Paint question
Mon, 9 Feb 2009Laura wrote us an email with the following:
"I was inspired by this entry to ask you a question. There is a lot of discussion about the perfect white paint, but I have yet to come across a discussion about the perfect off white/cream/beige paint. I know people use it because I see it every so often in Domino. One of the things that I love about Domino so much, is that they talk about paint colors. White is discussed a lot. But, I've noticed that if there is a picture of a space with an off white/cream colored wall, the paint is hardly ever mentioned. If the perfect white is so often hotly debated, why not the perfect off white?
I am really looking for the perfect color for a room in my house that I am working on. Just to prepare you for the picture, we had a terrible water pipe leak and as a result we had to tear down most of the left wall and some of the ceiling. You can see in the picture the new dry wall. Also, our windows are very special. They were made from old telephone pole wood. Every window in the house is some variation of this window. I don't plan on painting the wood or the baseboards. I've already painted one bedroom a robin's egg blue that looks beautiful. I plan on painting the master a light gray (right now it is a horrible yellow). But this room I wanted to do in a cream color. Hopefully, this will be a child's room someday and I want a nice neutral background that will be able to take on blue or pink accent colors. As you can see in the picture the color that the previous owner's of the house used is a beige, but it has a lot of yellow in it, which I don't particularly like.
Here is the room. I apologize in advance for the chaos, but I am still working on the drywall:"
What a beautiful window - and a whole house of them?!?! I am very jealous. I explained to Laura that I had absolutely no experience with off-white, while I always stick to pure white or light grey when I'm looking for a neutral paint colour. My suggestion for a non-off-white would be a light grey as I think it would be really pretty with blue or pink. But I thought I'd throw this out to you guys if anyone has any paint colour suggestions for Laura. What's your favourite off-white or beige?
Reader Comments (18)
My favorite creamy white is Benjamin Moore's Ancient Ivory. I first saw it in a showhouse done by the designer David Mitchell and fell in love with it. The name makes you think it would have yellow undertones but it doesn't, at least to me. Have it paired with light ice blue linen curtains and it looks great.
We just redid our house and used a white with the very slightest tinge of a lavender. We didn't want a beige color because we had spent 20 years of our married life in Army housing which was painted in "tenement tan." We didn't want blue undertones because it would have seemed too cold nor pink because it would have seemed too warm. We are very happy with the look of it.
Hands down favorite is ICI's meeting house. Cream without that awful yellow cast. I have in my living room with soft blues, silvers and white. Love it!
Benjamin Moore's Edgecomb gray ... we just painted the walls of our baby room this color and did the ceiling a robin's egg blue. It's lovely ... soft but fresh.
I have used three lovely off-whites in my house. I have White Down (Benjamin Moore OC-131) in the master bedroom and it is a lovely white with an antique quality to it, like old linens.
In my living room, I used Soft Chamois (Benjamin Moore OC-13), but found it a little too white because this is a south-facing room and got washed out. So right after starting the painting, I went back to the store and got them to double the pigment and then double again. It is beautiful now, at 4x the colour! It has a gray quality to it.
There are pictures (sidebar) on my blog of my master bedroom and living room if you want to see.
I know people often use Dove Wing and Seapearl (OC-18 and 19) if they want a slight gray white.
My other favorite white is Slipper Satin from Farrow & Ball. It is a very creamy ivory off-white, quite pale. I have not used it in my house, but have two big card painted with it and LOVE it and want to use it somewhere. And I have seen it used in someone's house.
Floral White (Benjamin Moore OC-29) is also a pretty off-white that has some yellow (warm) and I've seen it more than once quoted in Canadian magazines.
Canadian designer Lynn Spence uses Barely Beige CC-140 for almost every room she does (very classic). It looks less pretty on the card, but I have seen several spreads of her rooms and they are a lovely creamy beige (if you want less white).
There is a Canadian blog by a colour expert at www.colourmehappyblog.blogspot.com
She blogs about white and off-white in several articles and explains that white has gray or pink or green tones, etc. that you should look to match your decor. You can see the tones once you put several whites together that you've painted on bristol board, etc.
