Browse Forums Interior Decorating Lounge 1 Dec 13, 2010 10:09 pm Hi Everyone, My husband and I are really struggling to select our interior paint colours for walls, skirting, cornice, architrive and ceiling colour for our new house and hope you can help us out. We know we want to use white for the walls, but there are just so many of them! The key room in the house is the open plan kitchen, living, dining room and we want to create a fresh, light and airy feel here. The dining area particularly may be a little lacking in natural light so we want to go as light as possible without creating a clinical, un-homely (it that's a word!) feel. We are having a glass splashback in the kitchen which will be Taubman's opal mist (a light turquiose colour) so were wondering whether the white needed a hint of blue or green in it? Some of the whites we have looked at include Dulux: Lexicon, full and half strength, Vivid White, Natural White and Taubmans: Whisper White, Cradle White and Snowy White but we're still very confused. The three questions below summarise our dilema: 1) What whites might match the colour scheme / feel we are trying to create? 2) Whether the walls, skirting, cornice, ceiling etc should be a different shade of that colour, the same colour or a different colour? 3) Whether the white we choose for our kitchen cupboards should be the same as the walls or a different colour? Any suggestions or help people can offer from their own experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Re: Too Many Whites - HELP? 2Dec 14, 2010 7:20 am Hi 75, I'm one of those people who love pure white (ie. non-tinted), so my suggestion for trims (skirtings, cornices, architrives) and ceilings is just that. Actually, I would go on to say that I never even consider any other colour for those thingies! It "frames" other colours (regardless of how 'close to white' they might be), it goes with everyting and it doesn't "change" colour (too much) when you look at it in a small dark room or from angles or under different lightning. So that's easy. Cabinets: I was going to ask what is your benchtop colour, but since the splashback is already quite contrasting and not white, I would go for pure white cabinets too (but that's just me). It would be really fresh and clean with that splash. Walls: Do you prefer cold or warm white? Does the turquiose glass splashback have a warm or cold undertone? If you worry about the dining area, I would go for a warm white, rather than cold. I wouldn't use the same colour for cabinets and walls, but that's just me. One day you (or new owners) will want to paint the walls anyway. And if you use white for cabinets, anything can be used on walls (minding the splashback and benchtop colours ). My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: Too Many Whites - HELP? 3Dec 14, 2010 10:46 am Hi There, We used Lexicon full strength for our walls and Lexicon half strength for the rest. I know exactly what Lex says about the pure white for trimming and I agree - but we were selecting colours DH put his foot down and said "NO we are getting half strength" - anyway I was pretty peeved and said to him that if it looked crap I was going to blame him and he would have to re-paint the whole house the way I want it! Anyway - the doors, skirts and arcs are half strength and in a high gloss - the gloss actually makes it look a lot more white than the walls - the Lexicon walls have a grey/blue tinge to them (I find that the tone that it throws really depends on the lighting that is in the room - with warm lights at night the room looks more white/grey and during the day when there is natural light the room looks more bright and crisp) And at all times of day the ceiling looks really white vs. the walls. Hope this helps - I have a few pics on my thread but I can post more if you like! Sleven Moved into our Atlantique MkII 36 by Carlisle Homes Re: Too Many Whites - HELP? 4Dec 14, 2010 8:16 pm Hi Lex/Sleven, Thanks so much for the quick and informative responses. I'm a big fan of keeping things simple so the pure white option for trims and ceiling that you suggest Lex sounds a good solution. The benchtop in the kitchen is going to be Caesarstone Linen so with the Opal Mist splashback a pure white makes sense for the cabinets - this may sound a silly question but can you state pure white as a colour? as our cabinets are polyurethane the kitchen cabinet maker has asked for the paint colour we would like? I think the opal mist splashback has a cold or at least cool undertone so does this restict the wall colours that could be used? I'm not a big fan of whites with a yellow undertone so any suggestions for what might work with an Opal Mist splashback, linen benchtop and pure white cupboards and trims would be great! Sleven - perhaps Lexicon or Lexicon half strength could work? Re: Too Many Whites - HELP? 5Dec 15, 2010 6:53 am OK, had a little play with colours you selected so far T. site http://www.taubmans.com.au/public/colour/explore-your-options.aspx?wallColour=Opal%20Mist gives this Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ I love both and I think they go together well! Now that I've visualised it, you could even keep the latte look (as in the benchtop) on the cabinets too, but I'm not sure what colour name it would be and maybe it would be hard to find a good match, not sure ... So, if it does become all too hard, non-tint pure white would always do (as you've already indicated you'd be happy to use it). As for the name of the pure white colour, best is to check with the cabinet maker, as I think they might have some custom names . Ours is pure white and is called Snowdrift. For wall colour, it looks like the benchtop would match the light latte/beige Nomadic Ivory (see Stormy's thread), or Taubman's Moo River (see themax's thread), or perhpas even Taubman's Antique Ivory whcih is a bit lighter so it's not all too overwhelming and too matching in colour strength - I think walls should definitely be a lighter shade than the benchtop - there is a thread somewhere about Antique Ivory. Or, the easy choice ... just white ... which would match the cabinets and all would be nice and bright. I love your colours, they remind me of coastal homes and summer holidays My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Not sure if that works? I was told the issue is the headspace clearance requirement on step 4. 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