What F&B for creamy off white?

[Sparklingblah]

All-white looks too bright.

Wimborne White (my fave in theory) is showing up a bizarre lemony colour?

Wevet is the nicest, but is described as a grey and I am definitely sick of grey!

Have painters coming as a team to do a builder's paint (two mist coats and one last finish plus woodwork) on entire house, ceilings walls woodwork, they are priced in to get in, get round and get out, so I would like a nice off white that will look bright and fresh for us to move in to, then I can go round painting or wallpapering with more adventurous choices. Been a long and unbelievably expensive reno and I'm just dying to get it finished tbh.

Had Cornforth White, Ammonite, Elephant's Breath, Oval Room Blue, Hague Blue, Treron, Stiffkey Blue, Inchyra Blue, De Nimes, Slipper Satin, and Strong White in various rooms in my life (yes I have moved and painted a lot, inc furniture) how can this be so hard?!

I buy a tester pot and paint on a big bit of mounting card so that I can try it out in different places. Much better than painting on the walls

White Tie if they still do it. It's a lovely warm white.

Strong white looks best in my house.

Ahh sounds a similar dilemma to me.

If you don’t want magnolia (which I have realised is actually quite a useful colour for north); then maybe try white tie instead of new white.

Also Farrows white in the archive is rather lovely! Lighter than school house white but same neutral series.

Have a look at Lick paints - their website is amazing for working out colours and the paint is such good quality, we used to use f&b but will never use anything other than lick now!

Little Greene Paint - Shirting. Much better than F&B.

I have pointing and white tie throughout my house. White tie is a good choice if you want an off white with a slight warm undertone, but not yellow based.

I know it’s not exactly off white but I love dropped cloth.

I have white tie in a south facing light room and it’s a lovely warm white - it almost glows. Dimity is beautiful but I do see a faint pink hint to it.

Forget F&B.
I am going with Little Greene Slaked Lime throughout the house (stone cottage/bungalow, fairly open plan). All aspects except north (dont have any north facing rooms).
Comes in 4 depths of shade. Will be using lightest shade on walls, window ledges and skirtings, mid shade on bathroom walls and window ledge, darker shade on all doors, casings and architraves. Not planning on using the darkest shade (yet!)
Will use mid shade to upcycle some wooden furniture in various rooms.
Do all painting myself. Have already painted the cottage style doors, love them.
I think LG describe slaked lime as a grey but doesn't look grey to me.
Good luck.

In a South facing room, wimbourne white will appear more creamy, it will look more stark in a north facing room. It really is their closest to white though. If you have it against pbw, there'll obviously be more contrast, but if you were to paint it on everything, I'm almost certain it won't look yellowish, even in a sf room.

This is really helpful, thank you.

Sorry, that was to @CellophaneFlower ! Can't seem to quote pp.

Quite hard to get Little Greene where I am which is a shame as it's lovely, I have used its French Grey before.

Farrow & Ball has a lot of local stockists.

I get all of my Little Greene paint delivered to my house, well worth it. Just order directly from their website.

It's really interesting how the same colour looks so different in each house/ room/ aspect. We settled on Dulux Timeless in our hallway and landing. Pointing was too yellow, Ammonite too grey.

Our lounge has School House white which is a lovely neutral creamy off white. Seemed quite dark when it first went on the brilliant white mist coat but works well as it's a sunny room.

If you live near a Johnstone's trade shop they mix Little Greene colours. I was about to recommend Slaked Lime too, then saw a PP had. In my hall SL mid looks exactly like what you want, it looks white until you put something that is white next to it.

Crown Milk White is also what you describe.

Following this thread keenly as we've spent probably about 60 quid on testers, painted half the room TWICE and are no closer to finding the ultimate white 😢

Our living room is a long dual North South aspect room, quite low ceilings but very bright, with a large arched bit separating the two parts. Colours look completely different on either side of this arch! We want a warm white that isn't a yellow or a grey tone but also doesn't look like it is your standard PBW on first glance. It's impossible! We also have muted teal sofas and mango wood furniture, and are planning to get a natural coloured carpet so all the tones need to match well. And we want nothing that remotely resembles magnolia!

We also found Wimborne White too lemony, Wevet too grey/lilac, and Schoolhouse White too grey. Based on this thread I think we might try Slaked Lime next. In my previous tiny house we had Laura Ashley Dove Grey White which was actually lovely and not grey at all so may end up reverting to this. It's so hard!!!

The issue with this is though, the white has to have another colour in it, otherwise it's just white! Warm whites will have a touch of yellow, cool will have grey/blue/lilac tones. How much these show up is obviously down to the shade, but also the lighting/orientation of the room.

If you actually want white but not pbw, F&B All White is white without any brighteners added.

OP, if you want to try LG, you could order online? Their testers are expensive but do come in a nice pot, with a paintbrush and a tea bag 😂

Ah yeah I get that but I meant I don't want it to look very obviously yellow or grey toned otherwise it will look magnolia or pale grey.

I never thought picking whites would be so hard!

Having said pointing is a bit magnolia, it's certainly worth a tester pot. The thing is, colour looks different not just against other colours but, even more important, in certain aspects. It might look great in your room.

It’s crazy how difficult it is to get the right shade of off white.

I have used Albany coverMatt from Brewers for years. They have a traditional paint range and the off whites are arranged above the colours in accordance with tone. So the off white with blue tones is above the blues.

I thought I’d got it cracked and had my favourite one. I recommended it to my Dd. She did one wall and said it was too yellow, she’s right. She also agrees it looks good in my house, but not hers.

As I said, it’s crazy how difficult it is.

White is SO tricky. And you can’t go by what looks good online in someone’s house because of retouching and screen settings. And not just aspect but what’s outside and where you are: whites that are perfect in my friend’s south-facing rooms in Scotland don’t suit my south-facing rooms in Sussex!

I’ve just painted the first house in our fixer upper grey that came out green, which at least made me realise I want it white 🤪

@Housenoob With your long dual-aspect room, is there any division halfway along? Like it was knocked through from two rooms, or an archway, or some way to divide the space a little? You could do one white in the south-facing part and another in the north-facing part that end up “reading” as the same white, and use the dividing point to add another white or trim colour that helps enhance the effect.

Or embrace the dual-aspect and deliberately choose two complementary whites that look great together but are clearly different?

I'm surprised by the lack of love for Ammonite here. I'm yet to find a room it doesn't look great in with white wordwork

Schoolhouse white