Congrats on your soon-to-be homeownership!! You must be very excited! I sure do understand your wanting to move into a house with freshly painted walls. Will you be hiring a painter or doing the work yourself? Painting takes time and often times needs prep-work, like spackling and sanding. Your point about there being 500 different shades of white is very true. Right now, it will be difficult for you to predict exactly what color scheme you will be doing from room to room. My suggestion, is to maybe make a smaller goal - like picking one room or area that you will tackle first. Owning your home is really wonderful and fun, but you will find that there is ALWAYS something that needs to be done...can be overwhelming. My experience has usually been to go "room by room", one room at a time (of course keeping in mind an overall scheme in mind).

Do you have any ideas or color schemes in your mind now that you are leaning towards? Neutrals? Blues? Greens? Yellows?

We'll be hiring a painter. We have painted previous houses before moving in, and are all too aware of the amount of work involved. Happily we are now in the financial position to be able to afford to pay someone else to do it, so we're definitely going to do that. Painting will obviously be just one of many projects on our long term list, but it's one of the ones that seems to have the biggest bang for buck in doing prior to move in (along with perhaps flooring).

Honestly we haven't thought much about color schemes yet. If it's just one room at given time, doing the painting ourself isn't as big of a deal (except when it's in an area with super high ceilings), so maybe it's best to just have the painter do all white to cover ugly colors and dings, and then go back with better colors as we decide them over the next year or two.

But I'd still like to hear more opinions. And opinions on which "white" to choose :)

With our last house which was much smaller than our current one we simply picked neutrals that went together and went for it. The house was a 1932 colonial so I looked at lot at BMs historical colors as a start then branched off from there. We knew the house needed painting and wanted to get it done while it was empty. We went with BM Misty Air in the foyer and open areas. We also used Abington putty at the bottom of the chair rail in the dining room and misty air above it. The living room was a custom blend (done by yours truly) of abington putty and pittsfield buff. One room upstairs was pittsfield buff. one was abington putty and our master was crisp khaki. I liked those colors. wasn't too matchy matchy but gave a nice flow through the house. Plus they went with colors that I tend to gravitate towards. It was such a neutral palette that I could bring in color in art work, curtains etc.

I knew I didn't want to paint twice. I also didn't have all the furniture I wanted so I wasn't sure what to do. Sometimes you just have to go with your gut and go for it. I looked at various paint swatches to see if any resonated with me. I don't know if those colors are still "in" but they are neutral colors that worked for us.

With the last house our rent would have been due a little over a week from closing. We scheduled the painters to come on the second day after closing. They did their prep work and priming on the first day they came so in all I had maybe 3 days from closing to decide on paint. Also, I didn't have to have all the paint onsite while they painted so that gave me a little more time to look at different colors. For me it was important to be neutral but I knew I did not want white. I even painted the ceilings linen white mixed with about 10% or so of the room color. (A little lower percentage with the pittsfield buff becasue it was kind of strong color.) I was also onsite as much as I could to see what the colors looked like. I ended up with that custom blend that I mentioned because when I saw the paint color of the first coat in the light of that room it was just horrible. With the mix, it was absolutely perfect.

When we did get our living room furniture for example I factored in the wall color because I knew I liked it. I tended to look at sofa fabrics that went with the wall color. It made it easier for me to narrow down what I wanted. (I know many people do the opposite but for me there were so many fabric choices that I needed something to help me hone in on a particular direction.) Of course if I had seen a sofa fabric that I really loved I would have changed the room color. Fortunately for me I didn't have to do that.

If the house looks like it "needs to be painted" it will be more obvious that it does need painting if you do a room at a time.

We didn't paint the new house when we moved in because it didn't "have to be painted" so I wanted to live in it for a while. Plus we were moving from another state and had too much stuff to do. Its been over a year now and I haven't painted yet. If I had used my original technique I would have been done already - LOL!

Not everyone will agree with my approach... I am just telling you what I did and what worked for me.

Re a white, I personally am not a fan of white but BMs linen white is a classic and is nice.

You could hire an interior designer to help you with your final decision on which house to buy. They can be an invaluable input as you consider which home is going to need what type of updates and which home is most suitable style for your taste. Once you've chosen a home they can then help you execute a paint scheme, quickly. They may also have some excellent painter contacts.

In your situation, you might find it well worth your while to go this route. The key would be to find a designer that you click with.

Alternatively, each paint line has preplanned paint schemes that might appeal to you.

We just did this, so I understand your concerns. We moved in our new house in August. We ended up painting the bedrooms and library before we moved in because I knew exactly what color schemes we had and what I wanted them to look like. We waited on the main rooms because I knew we were getting new furniture in the family room, and I wanted to live in the house a bit before selecting paint colors for the main rooms. There were some rooms, like the dining room and laundry room that we kept the previous owners paint scheme because we liked it.

I am very happy with our choice, as painting the bedrooms would be such a hassle now. The only issue is that you really don't have time to paint splotches on the walls to see how it will look in the light you actually have in the house. This did not turn out to be a problem with our color choices. However, the guest bedroom is painted a bit brighter (BM Corn Silk) than I would have choosen if I had seen the color on the wall in the room. I would have chosen something a bit creamier and less bright. It's not horrible though and I am living with it.

