Best value white/off-white paint?

krlyr

Having just had the goods news that we've got the mortgage offer on our new house purchase :j I'm now looking at what the best buy will be for paint.
The house is currently some horrible shades of purple, blue and green in various combinations in pretty much every room (looks like the seller got a job lot!). We don't have a huge budget so the initial plan is to just paint everything neutral and worry about decorating later on (we both like quite neutral/minimal styles anyway so will probably just paint/paper a feature wall and/or add colour with accessories at a later date). Not to mention it would be much more practical to have a few big painting sessions before we move in, as we have two dogs that shed constantly and I can picture us finding dog hairs imbedded in the paint for years to come if we wait!
We haven't decided whether to just prime the walls and paint over them, or whether we'll put lining paper up, we're probably going to have another visit to the house to make note of the finer points like this, but I wanted to hunt down the best deals in the mean time.
Any recommendations? I understand that cheapest isn't necessarily best, so recommendations for good coverage at a good price would be great. There's two bedrooms, a medium living room and at least two walls in the kitchen to do, and perhaps a teeny bathroom. All rooms bar the bathroom are about 10' x 12', one slightly bigger by a foot or so and one slightly smaller, to give an idea of the area we're covering. Plus a little extra for the hallway/stairs.

chiefgoobster

I agree with Andrew-b , above.

Don't waste your time and money on buying the el-cheapo value
brand of paint....it is next to useless and you would probably be better using skimmed milk !! You'll end up finding that several coats
of the 'useless' paint still won't hid the dark colours below.

If I was you , go for the massive tub of good quality Magnolia and then you can at least settle into your new home, enjoy it etc.
...then save a few quid and do one room properly at a time.

Rome wasn't built in a day

good luck

Barneysmom

Hi, since I discovered (last year) B&Q Colours Everywhere, I won't use anything else.
It's not the absolute cheapest paint but it gives really good coverage and it's easy to wash down.


http://search.diy.com/search?p=Q&lbc=diy&uid=606605350&ts=custom&w=Colours%20Everywhere&af=type%3aproducts%20 &isort=score&method=and&view=list&cnt=300

pinkteapot

We've just done a few rooms in the Dulux colour "Barley White". It's not as dark a cream as magnolia - it's a very light cream but still a lovely warm colour. Definitely recommended.

I've had to cover a couple of dark rooms. I did two coats with Dulux white emulsion first as the white is a lot cheaper than the colours. Then 1 or 2 coats as needed with the Barley White.

You're definitely right to paint before moving in - I've done that in the past. Really wish we'd done it at this house (we were renting when we bought it so could have had a longer overlap with the properties). I'm sitting here in my dark terracotta lounge which I've been itching to repaint since we moved in, and thinking what a royal pain it's going to be to move all the furniture.

krlyr

Thanks for the recommendations. We'd thought magnolia but I really don't like the tone (though looking around, it seems to vary a bit in online photos from brand to brand). I agree that white is probably going to be too cold/harsh but I'm thinking perhaps a more stone-toned colour - this Mimosa caught my eye but I don't know how good a brand Crown is considered
http://www.homebase.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=110&storeId=10151&partNumber=137413&c_3=3%7Ccat_14114949%7CWall+and+Ceiling+Paint%7C14115006&c_2=2%7Ccat_16849219%7CPaint%7C14114949&c_1=1%7Ccategory_root%7CDecorating%7C16849219

Has anyone done the same and painted the lot in any colour other than magnolia? I'd love to see photos if possible. We're probably going to accent the rooms with brighter colours like teals or lime greens so I'm hesistant to go for something too peachy/pink. I know it can all be changed as we get to do each room properly but the less re-painting, the better, because joking aside, the dog hair is going to be an issue (both double-coated breeds that shed, and even if I shipped them out to family, we'd still be finding hair around the place for days!). I painted the panelling on the stairs in our current place recently and the dogs don't even go upstairs but there's still a good amount of long white hairs imbedded in the paint!

