Cost of painting room with Farrow and Ball vs Johnstone's/ Dulux

[morningporridge]

Trying to weigh up the cost impact of using Farrow and Ball vs a cheaper option like Johnstone's or Dulux. It's hard to work out the quantities etc so wondering if anyone can give be a rough idea of difference per room (say about 4m by 4m). We're painting almost the whole house so don't want a nasty surprise with all the extra cost adding up!

If you work out the square footage you need to paint, then you can see how many tins of each you'd need (on the tins of paint it will give you a coverage area either in m2 or ft2) that will give you your price difference

According to their websites, F&B modern emulsion covers 60m2/5 litres = 12m2/litre, and Dulux Matt covers up to 14m2/litre, so fairly similar. 5 litres of Farrow and Ball cost £84, 10 litres of Dulux cost £55, so F&B will cost roughly 3 times more for the same amount of paint.

You would be mad to use F and B. Dulux paint is much better quality and the coverage is amazing. I’ve decorated 4 houses now and would only ever use Dulux.

Obviously this is very rough calculations, depends on how many colours, sizes of tins you get etc. These prices are from the manufacturer’s website, you can often find paint (including F&B) on offer, Dulux is currently 3 for 2 at Homebase.

I've recently decorated pretty much my whole house and got decorators to do it so the paint was included in their quote but just to say they used johnstones colour matched to f&b colours which I know saved a lot of cash

We recently had to have our whole 3 story hallway repainted after using F&B. It was awful, literally marked if you breathed on it. The decorator had warned DH but he thought F&B would be better quality because it was more expensive! Lesson learned.

Most places will colour match a F&B colour and fit that you'll get it cheaper and more hard wearing!

I recommend Johnstones Trade. They can mix virtually any colour.

It’s not only how many sq m it covers, but how many coats you’ll need.

I’ve just painted the kitchen using matt and only needed 1 coat. Though I’ve used aqua guard for the trim and it needs 2 coats. I don’t slap on a thick coat though. Would rather do thin coats as you get a better finish.

If you’re using the same colour everywhere you can get huge 10l tubs which can be mixed to any colour and works out cheaper.

Used F&B years ago because we could only find the chalky, flat finish in our chosen colour from F&B. Redecorated during lockdown and used Dulux Heritage Range, after doing a colour match with F&B (available online - it’s great). Can honestly say I will never go back to F&B! Our Dulux paint is equal in quality, with a lovely flat chalky finish. Also considerably cheaper!

I know many people who have had Jonstones colour matched to F&B. It seems to be a good option.