Best for paint colour matches?

[egdehsdrawkcab]

So I've FINALLY decided on a few F&B colours for the new house.... but I can't afford F&B throughout, and I'd like them a bit harder wearing.

So far I've seen Johnstones and Valspar that I think do colour matching? Do Dulux? Anyone had a good replica and been really happy with the paint quality? Best quality I've found so far is Fired Earth but can't afford that either!!

Go to local Dulux trade centre with a tester painted on paper or colour swatch and ask them to match it. The chap at counter at my local one is better than the matching machine they have
All I would say is paints on tester cards is v diff from what it looks like on wall ime so - buy your pricey paints in testers, paint them on something and go and see a trade counter
Diamond trade stuff is v v good

If you really like the farrow and ball colours then buy the colour ones from F&B and get your off whites etc mixed by dulux.
IMHO the F&B paint cannot be replicated. The pigments they use make their colours superior so you cannot get an identical match using a different, cheaper brand. The F&B paints change colour as the light changes during the day and they have a colour quality you don’t get in other paints.
I have used F&B for years - and I have a ‘friend’ ( we all have/have had/will have one) who plays ‘ keeping up with the Jones’ with any of her friends who get something new. She reckons her whole house is decorated in F&B but it’s patently obvious thecolours are from a different range. I buy them because I adore the colours and I like painting with them, not because it’s a status symbol.
If you like the F&B colours then get them gradually but it’s no use looking up colours on an F&B colour chart and then trying to get them copied as I guarantee they will NOT look the same once they are up on your walls. Plus the F&B paint goes further than you might think. I have just done 4 bathrooms with a large tin of borrowed light and a smaller tin of Parma grey.
At the end of the day you do only get what you pay for and if you want the F&B then get it. Just do it gradually.

I've used F&B before but actually don't like finish. Find it flakes and isn't wipeable. Anyway, I'll head for the Dulux trade Centre then. I have a Johnstones nearby but not sure about the quality.

This website is really useful, I have used it before as I couldn't afford F&B. You just enter the brand and colour you like, it will tell you the closest colour matches from other brands. If there is a dulux suggestion, you can always then just get a tester pot and try it out.

www.e-paint.co.uk/Colour_alternatives.asp

Valspar colour matches have always been brilliant for us. No you don’t get the f&b texture but you do get the benefit of it not to mark if you so match as glance at it and it’s wipeable and much much nicer to apply

In our current house (painted before we moved in) there’s a dulux colour match of skimming stone and it’s not a very good likeness at all imo

Johnstone's very good, Valspar rubbish, Dulux average.

We have Johnstone’s matches of lots of the F&B colours that the previous owners of our house put up. I haven’t been impressed with them, as they wash off if you try to remove marks. In one of the rooms, we have recently painted over with the same colour match but Crown Trade Clean Extreme mixed by Brewers instead of Johnstone’s, and we’re really pleased with it - it’s easy to paint with, not too expensive and is scrubable.

We also have some “proper” F&B walls. Whilst I like the colours, I have found that the estate emulsion marks too easily with children, and the modern emulsion is too shiny in dark colours and shows all of the faults in the plaster in our house - although it maybe would be okay in a newer house.

Great, thanks! I'll get a Dulux and a Johnstones (slipper satin match) for most of the house, and try both vs an original!

Thanks very much, I'll report back!

We got F&B mixed by our decorator with Johnstons trade paint and they fixed in their durable matt. The colour is perfect and it's cleanable! We were going to pay for F&B but the decorator said it was awful to work with. This way was cheaper so we didn't put up too much of a fight! However, we will be doing a dark sitting room and want the proper F&B 'look' and all the nuances of the colour which no one can match so will insist on the real deal.

*mixed in !