So, I guess, I would paint everything you could if you already have an idea what your furniture and the rooms will look like. Hold off on areas you are not sure about. Either way, you can repaint later.

oops - just saw you are looking for whole a whole house paint color. We painted our rental house prior to sale SW Kiln Beige. It was beautiful and one of those colors that you could live with a long time before repainting when you figure out what you want to do. Good luck!

We've had to pick colors prior to living in a home twice before because of buying homes at a distance from where we were living, and now just did it a third time. Twice the homes were brand new and the third was a major remodel. I found that painting it all a neutral is far better than going with all white IMHO unless you've got a lot of architectural interest or furnishings that fit a white palette. In fact the first time we did it, several neighbors (whose homes were also new) kept exclaiming that even empty our home just seemed so much more decorated than their all white ones. I think what they meant was that it seemed warmer-looking and of course, if you have white trim, it makes that show up.

We went with a neutral beige (one was Parker wheat sheaf) and had the painters in before moving in, then I painted another color a few years later in one room when I finally got around to it. (It's probably obvious I'm not a painter.) I found that painters usually have a paint brand they prefer, but you can color match I suppose. I've selected something from the brand they prefer. This time I'm being brave for me and have selected two colors since I have a better idea how I'd like to decorate the rooms. I'm using Devine Color (new paint brand to me, but it's the builder's preference and has a good reputation I hear). I just hate to paint--hate the cutting in part and am lousy at it. Even in different lighting through the rooms, I haven't hated the neutral route. So good luck to you!

I think geogirl meant to say Kilim Beige. I have heard that this is a good neutral color that would work well all over.

SW Khaki Shade is a nice neutral. We just did a whole house remodel and painted every room this color except the laundry room we went one shade lighter SW urban putty for that area since it was a smaller room. link to my photo bucket if you want to see it in the house. LOVE IT!

http://s623.photobucket.com/albums/tt315/rtwilliams83/Woodstone%20remodel/#!cpZZ3QQtppZZ28

OT - rtwilliams - what white trim color did you go with? is it semi-gloss? Thanks!

It depends on how decisive you are, picky, size of house, etc...

Our first house was a small ranch, and we knew we weren't buying a ton of new furniture. I had an "idea" of general colors I wanted so my sis and I went to HD and just banged out the colors - yellow kitchen, green dining room, blue study, purple MB, tan LR, grey study. Since we picked all the colors at once it was easy to make sure they flowed together. We had neutral furniture so there wasn't a specific color to match to.

New house - I knew what we wanted in the bedrooms so the upstairs was repainted before moving in. Downstairs I want all new furniture so almost 2 years later it's still not repainted. It was recently painted before selling though so it's easy to just leave the old paint up.

lake girl- the color of the white trim is a custom color matched to our kitchen cabinets island SW sprayed semi-gloss oil paint. Medallion cabinets Divinity. The color match is perfect!

I'd choose the master bedroom paint color first. Then choose any rooms that you have a majority of furniture for to be done so that you don't have to move stuff in and out at a later date.
Since you are having it professionally done, it is less important to get it all done prior to moving in as pros are good at painting around tarped furniture.
I would definitely have them paint all the ceilings prior to moving in and probably the trim (at least one coat). Since good paints don't need primer, the old rule about priming everything first does not matter any more.

The most important thing is to find the house first. There may be design elements that you will be working around such as counters and tile in the kitchen and baths. Natural light and ceiling heights may factor in as well. I don't think you can pick your colors prior to choosing the house.

lake girl- the color of the white trim is a custom color matched to our kitchen cabinets island SW sprayed semi-gloss oil paint. Medallion cabinets Divinity. The color match is perfect!

I had our whole house painted BM Standish White (except for colors in the kid's rooms...) before we moved in. It worked really well for me and 4 years later, I'm still happy. Recently repainted one dark feeling room though because I didn't feel like it was showing well there.
GOOD luck with your house hunting.

If I were moving into a new home, I would pick a good neutral color that just about any wood tone and color would look good with. Of course, you will want to make sure it looks good with the flooing - i.e. carpet, tile, hardwood, etc.

I have always liked SW White Dove for a trim color - it seems to go with most colors.

There are lots of great neutrals out there that still have color. Loribee mentioned Standish White and her house has a nice warm glow - not stark white. THe SW Khaki Beige shown is a nice neutral as well as the Kilim Beige. Two of my favorites are SW Relaxed Khaki and Believable Buff. Someone on here (maybe Juddgirl ?) has a lot of BB. My DD has her entire downstairs painted Believable Buff and every color looks good with it - warm or dark wood tones, reds, greens, blues, etc. SW Rice Grain has been a nice popular color on many of the blogs that I have looked at.
Look at Pottery Barn catalogs and website. Their neutrals look good in every room.

Of course in a kitchen, the counter, floors, and backsplash will dictate a color - tha color may be different from the rest of the house, or it may be the same.

One other thing, if you have children, they may want to do their room in a color that suits them. It would definitely be easier to put "their" color in before move-in.

Good Luck! Make sure you come back and show us your new house.