F and B Purbeck Stone...

[Bluesheep8]

Thinking of having kitchen units painted in a copy of this. I want the colour to be kind of a soft mushroomy/putty shade. Have you got experience of this colour? How would you describe it? Kitchen is west facing and quite dark til late afternoon.. pics would be great!

[Ketzele]

Like all F&B paints, it changes in different lights - but no, I wouldn't call it putty. I think it's a very neutral grey - kind of creamy grey, neither cold nor warm. Have you considered Drop Cloth?

[Ketzele]

It's dark now, but I can take a photo of a door painted in Purbeck Stone tomorrow morning.

[Bluesheep8]

Brilliant, thank you I'd really appreciate that and thanks for your opinion. Am having a kitchen table done in purbeck stone and chairs done in various other colours, one being drop cloth coincidentally! Units and walls yet to be decided. Was thinking either purbeck units and ammonite walls or ammonite units and Wevet walls....

[trapinch]

The DIY kitchens colour Cashmere is an exact match for FB Purbeck Stone in my opinion. Why not order one of their door samples, they're not expensive, and then you can see it in the room and in different lights?

[Bluesheep8]

Great idea trapinch, thank You.

[isitmeinthewrong]

I'm thinking of painting my kitchen doors but I'm worried I'll ruin them and regret it.

Is it possible to get a good finish doing it yourself and can anyone give any advice on how to get it right please?

[Bluesheep8]

Hi isitme, we're having ours done by a decorator, I wouldn't dare attempt it myself but know people (who are adept at painting) who have and have done a great job

[Ketzele]

This is Purbeck Stone in my hallway, with Strong White on the walls. I use a lot of strong colour in the rooms, and this is a very relaxing and perfectly neutral contrast.

[Bluesheep8]

Ah thank you for posting the pics ketzele, really useful.

[dontcallmelen]

@Bluesheep8 I tested out Smithfield by Mylands that is a putty/taupe colour it’s a darker than fitzrovia(Mylands) which I currently have on my kitchen cupboards.

[dontcallmelen]

@Ketzele have you tested out drop cloth? I like your doors as well I’m trying to figure out colours for my hall/front room/dining room & kitchen.
At the moment the hall is white(with a slight hint of blue) on the top half & a quite dark grey on the bottom, with blue/grey/white tiles & a greighy carpet on the stairs & landing.
The front room/dining room has stone coloured walls, Greighy carpet & sofas with dark cream silk curtains, with a green/red embroidered flowers.
The kitchen has pale mushroom cupboards & Lambeth walk on the walls.
I would like to try & tie it all in a bit more, so thinking maybe a more taupe/mushroomy in the front room, possibly in the hall & pale grey in the kitchen, but I get sidetracked by colour.
Any pointers?

[Ketzele]

Hi@dontcallmelen, I am very drawn to Dropcloth, and I still haven't ruled it out, but the tester pot came up very yellow against my hideous orange floor. I would like to use Dropcloth somewhere though - it's a great colour.

Your hall sounds great - I don't have one at all (front door straight into living room - ugh) so I'm busting with envy. So it sounds like you've got a pale bluegrey theme going from hall into kitchen, with warm neutrals in your living room? When you say mushroom do you mean grey or greige?

I would start by deciding what colours will be staying (the hall and kitchen units?) and then use that as the basis for pulling together a palette of colours. The Farrow and Ball website has that really useful bit on each paint colour page where they show you what colours go. I'm not one for moodboards but when planning my downstairs I basically got hold of one of those F&B swatch sets (cost me fifteen quid a few years ago and has dramatically cut my tester pot bills). Think about contrasts as well as toning colours: my palette is basically storm colours (greys, blues, greens) with burnt orange and mustard highlights.

Then think about how you want to play with light and dark. All your rooms sound medium to pale at the moment - do you want to take one darker? Normal would be living/dining room but that's not a rule. If you take this route, it's easy to flip your palette so the darker shades predominate in one room (with lighter/brighter highlights) and the lighter in the other room (with darker highlights).

So my awkward living room, which is like a glorified corridor (contains front door, stairs and door to kitchen) is Strong White on the long wall that goes through to the kitchen and up the stairs, and I've kept that colour all the way up. The front door and internal doors and bannisters are Hardwick White, and the spindles are Wevet. Two walls of the living room are in Shoreditch, and the sofas are grey. There is a large bronze mirror on the wall and the cushions are mainly ochre and mustard velvet, with a bit of green and burnt orange thrown in.

The kitchen kind of reverses that, with its ghastly orange floor. I've painted the units Hague Blue and the walls are currently pale greige with white tiles. I have two large oil paintings hanging in there - very mid century, with lots of orange and blue tones. There is a wooden bench, painted the same greige as the walls, and the chairs I repainted a pale warm grey and recovered the seat pads with a fantastic mustard-and-black retro curtain I had. I'm planning to make the walls a bit greyer to fit more closely with the living area.

Upstairs, the hall is all strong white and the bannisters and doors are Purbeck stone. My study is in Little Greene Livid - a darker version of Shoreditch - with lots of green and mustard and old oil paintings. The bathroom is the same colour as the kitchen, with mustard and burnt orange highlights.

