F&B colours - NO resemblance whatsoever to their colour charts!?

[Agapanthii]

I am getting mighty fed up and not a little broke with my endless testerpots from F&B. Latest - Blackened, despite looking like a white with a hint of charcoal on their colour chips is actually really, really blue when it goes up on my wall. How can they call a blue colour blackened?

[TheMitfordsMaid]

I think F&B is very over-rated quality wise too

[minipie]

That's funny, I've found F&B match their colour cards reasonably well (unlike some other companies eg Fired Earth).

I agree Blackened looks pale blue and I don't know why they call it Blackened. But to me, it looks pale blue on the colour card too...

Have you been looking at the colour card in the same light and the same position as where you've painted the sample? As the light and angle of the light will affect the colour.

[MooncupGoddess]

I feel your pain - I had exactly the same experience with Blackened a couple of weeks ago.

Actually I think we should set up a MN swap service for F&B tester pots - pay for postage only. Would have saved me a lot of money!

[minipie]

Mooncup what an excellent idea. I'm in the middle of choosing colours and will have a stockpile of the sample pots left over in a few months once we've finally decided.

[Agapanthii]

I'm looking at my colour chart now... definitely looks more gray than the tester paint to me! Worse... I have now started on Little Greene and Paint & Paper Library samples and just spent another £17 on testers this morning... but have had lots of fun painting all my kitchen cupboards all the different colours so I can see them in situ. Luckily kitchen is being ripped out in a months time...

[Agapanthii]

MooncupGodess - what did you go for in the end? I'm rather liking Lead from Paint & Paper library.

[minipie]

I'm in the process of doing exactly the same thing Agapanthii! We have a lovely patchwork look kitchen at the moment . Though we are not having our kitchen replaced, just repainted.

Just to share some info - if the paint is for kitchen cabinets, I have been told by my painter that it's best to choose a colour that is available in Oil Eggshell since the water based eggshells are not as durable. F&B have recently stopped doing Oil Eggshell and only do water based (acrylic) eggshell. However Paint & Paper Library and Little Greene still do Oil Eggshell, as does Sanderson.

You can get F&B colours matched by Leyland in Oil Eggshell but (IME) they are not really a true match.

[BettyBathroom]

Pale french grey from little green is beautiful

[minipie]

That's what we have just painted our bedroom Betty

I didn't realise they did a pale version till I went on the website, they don't have it on their colour card.

[Agapanthii]

what colours have you gone for minipie? being nosey...

[BettyBathroom]

They have a few different colour cards - the one I have is stained with real paint rather than printer's ink so no danger of the colour not being true.

[MooncupGoddess]

I went with Dimity, Agapanthii - lovely cool neutral like old linen. It's a small room and I realised I had quite a bit of colour there already and didn't want to overload it. I've just painted my study Print Room Yellow which is quite exciting (er, for me, anyway).

Interesting point about the oil eggshell, minipie. Fortunately I have an old tin of oil eggshell Pointing I can use for my skirting boards, though I find painting with oil-based paints a total hassle as it's so hard to clean the brushes and anything in the vicinity that gets randomly bespattered.

[Pekkala]

minipie thanks but argh! re: F&B eggshell - that explains a lot. I used F&B eggshell for my cast iron bath a few years ago and it's been brill - but have just used their eggshell for my kitchen units and have been a bit concerned that when water gets on them the colour lightens until the spill is wiped/dries. Oh arse - I have a feeling they are going to need repainting in no time. Does you painter have any info on whether I will need to re-prime them before over painting them with a proper oil eggshell?

[Pekkala]

Sorry that's a really rudely phrased question minipie - would you mind awfully asking your painter if he has any tips for overpaining an acrylic eggshell with an oil eggshell?

[Pekkala]

*overpainting

[minipie]

nosiness much welcomed! poor DH is so bored of colour charts I am glad of someone who is interested

I realise now it is an almost entirely Greige/grey/Cream/Off white house. Boring! But hopefully means it will go with anything.

our bedroom - French Grey Pale (LG)
other bedrooms - Pointing or White Tie (F&B)
living room - French Grey Mid
hall & stairs - Shirting (LG)
kitchen - Wimborne White (F&b)
bathroom - Stony Ground (F&b)
study - Elephant's Breath
front door - Juniper Ash (LG)

I also love Dove Tail and Cornforth White but ran out of space...

[minipie]

Hi pekkala I can try to remember to ask him but he won't be back at my house till 18 August. If you PM me about that time that will remind me!!

Sorry about that! I'm sure it can't be that bad as there are lots of companies out there still offering kitchens painted in F&B.

[timidviper]

I am just about to have a new kitchen and the cupboards come in F&B colours. They are so different to my sample chart I actually got the kitchen man to check that the labels hadn't been switched somewhere!

I am having some cupboards in Tallow and the island units in Bone but the tallow on my chart looks much less creamy/neutral than the door.

Don't know if it helps or not but the kitchen man told us that paint sprayed on doors in the factory has added hardeners which make it more durable than even the oil based paints so only repaint at home if chips and distressing will add to the effect.

[Pekkala]

Thanks minipie - I will probably stop panicking and see how it goes - I only painted them last week!
The colour is Old White - which, by the way, now painted in eggshell looks a lot paler than the sample door I did with the emulsion tester pot.

[Indaba]

If you get someone else to do the painting its worth checking they actually use the colour you requested and they use the right brand.

had a couple of decoraters in past who take colour chart to paint mixers, get something close to it (or use what they have left from last job!)...its a nightmare then if you want to touch up as its never exactly same.

[Indaba]

oh and paint sprayed off site by a machine will be different as they add something to it so its goes through the sprayer (sorry for non-technical explantation!)

[teta]

I have used Dulux Diamond eggshell in my kitchen and Sandtex oil eggshell as well for comparative purposes.The Dulux is much tougher [contains no oil] than the oil eggshell.Even the painter has been surprised.It dries very quickly and is virtually odour-free.I would thoroughly recommend it.I have had my paints matched up to F&B colours at a paint trade centre.They have been perfect matches [probably not if done at the diy superstores].My Strong White Dulux match was exactly the same as the F&B Modern Emulsion Strong White [and was the same price in diamond hard].If cupboards are spray-painted the effect looks completely different[and more plastikey sp] than hand-painting.My decorators painted with 2 coats so the grain of the wood showed through.Finally the kitchen company are probably not using F&B but matched colours from a trade supplier so they may be slightly different [but it also depends on the lighting conditions].I just thought i would correct some of the misinformation on this thread.

[minipie]

"I just thought i would correct some of the misinformation on this thread."

Or rather, you thought you would add your own experience, which happens to be different from some other people's experience

[teta]

Yes,you're right.It is my experience-of months of building work and decoration and making mistakes.But there is also some misinformation on this thread.I've found it hard to sift out the correct from the incorrect information at times.Misjudged information doesn't help anyone Minipie.

[minipie]

I'm not sure what you think is misinformation? Everything that has been said on this thread is someone sharing their own experience or opinion, or repeating something that someone has said to them. It's all true. It may be incomplete - as anecdotal evidence always is - but that doesn't mean it's wrong.

For example, it is completely true that my decorator said it's best to go for an oil eggshell. Now it may be that he hasn't come across the Diamond (non oil) eggshell you used and liked. But that doesn't mean what I've said is misinformation. It just means your experience is different.