Ideas for BM white for trim in 100 year old house

9 years ago

My entire first floor is natural woodwork, so I don't need to think about that. But, I am looking for a versatile white for trim for the upstairs (we'll be doing the oil-based paint). We have five rooms off the hall, and I'd like to find a color that works with all of the room colors so I can just stick with one trim paint and have it flow throughout the upstairs.

The hall is a very subtle faux paint in kind of an antique parchment. Bedrooms are very light violet, a light golden yellow, a muted green, and a blue with some periwinkle aspects to it.

Do any of you know of a subtle white (don't want anything stark) that would look good with all of these colors? Thanks.

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Comments (12)

tibbrix
9 years ago
the fail-safe BM White Dove
MarinaGal
9 years ago
We have a 100 year old house and I started sampling our trim with White Dove but it looked too stark and grayish, even though I had loved it at our previous house which had different light and was newer construction. Here, we ended up with BM Mayonnaise which has yellow in it, but reads a warm white in our house. It is creamy and lovely. We used it in the entire house. Our girls' bedrooms are a dusky lavender and BM Wythe Blue, and my office is a gray green - all look great with the Mayonnaise trim.
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sis2two
9 years ago
I second the Mayonnaise!
julieste
Original Author
9 years ago
I forgot to add in that our floors are all natural maple. I know from past experience that floor color also affects the way a paint looks.

Thanks.
coll_123
9 years ago
I also second white dove....but of course any paint is not going to look the same in every setting.
teresa_nc7
9 years ago
I have BM Cotton Boll for all the white trim in my house which is 114 years old and I love it. I think of it as a "soft white" not stark or gray.

Teresa
DLM2000-GW
9 years ago
We did all the trim in our not quite 80 year old house in B/M Decorator White, alkyd paint. Paints like a dream, holds up 10x better than any latex or acrylic paint you can buy today but - BUT - any white alkyd paint will yellow over time. Not even over a long time but after a year or so there is a noticeable difference and if you do need to touch up somewhere it will show. That yellowing just keeps on increasing over the years, too. Just an FYI.

editing to add - when you paint with petroleum based paints, do not plan on using your clothes dryer for quite a while. The paint fumes are drawn into the dryer (which pulls in air from your house just like a furnace) heated, and your clothes are tumbled in the smelly burning fumes and will stink. It takes a long time for all the oil fumes to gas out from the paint.

This post was edited by dlm2000 on Thu, Aug 28, 14 at 21:11
Boopadaboo
9 years ago
Love Mayonnaise! I think If I ever paint my trim that is the color I will pick. I like Gardenia too, but it is a tiny bit pink, Those two are a bit bright though, but not stark if that makes sense.
beekeeperswife
9 years ago
Not sure what your reason is for the oil-based paint, but have you tried Ben Moore Advanced paint? It works like an oil but is water based. I can get a mirror like finish with the High Gloss and it is gorgeous. Used it in the show house which was an 1880's mansion. It was a show stopper. They also have it in semi-gloss.

Don't forget oil based paint (esp whites) will yellow, so take that into consideration.

(the whitest white I found from BM is Distant Gray OC-68, I don't see any gray in it, not sure where they got that name. Not sure you are looking for the whitest white though)
julieste
Original Author
9 years ago
Some of these colors I already have small samples of. I'm off soon to get some larger samples and will look for all of the above mentioned.

Of the samples I already have, mayonnaise is one I have though about but am a bit concerned now to hear that it may appear to be "bright".

The current white trim color has been in 10 to 15 years, and it is still pretty white so I am thinking it must have been quite stark when done--more stark than I am wanting.

Thanks all.
julieste
Original Author
9 years ago
beekeeperswife--

Apparently we were cross-posting. Does BM Advanced paint really have the durability of the oil-based? This is my main reason for using oil-based.

And, I am looking for a more subtle white, not super stark white.
daisychain01
9 years ago
We used BM cloud white in all our upstairs rooms in our 100 year old house. I've painted the walls many different colours over the years and it's looked good with all of them.

Ideas for BM white for trim in 100 year old house

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tibbrix

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Ideas for BM white for trim in 100 year old house

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