farrow and ball handpainted kitchen

[isabelle45]

We are thinking of getting our current 14 year old kitchen painted by a professional kitchen painter ( does second nature showrooms etc) in farrow and ball - he uses 2 coat f+b primer and 2 top coats. Apparently if you dont use their own primer it make a huge difference. It is not bad for £750 - he says it is hard wearing but does anyone have any experience of having it done professionally?

I can see lots of really expensive hand painted kitchen in F+B - but can you wipe/scrub it without the paint coming off? We are getting quatrz work tops so I dont really want to have the change the units in a couple of years time.

Any advice/experience would be of help as the alternatives are changing the doors then plinth/cornice panels need changing or changing completely which a big expensive job.

Thanks in advance.

What is so special about Farrow and Ball paint? I read somewhere that F & B is the Apple of paints. It's more expensive than other paints and comes in a swanky tin, but isn't necessarily better than some of the other good brands.

I used Dulux Kitchen and bathroom in our kitchen several years ago and it is still going strong.

We used F&B when our kitchen was painted the first time, it was wipeable and looked good for several years. Recently we repainted to update colour and fancied a change. This time we used Little Greene. Lovely colours. Paint is better quality.

F&B has better colours. They don't do an oil eggshell product which is what you need for kitchen units. Their water-based eggshell chips, but if you want an aged/distressed finish that's okay.

Little Greene is better paint. Plain English use it for their painted kitchens, and they should know.

A painted kitchen should be sprayed in the workshop and then handpainted on site for max durability. The posh kitchen companies only touch up on site; only Plain English do a full hand paint.

I don't work for Plain English and their kitchens are approx 300% overpriced but if your house costs £2m+ you probably don't care.

My cupboards have been painted a few times over the years f&b ok but chipped & marked easily, little Greene was a little more durable the best by far has been, Mylands eggshell superb coverage & really smooth finish no marks/scratches & very easy to wipe over.

Not professionally painted but I'm not sure what a professional painter would do differently to me using same primer and paint. Yes finish (less brush strokes visible etc) might be better but surely durability of paint won't alter?

And having painted oak cabinets with f&b primer and paint, I wouldn't do it again. Not very hard wearing, marked and scratched very easily.

Watching with interest. We're in the process of renovating our kitchen (stone floor being laid this week) and the next
stage is to have the units painted. I'd chosen F&B Mizzle, but am off to look at Mylands in light of the comments above.

I have been decorating DD's room recently and did a lot of research into paint brands. The general consensus is that the trade versions of Crown and Dulux are better than the the ones aimed at your average DIYer. Farrow and Ball is rated as pretty average quality-wise.

I don't understand why there is so much snobbery associated with F and B, and agree with the Apple analogy.

I have just 'phoned my paint supplier to ask for advice about this, as I'm at the stage of ordering paint for our kitchen cupboards and want a specific F&B colour.

I get my paint from a trade shop where they will mix the F&B pigment into Johnson's trade paint, so my house is done in F&B colours mixed into scrubbable paint; F&B is not up to vigorous wiping/scrubbing IME.

They have recommended the F&B pigment mixed into Johnsons Eggshell oil-based, as it is very resilient.

They are not putting F&B pigments into your paint. Only F&B can do that. They are colour matching it for you.

Fozzy I have painted with all the well known & 'designer paint' over the years & really think Mylands is very hard to beat, its my favourite paint goes a lot further & covers really well, so works out a bit cheaper than the other expensive brands, also the emulsion paint has crushed marble in it, so very scrubable & durable.

Hi thanks for all the answers. It sounds like hand painted farrow and ball is not that durable. I am going for a light colour so it would need wiping a lot. I am wondering if tolivebythesea might had used the previous oil base F+B which apparently was a lot more durable.

I will look at mylands, but I might just get new doors from DIY kitchen painted in F+B colour as they said that when you wipe /scrub the paint wont come off as it spray painted and cured. Later on if needed it could be handpainted in the same colour if starts to chip etc as it would usually just be the doors that would chip not the cornice etc/panels etc.

I didn't realise that most places paint them first and then get them finished by hand.

Our kitchen is painted f&b, although done by me. Two primer layers and then two paint. I run a catering business from my house, with high turnover, and there isn't a single chip in it. I scrub the fronts most days.

However, a random person off the internet probably isn't the best way to make a decision. I just liked the colours, and couldn't be arsed thinking about it any more by that point.

I've decided to go for Mylands- I've found a colour which is equivalent to the F&B one I'd chosen.