Farrow & Ball decorating feedback thread - find out how the MNers get on with their paint and at the colour talk - non testers: chance to win paint! NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

This is the thread for the lucky MNers and bloggers who attended an event at a Farrow & Ball showroom to find out all about colour in the home and who have then been sent paint and product from Farrow & Ball to decorate a room at home.

Non testers - for a chance to win 10 litres of either Modern Emulsion or Estate Emulsion paint from Farrow & Ball (colour of your choosing) please share on this thread the room in your house you'd most like to decorate - what colour scheme you'd use and why you want to decorate it. Add your comment to this thread by Monday 26th January and you'll be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win 10 litres of either Modern Emulsion or Estate Emulsion paint from Farrow & Ball (worth up to c£144, depending on what's chosen).

At the event there was a special inspirational colour talk from their International Colour Consultant Joa Studholme - she also gave MNers and bloggers advice on schemes and colours.

Participants - please answer the following questions.

At the event:
a) How informative/inspirational did you find the initial colour talk with Joa and the rest of the F&B team?
b) Please share the most interesting piece of colour advice or decorating tip you learnt on the day?
c) What did you find the most interesting aspect of our colour talk?
d) How do you think we could improve our colour talk event? (Please consider the venue, refreshments, structure etc?)

Now on the colour advice / selecting a colour scheme
a) Where do you normally go to find inspiration when deciding on a colour scheme for your chosen room/s? (Please think about Farrow & Ball websites, social media, magazines, websites showroom staff etc?)
b) Which source do you normally find the most inspirational and which is no good! Would you like more places to get inspiration and what form would they take?

F&B products
Which room(s) did you decorate?
a) Please describe your experience of using Farrow & Ball paints to decorate your room from first opening the tin, to completing the project and seeing the results?
~ think about ease of application, product quality, depth of colour and finish etc...
b) After your experience would you consider using Farrow & Ball paint in your home again? If so, why? If not, why not?
c) Now that you?ve used Farrow & Ball paint, how likely would you be to recommend it to a friend? And why?

Any other comments?

Please do also share your photos on this thread!

Thanks
MNHQ
UPDATE:
Video all edited and beautiful here:

AND amazing comp here

I would like to paint my South facing living room grey.
The whole house needs painting but this room is my favourite because it feels like a sanctuary from the world which I feel in need of right now!

Non tester here. I would love to paint my North-easterly facing bedroom which hasn't been painted for many years. I am terrible with choosing and matching colours so the photos are really helpful. I wish there was a summary of the advice that was given regarding colours which go together. I think I would like a colour which is neutral and calm and I love the names of the colours.

I'm one of the lucky original testers... although very late in updating because I changed my mind after getting the paint! My original dining room was grey, drab and boring (the before pics are actually flattering - it was really bad).

I picked Oval Room Blue but I loved the dark undercoat so much that I ran out to buy Stiffkey Blue instead. It's always been one of my favourites (navy fanatic) but I wasn't brave enough before. It was my first time ever painting a room by myself (DH refused since he'd painted it the grey at my request around 3 months earlier). I thought it would be a nightmare going from light to dark but 2 coats of the undercoat (once I'd had the tip about up and down rather than side to side) and it was done - and looked brilliant. I love how F&B colours change depending on the light - it's dramatic (for me) but calming. And looks great in the day or at night.

I loved the paint but found the roller exhausting - it was really heavy so not great for stretching on a ladder. On my second coat of the paint I changed to a paint pad and got on much better.

Now deciding on whether kitchen or spare bedroom will be Oval Room Blue....

I love the Stiffkey blue images - I tried it out in a small room at our old house but it was too overwhelming, I plan to try again in the new house!

non-tester. I really want to re-do my bedroom as I picked completely the wrong grey
I'd like to use calluna and brassica, but I think calluna is discontinued.
DD1 wants her room done in arsenic, but I think that would drive me to despair! (we do not live in a grand georgian villa!)

Otherwise, my kitchen really needs painting, but the colour scheme would be a real challenge- there are 5 different varieties of 'wood' ahem plastic faux wood in there- it's a complete dog's dinner of a room, and I'd love to be able to swoosh it all away, preferably with something scandi-feeling.

Ooh- scanaldo- yours looks lovely!

I'm an original tester, running very behind. But I'm starting painting my hall and stairs today. We've had to pull down a wall, strip floorboards and replace some floorboards in order to get to this stage- not very easy for 2 very amateur and unskilled decorators. Sorry MN, Alvin told me it was ok to do it in January.

Anyway, I've also got some days off in the week to finish this so hopefully will have the pics up soon!

