will also do alcove shelving in slipper satin. Any thoughts on skirting in there? Slipper satin too?

Planning on doing back half of double reception in calke green - it is a dark space anyway and will be for piano playing, lots of books etc. Was going to do alcove shelving in slipper satin to bring that through from front part of room.

Finally, what do we do about doors and ceiling through the house? Can we use wimbourne white for those everywhere or should we go with all white?

Thanks so much for all your help!