Farrow and Ball - rubbish or not?

[ovariantryst]

Okay, I realise I am about to offend half of Mumsnet, but I have spent an entire morning having my ear bent by a professional decorator and I need a second opinion?

According to him and his previous experience, Farrow and Ball is a pile of poo, does not wipe clean as it should (have just seen thread here that suggests this is true) , doesn't go on well, and doesn't last long without bubbling in the Westcountry sun (not that I've seen it much recently, mind?).

So - do you agree? What should I use instead? Someone recommended Dulux but I'm concerned the pigments aren't as rich as F&B.

Is Fired Earth any better? Anything else I need to know?? It's for an 1820s house, if that has any bearing at all on anything.

We are repainting a room in F&B now. The coverage is terrible. Which wouldn't be so bad except we are painting it the exact same colour that it already is
Will not buy it again (ignores fact has 6 tins already bought to paint living room in near future)

For me the problem is about matt paint. Flat matt paint looks lovely. It is rubbish for wiping down. Stains easily, hard to clean. We have expensive heritage matt paint in our kitchen. What a mistake!

Same with egg shell. Looks lovely but not very cleanable.

Shiny paint cleans much better but not great looking. I aim to get Dulux Endurance next which is matt but washable apparently.

Logoonablue, I thought the same with the 'matt looks lovely but you can't live with it' but found Mylands is super matt and you can have a go at it with a cloth and Jif without it going shiny or marking or cursing the dog/cat/dc. I'm also a fan of Little Greene but it's Mylands for downstairs rooms for me.

our last period house we used F+B lovely colours but not too good at cleaning. current house with 2 kids - laura Ashley in living room - does not wipe down well at all and will need to change brand when we paint next. Dulux in hall and kitchen - can easily wipe off the line of grubby finger marks.

We have a small wall in our cloakroom toilet painted in Fired Earth. It doesn't get used much, but in the interests or research, I have just tested whether it wipes well, and I was surprised it did. Greasy fingerprint and pen both went. It is a darker blue colour though so not sure about whites/creams. They do a great range of paint colours.

Have just had house painted in Farrow and Ball
The colours are lovely- India yellow, hound lemon So glad I was more adventurous. Also Fired Earth Rosebay.Never beige again House feels warm and cosy!

Should add that the period colours do not wipe Have found out to my cost but Fired Earth eggshell and f and b modern emulsion have been fine in kitchen and bathroom For the rest it is a trade off between gorgeous matte colour and wipe ability. Colour won for me but don't have any little fingers about the place.

Hellefrog...would you be able to give me some ideas about the India yellow
Thinking of using it in lounge,would love to know how it turned out...

Colours look lovely in old houses and it is much nicer to paint with IMHO (might depend on the type of walls) than cheaper paints BUT it scratches and marks really easily and it is a bugger to clean.

Used it everywhere in our last house and regretted deeply when we were trying to keep everything pristine for selling. Not going to use it in our new house. Might get some of the colours matched though.

We have used F and B for at least 20 years and love it. We used to live near the factory and buy it from the factory shop near Wimborne. We find the pigmentation and coverage excellent. We don't have sticky fingers anymore, but we just touch up marks, rather than trying to wipe. In the UK we used to buy the darker colours, but here in France we have an ancient stone house with beams everywhere so we use an off-white shade. We forgot to buy it last time we were in the UK so had to buy a tin here, which was eye-wateringly expensive, but worth it.
If you have ever used French paint you will know just how rubbish paint can be.
I just don't understand people saying they have to put lots of coats on. We have only ever needed one, even with dark colours.

We have used three decorators over the years. All hated F&B. Little Greene are used by John Lewis and are better. However Dulux is loved by all the workmen and I havent had an issue with the paint quality tbh.

If you really want a F&B colour get their chart and get your decorator to colur match it.

Its funny - so many people think little of F&B including the decorating profession - yet they are still going. There is actually a F&B shop near where I live, never been in but someone must be buying it!

Decorators don't like farrow and ball because they don't get any discount so there is no advantage unlike other suppliers where they can and then not pass the discount on to you.

