Menu
How To
Design Advice
Customer Service
My account
Colour guides · Neutral
A Haussmann apartment already has its décor: three-metre ceilings, plaster cornices and ceiling roses, double doors, a marble fireplace, a herringbone parquet that throws its blond light onto everything around it. Colour does not have to create it; it has to hold it. What changes everything is the relationship between three surfaces — walls, mouldings and ceiling — and the very uneven light of rooms on the street and rooms on the courtyard.
Here are ten Mylands colours for a Haussmann apartment, from whites made for mouldings to the deep colours of a dining room, with how to divide them between walls, cornices, ceiling and woodwork.
Updated September 2026 · by the Mylands France colour team
The short answer
The classic Parisian scheme takes three lines: mouldings, cornices and ceiling in a warm white — Holland Park No.5 or Charterhouse No.4 — never a pure white, which chills the parquet; walls in a stone or a soft grey — Cadogan Stone No.59, Chalk Farm No.53, Islington No.23; and a single deep room, the dining room or the study, in Bond Street No.219, Pleasure Gardens Green No.214 or Huguenot No.49, with white mouldings or fully drenched. On the courtyard, facing north, go a tone lighter and warmer: Fitzrovia No.26, Holland Park No.5.
At a glance
10 colours
The white for mouldings
A warm off-white with discreet yellow undertones, created for a period house in Holland Park. It is exactly the white a Haussmann cornice, ceiling rose and ceiling need: white enough to draw the relief of the plaster, warm enough to sit with parquet and marble. A pure white beside it looks blue.
Our tip — Cornices, rose and ceiling in Holland Park, walls in any shade from this guide: the base for everything else.
The cooler white, street side
A clean white barely touched with yellow, reproduced for a lawyer's office on Charterhouse Street. In a street-facing sitting room flooded with light it keeps mouldings crisp where Holland Park would turn cream. It is also an excellent wall white for anyone who wants the "gallery" Haussmann, all white, without the chill.
Our tip — Walls and mouldings in Charterhouse, ceiling in Holland Park half a tone warmer: the all-white that has relief.
Paris stone
A warm, calm stone beige, the colour of dressed-stone façades seen from indoors. On the walls of a double sitting room, under Holland Park mouldings, it makes the apartment look as if it had always been painted this way. It loves parquet, white marble and brass.
Our tip — Sitting room and dining room en suite in the same Cadogan Stone, the second room with a darker dado: the enfilade stays one room.
The light greige
A very pale greige, greyer than Cadogan Stone and warmer than a grey, which recedes gently behind the mouldings and leaves room for pictures and furniture. It is the neutral for apartments meant to be sober without being white, and it ages without dating.
Our tip — On the walls of a street-facing bedroom, ceiling and mouldings in Holland Park, woodwork in Charterhouse: three whites that read as one.
Parisian grey
A pale grey with carefully balanced umber undertones, created for an Islington residence. It is the grey of zinc roofs and Paris skies, warm enough never to look cold against blond parquet. It sets off white mouldings better than any beige.
Our tip — Keep it for street-facing rooms, south or west; on the courtyard it turns to cellar grey.
The pink for the courtyard bedroom
A very pale blush warmed with umber, which reads almost as a neutral. In a courtyard bedroom facing north, where greys and cool whites turn sad, it gives the room back the light it lacks. With Holland Park mouldings and a parquet, it is the Parisian bedroom par excellence.
Our tip — Walls and ceiling in Fitzrovia, mouldings alone in Holland Park: the room looks taller and softer.
The sky-blue ceiling
A light, slightly greyed sky blue, the blue of eighteenth-century painted ceilings. At three metres, a Bedford Square ceiling between its white cornices is an authentic Haussmann gesture that always surprises; on the walls of a street-facing child's bedroom it is fresh without being cold.
Our tip — Ceiling in Bedford Square, cornices and walls in Charterhouse: the Paris sky indoors.
The dining-room night blue
A very deep blue-grey, ink and slate, named after London's most elegant shopping street. In a Haussmann dining room, between white mouldings, it turns every dinner into an evening; drenched, mouldings and ceiling included, it makes the room a jewel case. Blond parquet has never looked better.
Our tip — Walls in Bond Street, mouldings and ceiling in Holland Park, woodwork in Bond Street Eggshell: the classic contrast, held together by the doors.
The library green
A very dark bottle green, near black in shade, which reveals its depth in sun. It is the green of libraries and studies, and the finest drenching colour for a windowless Haussmann hall or corridor: rather than fighting the shade, it dresses it.
Our tip — The whole entrance hall, doors and ceiling included, in Pleasure Gardens Green Dead Matt; then open onto a Cadogan Stone sitting room, and the light seems doubled.
The evening crimson
Our Colour of the Year 2027: a deep crimson with blue undertones, brown and velvety in shade, redder in light. In a Haussmann dining room or small sitting room, under white mouldings and beside a white marble fireplace, it is the nineteenth-century décor recovered without pastiche.
Our tip — Dark Red primer, two coats of Marble Matt Emulsion, mouldings in Whitehall No.9: the ochre-touched white that answers the red.
Coloured or neutral walls; cornices, rose and ceiling in the same warm white; woodwork in that white in Eggshell. It is the most legible reading of the relief and the one that shows fine plasterwork best. The only possible mistake is pure white, which looks blue against parquet and marble: take Holland Park No.5 or Charterhouse No.4 — which white for a ceiling covers the cases.
Mouldings and ceiling in a lighter version of the wall colour, or a darker dado below the picture rail. Softer, more contemporary, and very effective in a room whose mouldings are modest or damaged.
Walls, mouldings, doors, ceiling, all in one deep shade, in Multi-Surface Dead Matt to go from plaster to wood without changing tin. At three metres, a hall or dining room treated this way becomes a jewel-box room; the mouldings do not disappear, they become shadows. Our Colour Drenching page details the method, and our eight colours to paint everything the shades.
Street-facing rooms, often south or west, accept greys and cool whites. Courtyard rooms, facing north, want warm whites, pinks and stones — or the opposite, embraced: a deep colour that makes shade a quality. Our colours for a north-facing bedroom and for a dark hallway go further.
Marble Matt Emulsion on walls, ceilings, cornices and roses: the mineral matt absorbs light, gives colours their depth and forgives the repairs of old plaster — and it breathes, which the walls of an 1880 building appreciate. Multi-Surface Eggshell on the woodwork: double doors, tall skirtings, picture rails, windows. Multi-Surface Dead Matt for colour drenching. On a three-metre ceiling two thin coats beat one thick one, and primer is essential on any plaster repair — the method is in How to paint a wall without marks.
Thanks for signing up to our newsletter!
Sign in to save items to your wishlist. Sign in to save your basket, so you can continue shopping later.
Don't have an account? Create one
Share this link and friends can buy items from your list. Anything bought disappears from it automatically. Anyone with this link can see your selection.
Moving in, redecorating, or dropping hints? A free account turns this selection into a gift list — add or remove colours whenever you like, and we'll email you when someone buys something from your shared list.
Free · Delivered to your door
Get a free colour card posted to you, showing our complete Colours of London range, with swatches made from the real paint for a true representation of our award-winning colours.
