Which White 2.. Beyond Cream!

In choosing the interior colours we finally settled on Alabaster for the ceilings (instead of double alabaster, which was too creamy), with 1/8th Thorndon Cream for the cornicing (crown molding), skirting boards, and the window and door architraves. We decided on the lighter ceiling to increase the apparent height of the rooms, and the slightly darker, off-white shade for all the trim as we felt is lent it a certain solidity (if you look at the cornicing in the photos above and below you will see that the sightly darker shade for the trim makes it look less like plaster and more like stone or wood: more solid and in keeping with a traditional home.

Also, much like the photo above, we have chosen a wall colour called Chamois (I'm sure pronounced Shammee, but tongue-in-cheek we are pronouncing Sham-Woir). It is a darker off-white derived from a lighter shade of the exterior colour (a Resene custom colour - Willowbrook), so that for consistency the walls in the common areas will have sandstone tones.

This post is all about the colour cream. People have declared that beige and cream are over. They use beige as a term to describe things that are bland and boring. But I don't think that in-offensive and boring are the same thing. I find shades of cream and beige peaceful, gentle, elegant, as well as being simply inoffensive. And let's face it, in-offensive is good for public spaces. People may not share One's impeccable sense of drama that comes from blood-red or emerald green walls. Cream does not date. It is timeless...

Above and Below: More Off-white ceilings with cream trim and beige walls.

Another popular colour, not entertained for WBP, is "Tea" which has a more magnolia/gray/purple shade to it than beige...

The shade concept however still applies: Ceiling lightest, trim darker and walls darkest. 

The colour in these photos most closely resembles 1/8th Thorndon cream and Chamois. I believe they are both shots of the same house. I really like the solidity of the cream architraves. The cornicing is darker than I would choose, but it does prove the point that darker tones look more substantial.

We will also pick out the plaster medallions and tracery on the ceiling in the 1/8th Thorndon cream, to provide slight contrast to the alabaster, perhaps a little more subtly than the example below...

More examples of neutral tones, creams and beiges...

All pictures found on Pinterest

(Search term "crown molding colours")

All that glisters....

"All that glisters is not gold,

Often have you heard that told"

How true, for had I my own Duchy or were I a Russian oligarch I probably wouldn't give a second thought to splashing 24 carat gold across the walls and ceiling like it were paint (forgetting that when it comes to gilding, less is more). However, the challenge with pulling off the project of WBP (and quite a fun challenge really) is to achieve the look on a budget. So often people who attempt to do this end up with plasticy imitations, tacky eyesores to behold (one does not merely grab a can of dazzle spray paint off the shelf at the hardware store and glitz up the coffee table in one's drawing room).

Above: Alchemist trying to create gold.

There must be, I thought to myself, an acceptable solution somewhere in the world of high end paints, metallic oxides that gave a very close approximation of gilding without the crippling cost. Luckily I did not have to resort to the dark art of alchemy.

I came across 'Dutch Gold', also known as schlagemetal. This is gold coloured metal alloy. Most golds are a combination of Zinc and Copper (Brass). Some are a mixture of Copper and Tin (Bronze). Others are a mixture of three or more metals. The more zinc the yellower the gold. Compositions usually range from 88% Cu/12% Zn to 84% Cu/ 16% Zn. 

Above: Raw Copper (Cu).

Below: Raw Zinc (Zn).

 Below: Tin (Sn).

Many paints use suspensions of these compounds to recreated a gilding look. The are several companies that include a metallic range. Some we found were:

Porter's Paints

Peter Fell Paint

Ralph Lauren 

(as Peter said "Is there anything Ralph Lauren doesn't do")

& Modern Masters

We are having family bring over some samples of the Modern Masters paints over from the US in March when they visit. The one we think may be suitable is Pharaoh Gold, closely followed by two others:

Pharaoh Gold 

Rich Gold

Olympic Gold

Between these we should be able to choose one which works. And they come in gallon pots, not just 30ml bottles like Martha Stewart's gold paint.

Here are two examples of how we wish to gild the Ballroom and The Music Room. We may also use a little in the gold drawing room. The rest of the house will be left alone.

 

Update 1 April 2015

We have now painted a sample of each of the paints and are very happy with the one on the left, which is Pharaoh's Gold. So, we will be going ahead with this paint in the Ballroom, Music Room, Gold Drawing Room, and perhaps the Dining Room...

Which White?

It is time to choose our interior paint colours, and boy are there a lot of shades of white to choose from. We knew that we didn't want a harsh white, and most people would naturally choose an off-white for ceilings and walls these days. After looking through the Resene colour range (NZ's main paint company), we have settled on 'Double Alabaster' for the ceilings (3rd up, 2nd from right)...

We think that we will choose a slightly darker shade of off-white for the cornicing and skirting, and any wainscoting panels, and will look at having a colour made up for us for the interior walls, probably about 1/8th 'Willowbrook', as we made a paint colour for the outside render. It would be similar to 'Half Spanish White' (3rd down, left hand row).

Any suggestions?

Beauty is Skin Deep...

We finally chose a colour for the house, and now the the masonry is starting to be plastered over. Below is a picture of the rough primer layer of plaster on the outside of the masonry, ready for the coloured render to go on top. 

Above: West Elevation

Below: The covered Loggia on North Terrace.

The primer is a standard gritty plaster made from a gray cement, whilst the coloured render is made from a white lime based cement. It was important to choose the paint colour for the front walls first, as the plaster render is being tinted to match the paint as closely as possible.

The pros of having the render coloured itself instead of being painted are that it gives the house a more authentic period finish. We will get the benefit of the strong durable reinforced masonry underneath whilst achieving the aesthetic of solid sandstone, albeit skin deep. It will never require painting, and will be flecked with real silica and crush limestone particles to ensure it resembles sandstone as closely as possible. The cons are that if it gets defaced with graffiti One can't just paint over it (hence choosing paint on plaster for the front entrance, but coloured render for the house, which is down a long secluded driveway with security).

There are many different textures and colours achievable with coloured render...

After some good feedback from the previous blog survey, as well as several emails and phone calls from friends, we decided to choose a colour that was very similar to C for the main wall colour, with the window architraves, sofit dentils, wall caps and columns being rendered in a lighter colour, similar to B. The exact colour will not be a perfect match, due to the process of turning the colour into plaster render, but will be very close. 

We wanted those architectural details (the architraves, columns, dentils etc) to standout subtly from the walls, but not have a huge contrast. The top picture of this post shows the effects One can achieve with two tone coloured render. 

Here are some further examples showing the versatility and beauty of coloured render...