Is Farrow & Ball paint tough enough for kitchen cupboards?

[80sMum]

I am thinking of painting our tired old wooden kitchen. Not sure which paint to use. Someone has suggested F&B eggshell.
Has anyone any experience of using it to paint kitchen cupboards? Is it hard wearing? Does it resist chipping and knocks, is it washable etc?
I don't want to spend ages painting it all if it won't last. Chipped and bashed up paintwork would look worse than the old wood!
Anyone out there who has painted their kitchen got any pearls of wisdom to pass on?

Our kitchen supplier said they'd stopped using F&B because it wasn't hard wearing enough. Our own previous experience had been that it was indestructible, but apparently the formulation had changed with new regulations. They recommended Valti, which was awful. It stained just with cleaning overspray, and chipped very easily. We also found that it look fabulous when one painter did it, and when a different painter did it, it looked dreadful - full of brush marks and drips.

I have heard good things about Little Greene, but have no experience. Maybe if you search on here you'll come across a thread I'm sure I saw, debating their relative merits. Might have been a couple of years ago though.

Thanks for the feedback.

everlong what a good idea to simply match the F&B colour with a different brand! Simple - but it hadn't occurred to me!

I find eggshell on doors holds fingermarks and won't come clean. I wouldn't use it again and prefer satinwood.

NO!

Its not hard wearing at all. We inherited quite an old fashioned oak kitchen when we moved into this house, couldn't afford to do very much too it, so painted it with F&B Eggshell. I understand (now) that it isn't oil based which means its not hard wearing. I followed all the advice - prep, undercoat, 2 coats etc and it still chipped and scratched within weeks. The cupboard doors have little ridges within them and any level of forceful scrubbing brings the paint off too. I'm forever touching up the paint to keep it looking ok.

I think the upmarket kitchen suppliers who paint with F&B either match it, or else add something to the formula / apply a top coat / I don't know but its something different (imo) than the F&B available on the high street.

I would the F&B colour matched in an oil-based eggshell.

On the advice of a professional kitchen painter I recently used Little Greene oil based eggshell. I didn't choose a light colour so finger marks wouldn't show easily anyway. I tintedte undercoat and did 2 top coats. Make sure you allow enough drying time between each coat as this makes a big difference to durability.

Plain English use F&B on their cupboard doors

I don't know if they put something extra over the paint, I could ask though

Thanks. I will check out Little Greene too then. Never heard of them before.

I always used to use Dulux oil-based gloss or satinwood for woodwork (but I've never painted a kitchen before) but having not done any decorating for several years, I had a terrible experience with Dulux white gloss in 2011 that put me off that brand! Maybe they've got their act together since then? I think it all went horribly wrong when all the formulations changed with the new regulations for VOCs. Presumably F&B suffered the same fate as Dulux and can't legally make their hard-wearing paint any more?

I painted some skirtings and door frames last summer with Sikkens Satura water-based satin white (to re-do all the horrible Dulux from 2011!). It looks OK. At least it has stayed white! But I haven't had it long enough to test how durable it is - and it only comes in white and I was hoping for an off-white like F&B's "Dimity" for the kitchen.

We have a painted kitchen in oil eggshell by Little Green which was put in 9 months ago. It is in shirting which is off white so quite often made messy by 2 kids. So far, no chips and when there are mucky fingers it seems to wipe off with a damp cloth. It seems to mark more with metal (prob because it is almost white) but this usually comes off with a bit of cif. HTH.

the early versions of low VOC oil-based whites tended to yellow unless they saw sunlight which helped bleach them. It is said that the formulae have been improved to reduce yellowing.

water-based white doesn't yellow, though IMO it is not so glossy or durable.

We colour matched a farrow and ball colour and used Dulux satinwood and that's been good so far in terms of wiping down and avoiding chips.

We have F&B dimity eggshell in our utility room. You only have to look at it the wrong way and it scratches and chips. Big 'no' from me!

Colour match in Johnstone's oil based eggshell. Tough and beautiful finish.