F&B modern emulsion and Little Greene intelligent Matt

[Onvacation]

I have just painted one room in f&b absolute matt in oval room blue and love the finish. I opted for the more practical modern emulsion in Hague blue in my office, and I can’t get over how shiny it is! The wall isn’t paper lined and you can see every blemish.

I have two questions - first, can I paint absolute matt (or whatever it is called in f&b) over the top of modern emulsion?

And, is little green intelligent matt emulsion less shiny? I need to do my hall and living room and need durable, but I don’t want such a high sheen! I have used delux diamond matt before and it isn’t as wipeable as I had hoped it would be!

It is shiny isn't it! But I do think that fades a bit with time. I painted our living room in estate emulsion but it's marking so badly, covered in children's handprints, so I'm going to have to paint over in modern. If I had the energy I'd repaint the whole thing in a different brand but I don't!

I haven't used little Greene's intelligent Matt but the absolute Matt is more wipeable that F&Bs estate emulsion. I've got it in the playroom and have been able to clean up light marks. Maybe not suitable for a hallway but would be ok for a living room I think.

Oh, that is really useful information!! The only problem is that I prefer the f&b colours. I was wondering about colour matching with something like Johnson’s. I was really surprised at the incredible sheen on f&b. It is a very dark colour in a south facing room, which may make it worse, but it is like 80’s kitchen and bathroom!!

I used f&b modern estate in my living room. Ugh hated the shine but didn’t have the energy to repaint the whole room again.

Used Johnstons colour matched to f&b in hall, bedrooms and bathrooms. Whilst it doesn’t have the exactly the same chalky finish as estate but it’s so easy to clean up marks without half the paint coming off. The colours still look lovely though.

Craig and rose have beautiful colours too but steer clear unless you have a pristine house and never get marks on the walls!

We have both and the LG is definitely less shiny. I was quite shocked at how shiny the F&B was in a dark colour, and that I could see blemishes I’d never noticed previously, which is why I used the LG after that. We have the LG in Hicks Blue painted up our stairway wall, with no bannister, so it’s constantly being touched but still looks like new 2-3 years after painting, even with two young DC.

@ALittleBitOfThisAndThat is that the little Greene normal or intelligent emulsion?

That’s the LG intelligent emulsion, I haven’t tried their other one. Decorators seem to really like using it too.

Or is it intelligent Matt, I can’t remember but it’s their hard wearing one.

LG intelligent matt here too, far, far superior to F&B.

Another vote for LG. intelligent matt.
So much better than F&B in my opinion - it has a lovely non drip creamier application - better coverage and nicer (brighter) colours too.

We also prefer the F&B colours over LG. We have painted the kitchen in F&B modern emulsion in Pavilion Grey and it doesn't look too shiny. We use estate emulsion in the other rooms. I agree with a PP regarding Craig and Rose, we have this in the bathroom, it's a nightmare, but such a lovely colour that we have accepted that it is going to need repainting regularly.

I think that the shine is made worse by the colour and the size of the room. I tried colour matching with dulux but that was a total waste of money because the colour is way too colourful (it was matched from the colour card). So I ended up buying the f&b estate. So much better. I am now a bit too anxious to use the modern emulsion again so I am going to use LG. If they sold tester pots of modern I would try it but it is an expensive experiment to buy it first.