Painting over dark colours?

[morphe]

Painted my front room recentley, 1 choc chip wall, 3 cream walls.
Previously we painted our dining room, 4 x walls choc chip.
We want to paint over three of the brown walls with cream, is it best to paint it white, then cream, or will 1 coat of cream cover the brown?

 

[Robbie uk]

put a thinner coat of white matt over the wall first to lose some of the darkness, then two coats of cream.