Farrow & Ball French Gray

[daisie4]

Has anyone painted a room in F&B French Gray?

I have just painted our dining room in Stony Ground and really don't like it - its very pinky (probably due to stripped pine floor reflecting onto it). I was considering French Gray which is on the showroom wall and looks lovely, but my sample on a piece of lining paper looks really dark wherever I put it in the room- and its a really sunny room.

If you've used this colour could you let me know how you've found it?

THANK YOU!

I would probably go with 'dead mouse' actually.

Or 'old rope'

I could tell you that I'd used F&B French Gray and that I love it, but what if I just like dark rooms ... I don't really see how that helps you.

If the sample looks dark and dark isn't to your taste, then why don't you try painting some more sample pieces in similar but different tones of gray (or just another colour) to find something that works better in your room. Liking a colour on the chart is one thing, but it has to work with the room ... things like room size, size of windows, room direction, height of ceiling, colour of flooring, the remainder of the soft furnishings etc all have an impact.

Sorry, I was being facetious...I object to posh paint companies but I hope you do find the right colour and I bet it will look great once you do.

I don't mind dark, stony ground isn't pale, just looking for other people's experience as I really liked this colour in the showroom - the whole room is painted in it and it didn't look dark, so I was surprised the sample in my room did.

Thanks for you suggestions.

Thats okay FA, I have a complete aversion to Dulux Magnolia as it was the only colour my mum has ever used :)

I have this, but on my front door. It is more green than gray, whereas on the paint card it looks quite gray. When I tried the sample pot on a piece of paper I didn't like it at all and thought it looked khaki. I nearly didn't use it until the decorator actually put a stripe of it on the door and it looked lovely.

Just an aside, when I was recounting my tale to the lady in the paint shop she said that sometimes you will find the wrong colour in the sample pot.

I have it on the panelling in my bathroon with Dimity above and it looks really nice and not at all dark. Agree with poster who said it's more green than grey though.

I've got it, in daylight it is very greenish, could be described as greyish green or greenish grey and I wouldn't use it in a dining room tbh.

I have had a few samples (5 ) of grey from F&B and a couple of them are quite pink. There is a lot of pigment in them so if it looks pinkish then it probably is - i.e. not just a reflection from the floor.

Thanks for your comments, HB why wouldn't you use in a dining room?

I've used the eggshell to paint a chest of drawers and it is a really nice colour - not dark at all, I wonder if the colour is different in emulsion?

I have this awful feeling I'm going to end up with another room in shaded white

NOT dark
I had my gate and front door FG for a year and changed it to Lichen as a bit insipid

When we were growing up it was 'buttermilk' or 'mushroom'

The F&B colours are really nice. It's just the way they market them as worth that much dosh. They shouldn't be dear, chalk is cheap

we have FG on our patio doors - love it

We have it on tongue and groove in the kitchen. It is green. I like it very much.
It looks different at different times of day - sometimes darker, sometimes lighter, depending on the light.
In artificial light it looks darker than in daylight.

Daisie, I wouldn't use a greenish colour for a dining room as greens are meant to have a conscious or subconscious effect of putting people off their food . Heard this from the mouth of Sarah Beeney I think, but I reckon she knows what she's talking about. How many times do you go out to a restaurant that has a dark or green colour on the walls? They all tend to be light airy and spacious. But I'm happy to be proved wrong.

My sitting room was Pavilion gray, with woodwork in Manor House. I have a red Afghani rug on pine floorboards, some dark brown furniture - I hated it, nothing seemed to go. Now I've done the walls and the woodwork all in French Gray, and I love it, I find the soft green is very relaxing and it just seems to go with all the other stuff in the room. I can understand the person who said she wouldn't use it in a dining room though - don't think it would feel fresh enough. I've tried a tester of Stony Ground too, and it was too pinkish for me as well. As far as darkness, I'd say there isn't much difference - French Gray seems to me kind of the greenish version of the pinkish Stony Ground. I eat in the kitchen, which is Pointing with a door in Calke Green, another door in India Yellow, and the window and shutters in Lichen, which sounds mad, but I like it. BTW, I also love Shaded White!