Paint brand recommendations

[24HoursFromTulseHill]

We're planning to paint a few walls in our house this year - hallway, living room, bedroom, kitchen and ceilings throughout.

I've seen so many new paint brands appearing online - Lick, Coat amongst others. The last time I redecorated it was a choice between Dulux, Farrow & Ball and Valspar so I don't know much about these newer brands.

Which paint brands do you recommend? I want a matt finish but it has to be wipeable & durable as I have a 3 year old and I don't want to have to repaint any time soon.

Also, has anyone used a paint colour consultation service? Is it worth it or did you get colour advice you would have figured out yourself?

I'm not bothered about being able to wipe walls down per se, as we no longer have our mucky dogs 😪

For years our preference was Farrow and Ball, then about 15 years ago we discovered Little Greene which, imo, gives better coverage than F&B. Since our last move in 2024 we've tried Edward Bulmer which, again imo, is superior to both and their green credentials are impressive.

Currently we have a mix of those three brands. I've also heard good things about Mylands and the two you mentioned, but haven't tried them yet.

The decorator that was painting my flat said he'd only ever use Johnstone's and that they can colour match to any other brand. He said Farrow and Ball used to be a good quality paint years ago but not so much any more!

I love Coat and curiously enough am awaiting a delivery of samples from them arriving today. You get 3 stick and peel samples FOC and I’ve also ordered some of their sample packs. The paint is hard wearing and I love the colours.

I’ve just ordered a lot of samples looking for the tones I particularly wanted (after my builder recommended the finishes I needed for my bathroom). I sampled Farrow & Ball, Little Greene, Paint & Paper Library but ended up with Coat who had the tones I was looking for. I really love the finish and it’s very durable.

Dunelm own brand paint has been surprisingly really good, and very cheap compared to the others too. Not a huge colour range, but sometimes that makes choosing a little easier.

We are in the middle of painting our house, with some rooms using Dulux Heritage velvet matt paint and some using Little Greene absolute matt. Both seem great to paint with and have a lovely finish, with Little Greene being especially good.

We haven't yet painted the hall/landing/stairs or kitchen yet but (to save a little money) we are using Johnstone's Trade Acrylic Durable Matt there, colour matched to a Little Greene shade. I have heard this is a good scrubbable paint so hopefully it works well.

Edited to add - for ceilings, we have used Tikkurila Anti-Reflex 2 (on the basis of many glowing reviews). Incidentally, Tikkurila wall paint is meant to be really great - in our old place, a decorator used this to paint our kitchen cabinets and the finish was really lovely. I didn't use this brand (or coat etc) as I preferred the ease of popping to a local store to buy samples etc.

I didn't use a colour consultant but I bought a million sample pots and looked at images of the colours in other people's rooms (searching on Instagram, the paint company's website and the Facebook group about Little Greene paint).

I’ve just repainted the kitchen and needed something VERY durable. Used Dulux trade diamond Matt and it’s excellent lovely Matt finish and easy to clean. 100s of colours available and try using Dulux App it’s great for visualisation

Another vote for Coat paint. We've only ever needed 2 coats and it goes on lovely but more importantly wipes down easily

I’m a big fan of Johbstones trade, and brewers will colour match it to pretty much anything.. I don’t actually mind F&B modern emulsion, their colours ime dont always work with a colour match. Dulux heritage also good.

Some of the cheaper brands can be good for more utility work, Leyland primer, Albany emulsion.

Zinsser is also excellent for more specialised paints.

We did this, but unfortunately the samples were basically emulsion, and we wanted Eggshell but it turns out that the colour is similar but the finish is different...

I’ve always been a paint ponce but used Dunelm paint for a garden room and it’s v v good.

We know a professional se orator and he says the same!