White or Magnolia Walls??

GDB2222

Speaking as an amateur painter - very, very amateur - one advantage of white walls is that you don't have to worry about cutting in the ceilings/cornices a different colour.

dacouch

My Polish friend who is an exceptionally good decorator / builder always laughs at the English, he finds it funny and frustrating how we only paint out walls magnolia or sometimes white.

He cannot understand our fascination with magnolia

LittleMissAspie

Doozergirl wrote: »

It's not dark at all, not in a million years can any aspect of magnolia paint be called dark! There may be infinite shades of white and cream, but all of them are neutral and all of them are light. Magnolia will go with purple if it's the right shade of purple; there are infinite shades of purple, some more red, some more blue, some warmer, some cooler.

Magnolia is nothing if not neutral, hence developers use it. Because it is neutral, inoffensive, reflects light and has warmth to it. It will appear yellower in a South facing room than a North facing room. Whether you'd choose it in your home is almost by-the-by if the choice on the MSE front is brilliant white or magnolia. Both cost the same because they are available in bulk. Any other colour is going to cost more and no one is really going to notice the difference between white, off white, magnolia or 'light cream' on a viewing, other than the fact it's neutral. Even if you look at four walls in one room, each wall will appear a slightly different tone depending on the amount of light or shade on each wall.

OP, what is even more important than your shade of white/magnolia is the condition of the walls underneath. It's totally pointless painting horrid vinyl wallpaper magnolia when the first thing people are thinking is that it needs to come off. Ditto, poorly filled painted walls.

redecoration is 80% preparation. Filling, sanding etc.

It looks dark to me.

Old_Git

if its a north facing room paint it lemon

dizziblonde

My hatred for magnolia is well-documented (I swear hell will have magnolia walls). I'd prefer white since then if I'm painting the walls a creamy colour when I move in (I tend to go for vanilla or very pale biscuit from my own choice - I find magnolia too yellow) - I can actually see where I've painted and missed rather than having to knock the yellow ick of magnolia down a shade or two and working half blind like I had to in our bedroom!

We bought ours with the downstairs completely done just utter bog standard white right the way through - just meant we thought "thank god we don't have to do undercoats to cover someone's hideousness with our own choice and have a decent blank canvas"... but like I say - I hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate magnolia after renting and enduring it for the best part of a decade in varying stages of ikkk.

CocoDeNata

Calico is a fabric! I'd do it Magnolia for the living areas and white for Kitchen/Bathroom etc!

shortchanged_2

White is the new magnolia!

Mind_the_Gap

If you're going for white, then Farrow and Ball 'All White' is worth looking at (softer and classier than brilliant white) but get it mixed by someone cheaper (lots of places do it).

Lemon can look very sickly in some lights esp. energy saving bulbs.

Dulux Buttermilk is a longstanding favourite of mine, though.

Magnolia is mindnumbingly boring. Different shades of cream (calico, etc) are much more attractive.

FTBFun

dacouch wrote: »

My Polish friend who is an exceptionally good decorator / builder always laughs at the English, he finds it funny and frustrating how we only paint out walls magnolia or sometimes white.

He cannot understand our fascination with magnolia

Not quite everyone! I painted my bedroom "putting green"

angrypirate

tbs624 wrote: »

an angry pirate with no knowledge of calico? Check out Calico Jack , ooh arrrrrr

Damn, missed that one....