Cream: a slightly kinder white for a home that feels soft all day

What is cream, and how is it different from white and beige?

If white is a bowl of hot steamed rice, cream is rice porridge with a splash of milk stirred in: still bright, still clean, but warmer and softer. Beige is the next step on, with brown or grey added until it looks calmer.

So cream sits right in the middle for anyone who finds white too cold but beige too grown-up. Paint a room in it and it feels like a weekend morning with nowhere you have to be.

Light, mid or deep cream: choose by the light in your room

Pale, near-white creams such as Coconut Ice Cream, Yogurt White or Popcorn suit sunny rooms, because Thai light adds yellow on its own. Choose a deep cream in a room like that and by the afternoon the wall may have turned banana yellow.

Mid to deep creams such as Custard Cream or Egg Custard suit north-facing rooms, rooms with little light and rooms lit by white LEDs, because cool light pulls out the yellow and brings a deep cream back into balance.

Which rooms suit cream?

The bedroom is cream's true home. Paint it cream and the room feels as soft and restful as a hotel bed with fresh sheets. It works in children's rooms too, because cream is warm without being as sugary as pastels. In a living room with a pale fabric sofa and light wood, everything flows together as one.

Cream works well in kitchens as well, especially ones with wooden cabinets or warm-coloured tiles. If you want your existing tiles to match the new walls, Voqe Tile Finish has cream tones such as Ivory and Oatmeal that coat straight over old tiles.

• Bedroom: Coconut Ice Cream, Ivory
• Living room: Oatmeal, Pearl White
• Kitchen: Popcorn, Custard Cream
• Feature wall with depth: Mineral Finish Yogurt, Egg Custard

Smooth cream or mineral cream?

Voqe Wall Paint gives a smooth, even cream wall. It is 100% acrylic, with a mild smell and low VOC, and you can paint it yourself: touch dry in 20–30 minutes and ready for a second coat in 1–2 hours, so a whole room is done in a day.

Voqe Mineral Finish in Yogurt, Egg Custard or Seashell gives a cream with depth: a matt surface with faint brush marks, applied by hand, so no two walls are the same. You get the look of a Mediterranean house without getting on a plane.

Test cream properly before you paint

Creams differ only slightly, but the results differ a lot. Order 100ml samples at ฿75 in two or three shades and paint them side by side on the real wall. Look at them in the morning, the afternoon and at night. If a shade starts to look yellow in the afternoon, move to a paler one.

Or send a photo of your room to LINE @dynohomes for free colour advice. You can also see the real thing at Voqe Studio (Bang Phli).