Leif

krlyr wrote: »

Thanks for the recommendations. We'd thought magnolia but I really don't like the tone (though looking around, it seems to vary a bit in online photos from brand to brand). I agree that white is probably going to be too cold/harsh but I'm thinking perhaps a more stone-toned colour - this Mimosa caught my eye but I don't know how good a brand Crown is considered
http://www.homebase.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=110&storeId=10151&partNumber=137413&c_3=3%7Ccat_14114949%7CWall+and+Ceiling+Paint%7C14115006&c_2=2%7Ccat_16849219%7CPaint%7C14114949&c_1=1%7Ccategory_root%7CDecorating%7C16849219

Has anyone done the same and painted the lot in any colour other than magnolia? I'd love to see photos if possible. We're probably going to accent the rooms with brighter colours like teals or lime greens so I'm hesistant to go for something too peachy/pink. I know it can all be changed as we get to do each room properly but the less re-painting, the better, because joking aside, the dog hair is going to be an issue (both double-coated breeds that shed, and even if I shipped them out to family, we'd still be finding hair around the place for days!). I painted the panelling on the stairs in our current place recently and the dogs don't even go upstairs but there's still a good amount of long white hairs imbedded in the paint!

Don't trust online photos. for many reasons I will not go into here. Buy a sampler, and paint a couple of coats onto a clean surface such as some old plasterboard.

I painted my entire house, mainly Dulux Natural Calico, but white in the kitchen and Almond White elsewhere. Calico is not dissimilar to Dulux magnolia. Light colours open a room, dark ones close it down making it look smaller. Some colours (such as blue) are cold, others (such as ochre) are warm, I prefer warmer colours.

Why not just paint a room, then keep the door closed so Fido and Spot can't get in?

krlyr

Leif wrote: »

Why not just paint a room, then keep the door closed so Fido and Spot can't get in?

They're breeds that naturally shed a lot (the saying amongst GSD owners is that they only moult once a year - it just lasts 365 days!) and the hair transfers everywhere. We're constantly finding hairs upstairs (a no-dog zone), I've even picked Casper's hairs out of my dinner at my mum's house (which he hasn't been to in at least a year)! I could hoover 3 times and a day and still be finding fur tumbleweed blowing across the room - it's not masses of hair, it's just constant. So it's a little more difficult than just shutting a door. I'm not houseproud and the odd hair stuck in the paint wouldn't kill me but we will probably have an overlap of staying where we are now and getting keys to the new place so it make sense to get the painting over and done with while we have an empty house.

Think this weekend we'll take a trip to Homebase and get some samples and something to paint them on. Would lining paper work (would be easy to do several sheets to pin up in various rooms) or is plasterboard going to get a more accurate result?

Leif

krlyr wrote: »

Would lining paper work (would be easy to do several sheets to pin up in various rooms) or is plasterboard going to get a more accurate result?

I assume lining paper would be perfectly fine. I'm sure either would be better than online photos though. They are often nothing like the actual paint.

At the risk of stating the obvious, get yourself a paint guard. Hairs will presumably only be a real nuisance with the skirting board, and a paint guard will help, but I had to pick out muck as I went along, as the hoover did not pick up all the carp. I wore old trousers, picked dirt from the paint, and wiped my hands on my trousers as I went along. Ho hum.

Yorkie1

I've just painted Dulux Natural Calico in my living room. In darker lights I think it has grey undertones; not as warm as I hoped for. A neighbour has painted a room in Dulux Ivory and it looks really good. Barley white is used by another friend but I haven't seen it in person yet.

alanobrien

Just used a 10 litre tub of b&q value matt white as undercoat to cover the orange and purple paint in our place. :eek:
At <£10 a tub its remarkably good quality and covers well. Also take a look at wickes own. I also got two 10 litre tubs of vinyl matt colour there for £40 and its also quite good.
Used Dulux and crown before, not overly impressed with either given the relatively high cost.

mazza111

Can I just say that Homebase value magnolia is not as dark or as yellow as most magnolias. It might take a couple of coats, but it's very good value. I don't normally buy value paints, but bought this for freshly plastered walls and was pleasantly surprised by it.