Anyone had success painting walls F&B navy blue?

[PinkSquiffle]

Every fecking stroke shows... My navy wall is perpendicular to a huge window and even though I'm fast & consistent you can still see which way the paint was applied. Even F&B admitted it isn't suitable for all situations and they gave me the modern emulsion for free (the stuff with a slight glaze). But I don't like the eggshell look, I wanted totally flat velvetiness. & Don't get me started on getting the paint mixed elsewhere...it is NOT the same colour.

Which blue? I painted my dining room Stiffkey Blue and it came out well but I used estate emulsion and a roller...

The darkest one, Hague blue I think. I believe Stiffkey is lighter.

Definitely roller it on, you get a much better finish as an amateur. I find F&B very runny - I've had to put four coats on using a much lighter colour, you could well need more with a very deep navy.

Also use the F&B undercoat if you are changing colour tone significantly. I was putting Stiffkey over Radicchio so didn't need to..... and apply the paint with the roller fairly thickly by refilling your roller really often. It isn't a paint you can spread out endlessly. if you see what I mean. Try again, the result is worth it!

Roller it. Definitely.

Use the dark tones undercoat. Two coats of Hague on top. Perfect. Also use a synthetic and good quality brush. I like the deluxe ones with the white tips on ends of bristles. I have never had success using a roller with f&b
My daughter's room is Hague blue and following the above, all is fine

Definitely use a good quality roller. The cheap ones are a false economy as they fall apart.

Other than that, you might just need more coats? I have read that Farrow and Ball can need more coats than Dulux etc type paints, and dark colours generally need more layers to look their best. We used a mid-blue recently (close to Cook's Blue) and ended up doing three coats on some walls, because it wasn't quite right with two.

Are you using the Modern Emulsion? In which case it does looks shiny in darker colours. We have Eating Room Red and it shows brush marks and imperfections in the plaster far more than the Estate Emulsion that was there previously. I was a bit disappointed with it at first but it has survived two small children much better than the EE, which was covered in fingerprints, so it's worth the compromise whilst mine are young. I want to find something hard-wearing and less shiny for my stairwell, which I want to paint a darkish blue, though, so will look at other companies.

My husband lashed a load of Plummet on one of our walls in 30 mins with a roller and although I was cringing at the time, the finish is perfect.

I had to paint a wall three times with Sugar Bag Blue to get the desired flat matte depth and density of colour, and wouldn't choose F&B again for that reason.

Rollers are better than brushes for getting it on semi-evenly, but if you can beg/ borrow/ steal/ buy one of those professional sprayer things so much the better. It goes on seamlessly and is so worth it when it's done.

(Owner of a house covered in Farrow & Ball.)

Are they easy to use, Dodgy? I imagined they were for specialists.