I KNOW this has been done to death, but f&b fans walk this way . . .

[notjustamummythankyou]

We live in a traditional 1930s semi, and our living room stretches from front to back, with big bay windows at either end. The room runs North - South, which means that one end tends to be very sunny and light, while the other a bit gloomy on a dark day.

I love f&b shades, and I'm using it's paintchart for inspiration (although may get the shade matched depending on cost).

I'm looking a warm, light neutral for the walls and I never realised that something could be so difficult! (Cue joke about 50 shades of, um, cream).

These are the shades in the not so short shortlist so far:

Joa's white
Archive
Oxford Stone (too dark?)
Matchstick (too yellow?)
String (too yellow / too dark?)
Elephant's breath (too grey?)

I have tester pots and will be attacking some lining paper with said paint this weekend. But what would be really useful is to hear from anyone who has used these colours - what did you think? Was the colour what you expected? And are there any suitable colour contenders that I may have missed?

TIA!

[notjustamummythankyou]

And, um, apologies for the rogue apostrophe ...

[JingleBel]

Skimming stone. It's beautiful.

[RooneyMara]

I like Ringwold Ground. I always say that, but it's such a gorgeous, rich colour and will definitely make the room feel warm.

[notjustamummythankyou]

Ooh yes Ringwold Ground - I like that!

Sigh. I need a paint-choosing fairy. And another one to actually do the decorating ...

[herethereandeverywhere]

We have skimming stone in our west-facing family room. It's quite large and airy and TBH is a "barely there" colour. Nice plain, modern neutral.

We have elephant's breath in the east-facing "grown-ups" living room (which ironically we use at night so never benefit from the morning light!) It's definitely more dramatic, more of a colour than a neutral. It's actually less grey than I originally hoped but I love it! Definitely has a warmth and an opulence. You might find it too much colour for a space you use all day every day and it may feel shadowy in the north-facing end though.

[notjustamummythankyou]

Thanks here. This is my problem - I need a shade that looks good throughout the room - not too sickly / bright when the sun shines at one end, but not too dull at the other!

I need to paint my swatches asap, don't I? and stick twos up at the previous owner who knocked through both rooms in the first place

[PPPop]

I had matchstick in my front room and I really didn't like it when it was with one wall with a darkish, dramatic feature wallpaper. I pulled off the wallpaper and repainted that wall in matchstick as well and I loved it! It was warm, glowed when the sun shined and looked very elegant.

I have recently lightened up the room with White Tie and it is quite a bit lighter, but my room is reasonably small, north facing and has some dark furniture, so I prefer it now even if DH couldn't tell the difference.

[Karbea]

I've elephants breath in my bedroom and its stunning.

[Flosshilde]

1930s semi-dweller here too, although our rooms haven't been knocked through. We have Matchstick in our south facing living room and it is great - nice warm colour, particularly with the terracotta curtains and sofa. We used White Tie for the paintwork.

The north facing dining room we did in Green Ground and it never looks dark in there as a result. I know you're looking for creams but you could use some colour to brighten up the northern end.

[PPPop]

I have Green Ground in my kitchen, Flosshilde. You have excellent taste in paint

[notjustamummythankyou]

flosshilde - I love green, but I just think our room would look odd if it was painted two colours. I'm angling for a very similar green on our kitchen cabinets. Dh not sure though (bah).

[Karbea]

I have clunch in my kitchen and French gray in the family room bit of my kitchen looks lovely, I think two colours look great in one room.

[ggirl]

I have same dilemma regarding the room that goes north-south
I want a blue / duck egg tone that works at both ends of the room

[notjustamummythankyou]

ggirl - Our north-south room was blue when we moved in. It looked blimmin awful, especially at the 'cold' end.

It was a nasty shade though. Think public toilet, rather than elegant duck egg.

[jollydiane]

I have exactly the same issue, so I hope someone else will help. I have got testers for Joes White and thought it was too dark, I thought Matchstick looked too gloomy. Dimity just looked like white too me.

I have tried Dariy Farm (dulux) which I quite like. I have got so fed up with it all I have actually mixed my own paint (Natural Hessian, Bit of yellow, chocolate truffle) and I quite like the result. I'm having it tested tomorrow to see if there is a close colour match - I'll call it 'jolly putty' and make a fortune.

[notjustamummythankyou]

Now I do like natural hessian, and we've got dulux Egyptian Cotton in the bedrooms, which looks lovely there, but possibly too grey for the living room.

Someone knock some sense into me. There are far more important things in the world to get worked up about. I'm even going to do this at my own posts.

[jollydiane]

I feel your anguish I know that I if get the paint wrong I'll be looking at it for the next 20 years.

I have Natural Hessian in my hall and I like it. I just want to warm it up a bit for the North facing part of the lounge.

What accessories are you going for - we'll hold each others hands

[Flosshilde]

Notjust - you don't have to do a two colour room as such, just use some colour in the northern end to brighten it up. This could be a picture even or furniture, now feature walls are passé. We painted our cornices to match the walls which pulls the colour right up as well and looks great (the bit between the cornice and the picture rail is the same colour as the ceiling i.e white of some description). We also used Pink Ground in our hallway which is pretty dark and that made a real difference.

Pppop - you too .

[notjustamummythankyou]

floss - that's our plan, really. The north end is our dining area and we have a large oak table there. I picked up some gorgeous cushions off eBay with a lovely designers guild fabric, and I'm going to pull a colour out of those for a large print at that end.

There's a kind of 'old gold' colour in the cushions too, and i'd like the walls to tone with that - probably a yellowish / beigish white, not too pink, not too grey.
We've got colour in the curtains anyway - we inherited two pairs if Laura ashley curtains from the previous owner. Our bay Windows are so large, I can't get ready mades to fit. Made to measure would cost a fortune: even dunelm wanted a minimum of £600 for two sets!

So, I decided to embrace the current curtains, hence new cushions, rug, paint ...

Oh, the curtains are a lightish China blue (not as lovely as duck egg) with a traditional almost toile pattern on them. Not really my cup of tea, but much better with a neutral rug and the pale gold tones of the pictures we already have.

So - blue, pale/old gold, oak, and some darker woods too.

(probably outed myself now!)

[crazyhead]

We just put New White (f&b cream) for our north facing living room, 30s house. Looks good I think! With Wimbourne White on ceilings.

Generally I like greys, blues etc - but cream really does warm it up quite subtly.

I think it depends how big and high the room is too - our sitting room is very high so could probably take a stronger colour well too, but I'd consider that. White Tie is a creamy off white if you want even lighter, it is also lovely.