I haven't been a total palette Nazi in the bedrooms. My room is shortly going to be Soho House (dusty rose) with green accessories, and my daughter's will be dark grey with blush pink. My other daughter rebelled and wanted a cleaner colour, so it's Lulworth blue with wimborne white, blush pink, and lots of rose gold stuff.

So I've tried to have quite a theme running through the house, without being too confined by it. Through all the common areas, there's only five colours (grey, green, blue, yellow, orange) but used in different ratios and intensities.

In your case, I'm wondering - hard to know without photos - whether your main challenge is tying in the living room curtains to the cool greys you're used in the hall? I'd be tempted to go dark in the living room. Would the dark grey you've used in the hallway go in there? Alternatively, use the dark grey in smaller patches (door and trim, or cushions or a rug) and do the walls in a blue-grey-green that kind of leads on from the hall blue, warming it up so it goes nicely against cream curtains. Inchyra Blue? Shoreditch? The kitchen could then be a pale grey?

Or you could just co-ordinate the two rooms more tightly. Maybe picking up some dark grey in each, and painting the walls one colour throughout. Would Hardwick White go with your curtains and your kitchen units?

And then try to have a limited number of other colours picked up as highlights - lampshades, cushions, paintings, teatowels etc. Luckily all my furniture is cheap crap picked up from streetcycle or ebay, which I can customise at will. So I'm painting an art deco stencil on the side of a green wooden chest I have in the kitchen, using Hague Blue, Charlotte's Locks and Rufus by Paint and Paper Library. And my £5 coffee table has lovely barleycorn legs that I may paint a deep burnt orange so it can contrast against the Shoreditch.

Have I blathered on entirely too long now, even for you?!

[Ketzele]

kinell, that was a long post even by my standards.

[dontcallmelen]

@Ketzele lol definitely not blathered on for too long, I think I have a new girl crush😄 the trouble with the front room/dining room is the curtains.
I can’t really change, they were soooo expensive & are beautifully made I just can’t justify changing them, that’s why the wall are a stony colour as it blends with the grey/beighy carpet & sofa the curtains are the only pattern in the room, I have green/cream scatter cushions & throws.
The furniture is all a bit of a mish mash, picked up over the years & painted cream, I was thinking of re painting it pale grey?
Also I can’t do doors/ trims/skirting as they are stripped pine (Victorian house so original doors/skirting/dado rail in hall etc)
Also gone off a bit of the dark grey in the hall, it does tie in with the kitchen, as you can see the kitchen from the hall.
It’s hard isn’t it sometimes, to get it feel as though it’s flows properly.
Upstairs my room is mainly pink/cream dd room is pink/green & Ds is pale grey/olive green.
Sorry I’ve really blathered on now.

[dontcallmelen]

I think I might get hardwicke/purbeck testers see how they look in the front room?

[dontcallmelen]

I will see if I can post a couple of pics tomorrow.

[Bluesheep8]

This is all so interesting to read! Tiling work on our kitchen is due to finish this weekend and we have decided to leave it for a couple if weeks to have a good think about colours for units and walls before starting on those (was starting to feel a bit rushed into a decision) table (purbeck) and chairs (various colours) are due to be done today so I will post pics when I can, as one of the colours is drop cloth, which has been talked about on here. Fingers crossed!

[Ketzele]

I think about paint more than I think about my job. Probably more than I think about my children.

[Bluesheep8]

ketzele I'm the same,exactly!

[dontcallmelen]

😂 me too @Bluesheep8 good idea I think sometimes taking a step back & having a bit more of think about how you want it all to look.
I rushed my hallway & have never really loved it, that’s why I have got into my head now to change it & im bored with the front room, am now spending far to many hours trawling through F&B & Mylands websites.

[dontcallmelen]

Not sure if these pictures have worked.

[dontcallmelen]

Pictures of my kitchen/front room/

[Bluesheep8]

dontcallmehelen the pics are gorgeous! I think you're right about stepping back and taking more time..it seems I've spent years looking at paint colours though and thought that as a result i would know what i wanted when the time came Update on kitchen...painter has done 1 coat of purbeck on the top of the table and to me it looks....weirdly.....lilac??!! 2 chairs have 1 coat of drop cloth, which I think I prefer...DP has calmly advised to just let the painter finish, using the shades I THOUGHT I wanted and then have a good think. Talking of taking a step back, have now spoken to the decorator and we are having the tiling finished and table/chairs completed then booking him to come back in August to do walls and units, having lived with it as it is for a bit. Will post pics of table and chairs when done though.

[dontcallmelen]

@Bluesheep8, thank you I know what you mean about some shades looking lilac, I went through so many grey testers & the majority of them looked lilac, I think also colours react so much to the light that you have in the room, my kitchen is really bright but the hall is dark downstairs which makes colours difficult to judge.
I agree with Dh, let the painter finish & see how the colours look in different lights, throughout the day & will give you time to think more about the walls/units (also have a look at Mylands colours, the paint is a dream to use)
Look forward to seeing the pics.

[Bluesheep8]

Pic...although I think the colours are perhaps a bit too subtle. Chair nearest the camera is peignoir,the one to the left on other side of table is pale powder and the one to the right of that is drop cloth. I'm proud to say I actually painted the drop cloth chairs myself, so actually it's not beyond the realms for me to repaint all of them if I (eventually) decide on stronger colours. In certain light, when seen all together, the shades we have now remind me of sugared almonds!