Can anyone recommend a timeless period cream paint please??

[SandyChick]

Hello,

After experimenting with bold colours to try and be a bit different in my living room Ive decided that i just like boring neautrals.

So, i am looking for a lovely classic cream. Our living room is quite dark so id like a warm cream - some tend to be a bit grey or peachy which i dont want.

Im looking for something sunny but not yellow.

love this but cant find the paint that is used

Magnolia is not cream!

Yes it is, it's very creamy.

Anyway, are we talking anchor squirty, or top-of-the-milk, or extra-thick double cream here?

Magnolia is a peachy colour.

It is not cream at all its pinky/peach very cold and drab!Cream is warm and looks gorgeous against white.Nothing looks good against magnolia it cheapens everything esp wood!Ok design lecture over I need a lie down cream is cream is cream?Pass me the smelling salts!I have been doing interiors for years and have never used or been asked for magnolia!

Relax, it's okay, I was only joshing.

Magnolia is not 'cool' of course no-one asks for it, but I bet if you showed it to people under the name 'sunset reflected on a unicorn's back' or some such nonsense a lot of people would like it.

Another vote for Old English White from the Crown Period range - we painted most of our old house in it (used their Aged White Eggshell for skirting etc.). It has that matt look, whilst changing colour in slightly different lights that's so good about 'period'paints.

fyi - DH's father is a painter/decorator and thinks Crown is far superior to Farrow and Ball in terms of getting a good finish.

We have 'almond cream' in our hallway on the bottom, white above the dado rail. Everyone loves it, thinks it is simple and gentle.

It is in fact magnolia.

My (very brilliant) painter and decorator has almost refused to put on some of the colours I've placed in front of him. But he's learnt to trust me. And he now recommends something non-brilliant white for his clients' woodwork.

I have just recently introduced neutral tones into my living room, after having blues, pinks for many years. I have a large sitting room with high ceilings and a dado rail, yes, I know its old fashioned but I like it. I painted the chimney breast and alcoves dark suede brown, then around the top half of the room I came across this not cream, too yellow for me, it is Antique White, I think its Dulux or Crown, its not brilliant white, lovely aged white,then under the dado rail I have painted a pale mushroom colour. I have a 3 and 2 seater chocolate brown leather suite, then I added a large cream rug and cream cushions,
then just add some pretty accessories, glass candlesticks,lamps,and some copper wall hangings. Took me a while to get used to a neutral room but it looks really relaxing and if I do say so myself VERY CLASSY.

Farrow and Ball Lime White.I've got it in my kitchen and it is lovely.I agree with Swedes that copies are just not the same.My friend had Lime White mixed in a cheaper paint and it is nothing like mine.

Whatever you do, buy test pots. What looks good in one house won't necessarily look good in yours. It's all to do with the lighting. Try colours in natural and artificial light on all walls. Creams and neutrals can vary massively and appear quite 'coloured'. Totally agrees that F&B looks great because of how it is made. It is very matt and chalky and a cheap copy won't look the same.

not F&B matchstick to which you linked
the previous occupants painted our sitting room in matchstick
it is, frankly, nicotine-ish.

I am addicted to Farrow & Ball Try and get hold of one of their paint charts - they give an explanation on the back of how the various colours appear ie "warm", "cool" etc

I painted my kitchen cupboards in F&B Matchstick, to contrast with blue walls - it's a dark cream and I do think it would be overpowering in a whole room without contrast. Nicotine-ish !

How about some of the Laura Ashley paints? They are still good quality paints (or used to be) but have a generally sunnier palette than Farrow & Ball.

Not at all, Trillian...., not all 'cream is cream etc.'. Magnolia is a class on its own in 'utterly horrid colours' category.
F&B and others have number of shades that could be classified as 'cream' yet all of them have their own character and mood.
Dulux Heritage paints come in nice range of timeless colours and are far cheaper than F&B, you don't get the nice 'chalkiness' but you do get a timeless look; lot more hardwearing than F&B as well.

TrillianSlasher - 'Cream is cream is cream'
Do you even belong on this thread?
I have spend probably in excess of £250 in my lifetime (to be fair I am quite old) just on matchpots all professing (to the heathen untrained eye) to be cream, or off-white, and I can tell you they are not all the same!

Magnolia is definitely on the pinky peach spectrum (yuk) whilst colours that are considered to be true 'creams' bare no relation to the colour of a pot of cream, unless it's clotted!

Also can say without hesitation that trying to copy F & B colours with a cheaper brand is a waste of time and money. Won't be the same colour, won't be the same finish or depth of pigment. I know; I've tried, and learnt the hard way.

Now, F & B Matchstick. Tis lovely, but quite dark. Has alot of yellow in it, but with that characteristic f&B muddiness, so it a dirty, country, clotted cream/flax colour, not fresh or bright, but aged and muted, and warm. Lovely. If the room is North facing it will look quite beige but in a south facing room it looks more ochre yellow/cream.
Ask me about any F&B colour, especially the 'whites' - I'm your girl. If I were autistic with an obsessionial pet topic, F&B colours would be it. I'm not sure whether that makes me sad/strange or deeply sophisticasted, but anyway..........

Hope I won't get lynched but I find the F&B paint quality very poor - coverage is pretty pants and the walls mark VERY easily and don't clean off as there is such a matt and chalky hue to them.

For the Hall/stairs Landing I have used Twisted Bamboo 3 from Dulux a nice bright cream which gives lots of light. I always make my decorator use the dulux Diamond finish paint which wipes clean if necessary! He was not convinced at all - but is now converted to it and has used it in his own home. Its a really nice colour, we have used it in our Grade 2 Georgian Home as well as about to put it into our much more recent new build....so its a timeless colour too.....

For a nice palette look at Fired Earth - they have some lovely colours and brighter palette than F&B they also in their stores have painted pieces of paper with the colours on so you can really see the colour BEFORE you buy a sample.... plus they do a great matt emulsion which goes on very well and looks great

HTH

I'm no expert, but when looking for some paint for the exterior of our house, I picked up a card for Little Greene Paint Company. They do heritage colours too (they make them for English Heritage), but with a warmer / sunnier range than F&B - ie. not so muted.
And what about Fired Earth?

Lol! The last few posters have obv not noticed that this is a 6 month old thread that someone has resurrected to boast about their own house! Why do people resurrect old threads for no good reason??

And how is this your concern, pray tell?

Another vote for Dulux Ivory Lace. Really really nice colour, one of my friends had been looking at paint colours for ages but after seeing our finished room immediately decided that that was the one for her. Its creamy but not yellow, and a very warm colour. We have it with a duck egg blue chimney breast. Love our lounge

I think you will find something you like from the Jeff Banks "Ports of Call" range of designer paint.

They sell it in Focus and they do tester pots.

Loads of creams. I have just done DS's nursery in Seasonal White which is actually a really nice warm cream on the wall.

www.designerpaint.co.uk/brand-palette/Ports%20of%20Call%20Jeff%20Banks