Something needs to match the shutters, either the wall color or the trim color.

I am not sure why you can't find a wall color to work with cream colored trim, there are literally thousands of commercially available paint colors(?).

@palimpsest I’ve done hours of research on what wall colors look good with Creamy trim. There are very few and they are all dark beige. Kylie M has a whole blog post on why it is one of the worst trim colors to work with. I’ve bought dozens of samplize stickers and they all look bad next to it. So it’s either dark beige or creamy itself for the walls, with the creamy trim.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6269023/having-a-tough-time-finding-a-trim-color-to-match-with-cream-shutters

I thought I had read your previous post.

Are you actually looking at Colors, or are you looking at neutrals?

@elcieg yes, the advice I was given was to match the shutter paint, or remove the shutters. I have now matched the shutter paint, and my husband vetoed removing the shutters. They block a lot of heat in the summer, so we agreed it would be best to keep them. I’ve been working on other things as we are replacing all the flooring too, so just now circling back to the wall/trim colors.

@palimpsest I’d prefer a neutral. The paint color I really want is BM Ballet White, with white trim. It just doesn’t work with the shutters though. So I was wondering if the creamy walls and white trim could be a compromise. I have also considered just beige walls again, and the creamy trim…it’s just so dark in my house though, with the current beige walls.

My fear would be that the white trim would make the Creamy shutters look too yellow or a bit dingy, but I just looked at the SW website for SW Creamy, and the photo of a LR that they used shows Creamy walls with white trim, so you can get an idea of how they look together. They don't offer many colors that coordinate with Creamy, but I think a light warm sage green color could look nice. Also, some rust colors should go well; it depends on what colors you want to decorate with. Creamy is a pretty basic color, so it should coordinate well with any warm tone.

Well, yeah, that's going it be tough because it's very yellow. That said if you don't compare it to whiter whites, it doesn't look so yellow. Ceiling whites are often pretty cold, so that's really heightening the yellow peach appearance of the Navajo White. Maybe you need to think about the ceilings being a yellower white.

My friends apartment in Manhattan is all Navajo white and it gets a lot of light, and since there is nothing to compare it to except the medium wood floors, it looks pretty white.

Or you use the Navajo white as the "color" and paint the trim white. The shutters will match the wall color instead of the trim. When we painted this house to rent it out temporarily we used Navajo White as the wall color with pure white trim. (It has all been painted a weird dark orangy khaki color. Everything)

I keep saying Navajo White because BM Navajo white is similar to SW Creamy, and SW Navajo is something else. But you know what I mean.

@decorpatti That’s a good idea about trying a green! Exactly my concern about the white trim, that it could make the shutters look dingy. I will go through my paint decks and see about a green.

I also found this pic with cream shutters, and this is really pretty, so maybe I need to revisit some yellows/golds again too. Wondering if the trim in this photo is whiter than the creamy though.

I left off a sentens. You will be miserable. Thats a guarantee!

@palimpsest Yes, the white ceiling is an issue. The previous owners did not do the best job matching the trim to the shutters, so the current trim is a bit darker than needed and then looks worse against the white ceiling. Maybe the trim being just a touch lighter plus no white ceiling will help. Does your friend’s apartment have a white ceiling, or is it also Navajo white? Good point about the floors as well.

I think it's all Navajo. But they are on an upper floor in a midrise with two exposures and are taller than the surrounding buildings. So they get a lot of sunlight. And there is a lot of color in art and furniture in that place too. Lots of contrast with the walls.

But this is Navajo White in our house pre-renovation when we painted it to rent out. Navajo White walls with pure white out of the can.

This is how "not white" it is compared to pure white.

@JAN MOYER the colors I like are white, cream, warm greys and greiges, light beige, light blue, and soft pinks and yellows. I don’t like orange, red, bright yellow, navy blue, or black. So that’s why I think the cream walls or trim *might* work? I did break down and paint my bathroom cream walls to match the cream trim and cabinets. It looks great! I added pale turqoise bath mats, and a white shower curtain, and some artwork with pastels. But, it’s just a guest bathroom. I’m nervous about duplicating it in the larger areas, that will be more costly to paint. It’s very outside the box for me to not have white trim, and so much cream everywhere…I could get annoyed with it.

@palimpsest that makes sense! That’s probably the pefect color for them. I do get some light, but it is west-facing so quite warm. I have lots of art in storage that I can use for contrast though. Maybe having that will help.

Green and some warmish blues look good with cream trim.

@palimpsest that’s helpful… I don’t love how that looks. Maybe the cream walls and white trim is not the way to go for me. I think I’d like all cream trim and walls better than that.

If you like light grayish blue/greens, take a look at Wickham Gray. It is called a gray, but in east/north light it reads a soft blue/green (quite light). It tends to look more gray in other light, so it depends on light source.

I have opposite: I have cream white crown moulding, ceiling, cabinets, bookshelves with flower pot-colored walls. Should plantation shutters match the cream white or is it ok to use bright/"normal" white? I know zero about decorating and I'm a guy with no girlfriend's eyes at the moment. :)

Tim, you’ll get more feedback by starting a new thread for your question. Bright white shutters can often make cream white appear dirty/dingy. I would match the shutters to the cream white.

Thank you!