*non tester - I would love some help with my stairs passage and landing!
I always seem to put this part of the house off till it really needs doing as it's such a high traffic area , there's always bikes and buggies in and out not to mention muddy footy boots and wet wellys!

**non tester and would love to do our bedroom, we've never got to it in over 5 years of living here, everything else took priority. the carpet is pale chocolate/ reindeer grey brown, curtains cream/black/silver so no clue what to paint - probably a cream, with a grey feature wall?

We really want to decorate our hallway and stairs. We are looking at a pale grey colour scheme, not sure about the woodwork colour. We really want to decorate it as it look very worn and tired and dark due to lots of dark woodwork.

Non-tester here. I'd really like to paint our L-shaped living room. It's currently magnolia with a 'serviceable' neutral carpet, as we inherited it from previous owners. I lack imagination with colour schemes but I think I would like grey. It really needs to look fresher.

I would love to decorate my drab hall next. I am undecided on colour but love oranges paired with more neutral colours. The standard magnolia paint is so boring & it needs brightening up!

Inspired by this thread, today I repainted the tiles an off-white (I know it's considered a crime, but retiling not on the cards atm). More excitingly, I rescued a sweet little wooden chair off the street and am going to paint it orange (F&B Charlotte's locks) and grey, to bring in more colour and reinforce the retro country thing I seem to have going on.

So, with Pavilion grey walls, can any of the testers advise about this white skirting boards/woodwork thing - I was assuming just plain old white, but would it be better to go with Strong White or similar?

And here are the after shots from CheeseEMouse. She says "Admittedly the difference is subtle but so so much nicer! "

Non tester here.
We're moving soon and I'd love to decorate DD's room. She's almost two and we've been in a one bedroom flat until now so I'd like to make her first bedroom really lovely! She loves being outdoors so I plan to bring the outside in, using green and blue.

Non tester.

Would love to do a beautiful new room for my two year old daughter - she is sharing its her big brother at the moment but would love her own space. Having some gorgeous paint would spur me on to sorting out the glory joke into her very own space.

She would love a pale pink, maybe Middleton pink, but I would tone it down with a soft gray, maybe elephants breath or purbeck stone....

NON TESTER - Ive used F&B for most of the house that Ive decorated so far - even found a roll of bee wallpaper on ebay which was enough to do the downstairs loo - tho looks a little like flies?? )

I would love to do the kitchen though - we never decided on a colour and its looking decidedly shabby, with various patches in different colours and some rather nasty stains left from previous owners.

oops I forgot the colour - probably a green to complement the wooden fittings, nothing too bright though, and nothing too dark. would be nice to choose a colour rather than try to fit some ebay finds to different rooms!!

Non-tester

Well, we've just moved into a house with beige carpet and white walls throughout, so choosing just one room to decorate is hard as none have any personality at the moment.

I think however, we would decorate DD's room if we won the paint. We're expecting DC2 in June so would like to make the room a bit more colourful (colours a bit dependent on DC2 gender, as yet unknown!). It's also the room that's most finished with furniture so we know more about what we're doing in there. However I have no idea how F&B paint holds up to a baby/toddler and 5+yo, it would certainly be a good test :)

DD would want a pink colour scheme but I think we'd go with some sort of fern/grey-green colour (with girly bunting over her high bed) to coordinate with her Ikea furniture and also it would work well if DC is a boy! If DC is a girl then we might well go a bit more pink. I think DD would enjoying choosing the paint and having her room properly finished before the new baby arrives and it'll make it a bit more 'their' room.

Non tester
would love to decorate my bedroom it really needs new paint and a fresh look ,somewhere that i can relax in. Would like to chose new colour scheme and freshen it all up.

Non tester
I would love to decorate for ds1 and ds2 they share the smallest room which we are about to extend into the loft with a mezzanine bit.
I like the brightness of wevet for the roof/ceiling to bounce the limited light off. Dorset cream would be lovely and beechy for the beach theme I was thinking of. I have used Farrow and Ball in two rooms so far and plan on doing three more with it I think its lovely paint to use.

Thanks to Ann for sorting out my technology failures and uploading my photos. In natural light our hallway is so much lighter and the colour, particularly on the wallpaper is a much calmer grey, rather than a sludgey green-grey. We are really pleased with the results and so far it has withstood our toddler triking (and crashing) as she makes her way up the hall

Tester here! We painted two walls in the our dining room and the stairs in lovely St Giles blue. (My review is earlier in this thread) Some before and after photos should hopefully be attached to this message!

non tester - I'd love to decorate my living room purely because it hasn't been decorated for over 12 years and since then 3 children have come along and put grimy fingers (and bogies!) all over the walls.

I'd stick to a neutral colour scheme so that it can tie in with existing furniture. I like the 'string' No 8 Farrow & Ball colour in particular.