To want the fancy paint?

[cheesenpickles]

Currently redecorating our living room. Dh's best mate is a decorator (handy!) and has asked us to get the paint we want. He steered me away from Farrow & Ball just because the amount of coats it needs and to be honest the colours were too muddy for me.

I've fallen in love with a Little Greene paint and even dh said doing the testers it goes on beautifully. The guy at work he decorating centre said that we shouldn't buy that one and they can colour match and mix it with Johnstone's.

I was happy to get the colour matched initially but the more I think about it, the more I'm worried the colour isn't going to be quite the same.

Is it worth spending the extra £££ or are the matches that good now I'll never know the difference?

Major first world problem, I know.

@cheesenpickles Is the colour Bronze Red?

My house is all little greene it is expensive and I've now started colour matching it instead. The bathroom paint peels off I've switched to colour matching bathroom paint instead.

Just to add, my decorator says it's the best paint technically

@Absolutepowercorrupts Mid lead in the intelligent Matt.

That's what I wanted to do @ImNotNigel but husband wants to buy the paint today and the decorating is starting this weekend

Ok I have four questions

1. Why is your husband buying the paint when the decorator can get it at trade prices ?

1. Why does it have to be bought today and not later in the week, when you are unsure about the colour ?

1. Are you only painting one room ? 5 litres is only enough to do 35 m square ( maybe less if it’s a dark colour over light ).

1. If it’s onle one room , why don’t you do it yourselves, since money is tight?

I'm having the same dilemma. Spent ages chatting to the john lewis design consultant and she said if you've chosen a strong colour then go for little green, if it's pale then colour match.

My decorator recommended LG and said it’s the best he works with.

I had two rooms done and the are lovely colours.

Get what you want, the saving isn’t worth it and every time you look at the room, and it’s often, you will regret it.

@ImNotNigel

1. Why is your husband buying the paint when the decorator can get it at trade prices ? Husband offered to get it as he has access to trade discount.

1. Why does it have to be bought today and not later in the week, when you are unsure about the colour ? Work commitments and didn't know it was going to be possible to fit us in this weekend.

1. Are you only painting one room ? 5 litres is only enough to do 35 m square ( maybe less if it’s a dark colour over light ). ^ One room with large bay window and an open plan wall/divide opposite, also a fireplace, dado rail, picture rail etc.^

1. If it’s onle one room , why don’t you do it yourselves, since money is tight?^ Decorator is doing it for free (though we will give him some money) as he's my husband's best friend. I'm also doing some marketing/b2b/photography stuff for him as well.^

Thanks everybody. Went to the paint centre and had a good chat with one of the staff members. We ended up going with the LG as it didn't really work out that much more.

That's good.

I also feel that's it's not fair to use a colour by one company but have it matched. It's their intellectual property, they are a small company, so it feels not right.

I misread the title as 'To fancy the wet paint?' and thought jeez, WTF is wrong with some people

We went with the expensive paint last year and I am so happy we did. The old paint in this house is awful. You can’t clean the walls at all, the paint just wipes off. The newly painted room is Dd’s And she is not kind to her walls and it still looks fantastic.

Enjoy painting

@ChardonnaysPrettySister definitely agree with that!

We got a Dulux trade colour match of F&B elephant breath which was excellent. Honestly couldn't tell the difference. But then they colour matched another shade (pistachio??) and it's just missing something compared to the F&B version. If you can get testers then do as it really varies between colours.

I did an interior design course and the advice was to use LG for darker colours as their paints are more pigmented. For lighter colours it doesn’t really matter so much although it’s still like them for the super matt finish. My experience of colour matching at a trade paints store is it’s not that accurate.

I have LG and F&B in various colours around my house.

I wouldn't use F&B if you paid me to use it again, it's awful; terrible to get the brush strokes right so walls look patchy, needs several coats, marks easily let alone with low tack masking tape (takes it off entirely) and touch ups leave shiny patches unless you do the whole wall. My decorator did some rooms and I did others and it isn't about my painting technique!

LG on the other hand goes on so nicely, especially the emulsion. Colour is beautiful, deeper and is basically the opposite of all the F&B problems. It is totally worth the money in my view.

For any white areas like if your ceilings are white I think you could get away with Johnstone's no probs.

Our place was done in Johnson's copied F&B and you'll never know the difference. I refused to have real f&b, it's way too poncey! ;-)

F&B is just clever branding, nowadays most paints are equal!

I discovered LG when I painted the bedroom. I thought paint was just paint, but this has a depth of pigment and it subtly changes colour in different lights.

The main effort or expense is the labour, so I'd rather pay a bit extra for the paint and have lovely stuff.

Dammit, now I've browsed Little Greene paint and LOVE the colours.

Our kitchen is LG Blue Verditer with Linen White cupboards and I love it!