Which white for woodwork?

[GrendelsMum]

Hi people

We're about to paint our dining room pale blue - the 'sung blue' on this colour chart:

www.rose-of-jericho.demon.co.uk/main/_col_classic_c7.htm (I think it looks quite a bit darker in real life - colour looks a bit washed out there.)

We want to paint the doors in a very slight-off white (DH thinks that pure white may look too harsh - we have pure white on the woodwork in the room next door and it's much too harsh and we need to repaint). What sort of shade of off-white would you go for? White with a touch of cream? White with a touch of grey? etc etc

I wondered about something from this colour palette? www.dulux.co.uk/colours/calm_neutrals.jsp

(Probably not relevant, but the house itself is 17th century, the doors are 17th - 19th century (plus a new copy), the floor is brick, and the furniture is limed oak.)

Most of our house has recently been painted in Dulux Cotton white - its just white, but not brilliant white.

Also, Crown have a good selection of tinted whites called a Whisper of.....

But, our house is modern. Had you considered the Farrow and Ball range? They may be more in keeping with the period of your property?

I adore greys - we have used lots in our house, I think it goes well with blue. We useD Dulux again - Mineral Haze.

We use F&B Dimity for our woodwork which is a slightly grey white, much softer than brilliant white which I never use for a period property - it's a relatively new invention. F&B Pointing is also good.

Sorry but cant tell what your Sung Blue is like, very hard to read colours off an on-line chart. Lovely paint range, ROJ, did you order on-line?

Look at Crown Milk White. We have a period house filled with F&B colours and use this white. It still looks white, just not brilliant white, and not cream either.

Oh, thanks very much, everyone.

I think you're quite right - brilliant white is a new invention and that's why it looks so odd.

I phoned the Rose of Jericho bloke up for advice (very helpful) and so ordered over the phone - got the recommendation off another website as being the best place to get paint suitable for lime plaster.

I'll have a look at the Crown Milk White, Dulux Mineral Haze and the F&B in real life this week. I've now found that F&B have a 'neutral choosing' tool on their website for just this situation, and they're recommending Strong White, which oddly enough doesn't look dissimilar to Mineral Haze. Looks like once again I'll spend my day off in Homebase with paint charts!