Decorating paint colour dupes

[NewHabits2025]

Do they ever really look the same?

Yes.
Most paint specialists can do this.

Mine actually has the f&b and little greene swatches and asterixs the ones they can perfectly match.
they have them on a board with side by side swatches and also painted wood borders.
The others are just veryyy close matches

It depends what you mean by the same. I wouldn’t patch up a colour with a dupe, but generally they’re close enough. I’ve been happy with my Johnstone Trade F&B dupes, and found the paint quality equitable with the real F&B we have elsewhere in the house. Paints also look really different depending on where they are/ hit they’re lit etc, so if you’re inspiration is another space, it might not look the same as you expect anyway. My sister used the exact same paint as somewhere in my house for her house, and when I saw it I initially assumed she’d changed her mind because the colour looked so different in the two spaces.

We use armsted trade paint as far better coverage than other brands - we got the place to match with Dulux colours and they're identical.

Thanks @toastofthetown interesting about your sister's house. It's very true they will look different in different rooms.

Dupes might fade/discolour differently, but otherwise you can get a good match.