Decorating and Design - Which paint

I'm renovating a Victorian cottage, can anyone recommend a classic natural/off white paint to use on the woodwork throughout the property.

off-whites can be tricky. often they can be too yellow or too pink. instead of just arbitrarily picking one, i'd get a bunch of paint chips & bring them home. it's important that they'll work with any other creamy colors you'll be using, like fabrics, appliances, sinks, counters, wood tones, etc. that way you won't end up with several different creams that may clash.

are you sure you want off-white and not more of a pure white? if you decide on a more white-white, i've used Dove White and loved it. it wasn't as harsh and bluish-white as pure white (like appliances tend to be), but more like the color of milk - definitely white, but not so cold.

personally, i prefer white to cream. and i think white is easier to work with than cream, when trying to coordinate fabrics & wallpapers, etc. there are a million different creams, but far fewer whites. just a thought.

Just to add to what Annette said, Sherwin-Williams has a multi-page flyer of just off-whites. With trim it may not be so bad, but various lighting (sun, flourescent, incandescent, intensity and angle of) can change the color a few shades, too.

BTW, milk is an off-white, too. Hold something pure white next to milk and you'll see what I mean.

Bob - i know milk isn't pure white, like ceiling white, but compared to off-whites, it's pretty white. the Dove White is white, but just a softer white.

Sorry, Annette, but I meant that milk comment to be an illustration about the many varieties of off white. As such, it was directed to Dan.