Farrow and Ball paint

[Medievalist]

Am about to embark on some interior decorating. Can anyone tell me if Farrow and Ball paint is worth the cost (£67 a tin in my local B&Q 😱). It's an old house - small windows so the walls aren't bathed in natural light. They've also got quite an uneven finish in places which suits the character of the house. Not looking for perfection but happy to pay the extra if it's really that much better than dulux/crown?

It is to be honest and It's lovely to paint with. Johnston's colour match F&B but the finish is different -- due to the pigments and additives. A few other options you could check out ... Little Greene is lovely and great for older properties. Coat and Lick are very nice. Craig & Rose is good but marks easily.

F and B has a lovely finish. Great for old houses with wobbly walls.
Also Edward Bulmer is beautifully matt with stunning colours.
I also really recommed Earthborn clay paint for an old house. It is super matt, wears well and really lets the walls breathe.

We used the b&q valspar v700 which is a better quality paint than farrow and ball. They will colour match farrow and ball paint.

The decorators forum has lots of good information on paint

I just used my first tin (well I’ve used it before once but only on a small area so bought a few tester pots). It went on amazingly, the tester was opaque after one coat whereas the ones next to in (Homebase, crown, dulux) were patchy. I am annoyed I bought double the amount I needed by accident (£57!!) but it’s the playroom so will no doubt need touch ups.

Our decorator refuses to use f&b paint.

So I'd aways colour match. get it matched at a dulux place in trade paint, you won't regret jt. Dulux trade covers so well!!

He said with F&b you can't do touch ups without painting the entire wall. It stands out a mile.

It is a different type of paint and truthfully i dont prefer it.
F&B often needs 3 coats and marks due to paint type.
(Think if you had enjoyed a croissant for breakfast then absently mindedly touch the wall lightly while admiring your handiwork leaving a permant mark that would still annoy you teo years later)

We used johnsons or leyland colour match for the remaining rooms and honestly for the maintanance and price i couldnt be bothered with F&B again. And we are the fussy types who have 9 colour samples and view them in different lights.

F&B colours look lovely but it's a nightmare. As above, you can't do touch ups. Little Greene goes on well and the colours are lovely. Was originally recommended LG by a top quality decorator.

We tried to Dulux colour match an F and B colour (due to delivery times) and it came out really different so we are waiting for our F and B.

Yes our Homebase refuse to colour match F&B.

We used to touch up our kitchen where the dogs slept every couple of months and it looked fine!

Most of my house is F&B - mainly due to the colours more than anything else. There’s something about the way they look tonally different in different lights. I always fine crown or sulus look flat in comparison. If you have a very old house though with lime walls I would opt for the distemper for breathability

@eurochick i found the dulux colour match service absolutely dire.
I go to a specialist johnstones paint shop where they know the colour formulas (rather thsn using that crappy colour gun). They told me they can only do good colour matches on certain ones and dont do the full range

@MydogWilloTheWispEvilEdna

F&B colours look lovely but it's a nightmare. As above, you can't do touch ups. Little Greene goes on well and the colours are lovely. Was originally recommended LG by a top quality decorator.

I agree with this. Little Greene are amazing. The quality is lovely and it doesn't seem to smell at all.

I also really rate the Wilko paint for quality but the colours aren't quite as lovely as LG.

I was shocked at how poor F&B was the one time I used it.

We used it through out and let people know at quoting stage we would be

Really nice finish and overall look

The thing is I'm really not worried about colour. It's a dark property so will stick with the previous owners' colour scheme of pale pinks or various shades of cream. I'm not bothered about colour matching at all but was interested to know if FB had some magic quality to justify the extra cost.

It does need to be breathable paint as the walls are 250-300 years old, but then a builder did tell me that most paints are breathable these days.

I really want to do the decorating myself but am keen to get it right!

We used to find that F&B held its colour well and touching up was easy.

More recently, I've found their water-based gloss to be bloody terrible.

It’s a good quality product and well suited to old buildings due to its breathability and natural pigments

If you’re not particularly fussed about the depth of colour and mattness of finish then you can get an equally nice effect with any other paint.

It is a bit about the name but it is a good product

Also I hear people saying that it can’t be touched up. This isn’t true in my experience. I’ve touched up loads and it’s never been a problem.

Yes, their gloss / eggshell isn’t the best - go for little Greene for that. Their oil eggshell is AMAZING, though messy, smelly and takes ages to dry. Once it does it’s indestructible

My husband is a painter and decorator and he always recommends Dulux for everything.

There's a special range of colours called Dulux Heritage, which might interest you.

www.duluxdecoratorcentre.co.uk/heritage?gclid=CjwKCAjw2vOLBhBPEiwAjEeK9vQBSbnvhhtrMNzJWZ6sVOm9Q89Rp-LpB0ovgKXPziMsOzXh33s0vRoCD4IQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

My entire house is F&B. The paint is shit - it marks if you breathe on it - but the colours are the best by a million miles. If you’re not bothered by colour you’ll be wasting your money.

I’m not a paint snob but I’m a colour obsessive. Some of Dulux’s best colours are fab too, especially if you go for the flat matt emulsion which mimics the same velvet finish of posh paints. Egyptian Cotton and Natural Calico are as subtle as anything from Edward Bulmer.

We used F&B in our kitchen and living room and it's great. High traffic area so there are a couple of marks by the door, but it's been there 4 years. We have 2 kids. We used dulux in the loft room this summer, it marked immediately. So I would pick F&B over dulux. Did the same number of coats for both paints. I know it is more expensive, but I would spend more on clothes that I barely wear, yet you see your walls everyday...

We used the modern emulsion version in areas like stairs and kitchen

F&B do two different paint finishes. We have the modern one in our hallway and it doesn’t mark. The estate emulsion is easily scuffed.

I hate F&B paint, definitely not worth the money.

Little Greene paint every time for me. Yes, it’s expensive, but it’s worth it. The colours are great and the depth of pigmentation is good.

Their interior oil eggshell is fantastic. Their Tom’s Oil eggshell is bombproof! They market it as for outside use, but I use it for my kitchen cabinets plus all doors/skirting boards etc.

@Medievalist

The thing is I'm really not worried about colour. It's a dark property so will stick with the previous owners' colour scheme of pale pinks or various shades of cream. I'm not bothered about colour matching at all but was interested to know if FB had some magic quality to justify the extra cost.

It does need to be breathable paint as the walls are 250-300 years old, but then a builder did tell me that most paints are breathable these days.

I really want to do the decorating myself but am keen to get it right!

cornishlime.co.uk/articles/breathable-paints-explained/

Most paints aren’t actually truly breathable.

Do one room in each and see if it matters to you.

I say that because I did my whole previous house in dulux then did one wall in F&B because the colour match was off.

The difference was night and day. Then I had to repaint the whole bloody house again.

Its not just the texture, or mattness, or colours thats different. Its a combination that you can only really see when you do two rooms. 'Soft' is how I can best describe it. It softly changes colour through the day, it softly throws light and picks it up. Its just lovely IMO.