I read this thread a few months ago as my designer wanted F&B and my decorator wanted Dulux. In the end we 'winged it' and went with F&B modern emulsion and I can honestly say it looks better and so far has proved more wipeable than the Dulux we have in other parts of the house. When I have wiped dulux with a damp cloth the paint has quite quickly wiped right through (light colour so luckily not too noticeable). So far I have spilt diffuser oil, cake batter and muddy 'dog shake' on the F&B and it has all wiped off easily with a damp cloth (oh plus a few sticky fingers).

My decorator go on ok with it - we compromised and used Dulux for the wood work.

The colour really does look lovely - loads of people have commented on it. I never 'got' the F&B thing and certainly never thought I would be extolling its virtues!

F&B is overpriced I think. You're buying just the colour I think, colours that are associated with posh houses. Johnson's and Dulux is better.

Decorators certainly do receive discounts on all paints regardless of the name on the tin! My decorator Harry matches Farrow & Ball colour requests using Little Greene or Mylands. I've asked him to do the same for our hallway and have no complaints at all.

I had a Johnstone's paint (scrubbable matt) mixed for me using the F&B colours. It is pretty damn close (Clunch!) and I am thrilled with it.
The same paint in a different colour has been on our living room walls for two years and looks as good as new. £36 for 5 litre tin.

I'm not a fan of Farrow and Ball. Fired Earth absolutely stinks both when you're putting it on and for weeks after. It's a shame because it's a great paint with lovely colours.

I have done a lot of decorating (in period hosues) over the years and have found Crown to be my favourite. It's Timeless Classic range has good coverage and has just as flat an appearance as F & B.

I have just used dulux, little greene and F&B this week.

F&B was very watery and as a result I had to give 3 layers. So expensive, time consuming and used lots of tins. So frustrating yo paint with when I had other things to get in with.

Dulux took 2 coats and although the colour quality isn't as nice as F&B, it was cheap and less time consuming.

Little greene was the best. Yes the paint is expensive but we only needed 1 coat!! Therefore it was quite economic considering. The colours are stunning also

Got halfway through this thread. We are decorating. All I can think of is the cute little handprints all over the house from preschoolers sent to wash their hands after painting. Dulux until they are older it is then!

We have recently updated our bathroom and decided (after a friends recommendation) to choose a F&B colour for the walls. Applying the modern emulsion (Purbeck Stone No 275) was straightforward. This was on recently plastered walls, so I used a 50/50 Dulux white emulsion to seal the plaster followed by 2 coats of F&B. The result was superb. A very even colour with a great depth that I haven't experienced with Dulux. Its been on the walls for only 6 weeks so time will tell re durability.

The experience of the estate eggshell for the door and frame wasn't so good. I made the mistake of applying with a brush which didn't give an even coverage, so for final coat used a 4" mohair roller - much better. However the F&B eggshell has only the slightest sheen (compared to Dulux Satinwood) and it doesn't look 'finished'. In the end we changed the door furniture from Satin to Chrome and that was a better contrast. It may be that had I rollered the primer / undercoat and both coats of eggshell the result would have been much better?

I was talking pish upthread - it's Dulux timeless classics I use. I started doing our hall that I put off for 4 years because of this thread. I curse you all.

But your decorator Harry isn't supplying you with Farrow and Ball he is giving you another product he has got colour matched at trade price. But did you reap the benefit of the trade discount??? Bet Harry did.

The only way to get trade discount on Farrow and Ball is to be a trade book holder, which means buying all of the wallpaper books. Currently this costs around £475 + VAT, so you have to sell a hell of a lot of paint to get that back in margin (which is tiny on paint). I'm an F&B trade book holder.

Farrow and Ball stockists are not allowed to give trade discount to anybody, trade or not. If a decorator gets a copy made up in Dulux they will get discount on that. If an F&B stockist is also a Dulux stockist and is caught making up F&B copies in Dulux, F&B are very unhappy with them.

Farrow & Ball is great paint. It costs more but you get what you pay for. oisinbutler.ie/farrow-ball-paint-kitchen-units/

F&B is awful paint. Little greene is far far superior from experience.