Hope this helps...I would pick F&B Slipper Satin or BM White Down if I ever needed a classic antiqued off-white!
Ralph Lauren also has some lovely off-whites. I have read a couple of designers who referred to their Architectural Off-White and Architectural Cream as perfect off-whites.
Also check House Beautiful's website - they often do colour articles and I'm sure they've done one with designers favorite off whites.
You can see I am obsessed with this subject..sorry for rambling on.
I just painted my home office furniture a pale powder blue, because this room may be a future baby room and I wanted to kill two birds with one stone. Just like Laura, eventually I will paint the office cream and use as a baby room (if we do it!). When I look at my soft blue furniture (see my blog for recent posts), it would look so pretty with the Slipper Satin by F&B or with the BM White Down. They are not very beige, more off-white. If you want a beige that would look amazing with pale blue and pink, then F&B Skimming Stone is also gorgeous. It is like a very milky brown/taupe.
Laura, if you want to email me, I can take photos of any of my white/off-white colour cards against my baby blue furniture....photos are never the best, but you might get an idea.
Terri
Thanks everyone for your thoughts (and an extra special thanks to Terri for ALL the great info!!)
try any Farrow & Ball color. very limited palette; each color is perfect, but pricey.
We've recently moved to the desert... and all of the colors that looked fantastic back home are not near as pretty as they were, where things were very green. That said, you really need to make up a sample board and hang it up... look at it different times of the day.
Always compare with other off's to find the true undertone. That is your biggest clue. I prefer undertones of gray here. We played with Ben Moores wedgewood gray and woodlawn blue.
We used revere pewter too, and it looks great in the nearby rooms mentioned above (also important for flow). LOVE them! Can you tell I ran a painting company for 4 years? =)
I work on a lot of 5 star resorts and have noticed that Benjamin Moore 914 (also OC-102) Devon Cream shows up quite a bit for the guestrooms... I really like it too and will likely use it next time I repaint... another slightly lighter color is 911 Paradise Beach which is a strong second...
You have gorgeous windows Laura! You house must look like one straight out of a fairy tale.
Now for the paint I highly recommend Farrow & Ball: http://www.farrow-ball.com/productlist.aspx?cid=PC&language=en-GB
They use traditional colours which feel warm and homely - nothing plain about them, but without the unfortunate touch of magnolia or ocher. Personally 'pointing is my favourite'.
You could also perhaps try Laura Ashley - which I used for my bedroom and I'm very happy with how it turned out. I think I used Cotton White: http://www.lauraashley.com/Paint/Naturals-Truffles+Golds/icat/pnaturals
Good luck :o)
Liesel
Farrow and Ball all the way..and remember..you get what you pay for! Good Luck!
I think Benjamin Moore Linen White is perfect but I agree with the comment to paint a sample board and see how you like it at different times of day.
Hands down, Cloud White from Benjamin Moore (CC-40) is probably the most overused off white for good reason.
Hi everyone,
Thank you so much for all of your input! I am going to look at every color suggested. Terri, I checked out the pictures of your house. So beautiful! It is hard to tell if those are the colors that will work well in this bedroom, but I am definitely going to swatch them to see if they work in this space.
I apologize again for the horrible condition of this room, but it will just make the after photo that much better.
Thank you so much everyone. I was really pulling my hair out and didn't know where to start. And thank you Kim for posting my question!
I love Pointing by Farrow & Ball. It changes colors depending on the light and is a radiant off-white. F&B also has plenty of darker beiges and grays. Their french-gray tones are especially fabulous.
I've always really liked Antique White and Dover White from Sherwin Williams. I've used them in several different rooms and they always seem to come out beautifully. Good luck!
I like BM's Bavarian Cream, but we live in the PNW where we need to counteract the relentless gray days and north-facing light. It definitely has a yellow undertone -- feels warm and fresh to me. It works well with our oak hardwood floors. I've tried to avoid "dirty" looking creams and off-whites. An advantage of cream and off-white paint is that if you have white furniture or objects, they don't look dirty in comparison with the walls.