Anyone used Farrow&Ball Old White?

[Jackietheduck]

I deliberated for weeks over a colour for my bedroom and eventually settled on Old White. Tried a tester and it looked good. But now it is painted it looks like a dull, sludgy beige colour. It is awful.

The room is relatively bright. I have absolutely no idea what colour I can put with it to ‘lift’ it. Has anyone used it? What colour accessories have you used?

Is my best option to just paint over it and kiss goodbye to more money? I am really disappointed and upset.

We have it in a north facing sitting room. It's my favourite colour in the whole house!

I think it has to be used in a north room and my bedroom is probably one of the sunniest in the whole house. It looks beige on the walls. What colour accessories did you put with it? I am looking at pink at the moment.

I had stony ground in another room (low light) and it is MY favourite room. .I was hoping Old White would be similar but sadly it is just so gloomy and drab.

I painted my exterior with it. It read sludgy yellow green. The painters face was a picture when I told him it would need to be changed the next day (to cornforth White which reads purple!). Next time I might just go with “white”

F&B describe it as a grey green. They have inspiration and colour charts for you to put with it. I tend to think it suits white woodwork and bed linen and pink or red or even coral accessories.

I know these are not the exact colours but the accessory colours work.

I looked at the inspiration photos but the paint colour in them is not like it has appeared on my walls. There is no ‘hint’ of green. My house is all painted in F&B but this colour has not worked in the space. I did not want green accessories.....

IME the more green you put with it the greener it will read. Hence why my "old white" house surrounded by trees was actually a sludgy green house.

Try wevet? I hate it when you think you've cracked it with a colour and it ends up looking like crap 😬

Well if you didn’t want green, then pink or coral it is then! I have a F&B book and they show a bedroom with warm dark reds and burnt oranges. That could work too. I like Wevet but it’s not remotely close to Old White.

I will try pink. I painted over Joa’s white because I got bored of the beige tones.......just to end up with more beige. I had envisaged a soft, atmospheric room. I ended up with the colour of sand mixed with mossy water.

I have white furniture. I thought it was more suited perhaps to dark polished wood? I wanted to paint the wardrobes in the same colour as the walls but not this colour. I should have used French grey or skimming stone........

We found the same. It's quite a strong colour despite having 'white' in it's name - It looks much nicer in other people's houses than it does in ours! Wimborne white by F&B is quite a creamy happy light colour, we're considering it for our very dark hallway as it's the only colour we've tested that doesn't turn into a murky mess of a colour in areas which are almost always in shadow. Earthborn's white is a soft pinky white which is quite warm with a bit of a putty colour in shadow.

Skimming stone is lovely. The lightest of greys/putty with sort of pink undertones. BUT like all f&b depending on the light colour totally changes. Looks cream sometimes too.

We have painted all of downstairs in skimming stone. I love it. I wanted something a bit different for the bedroom. Should have played it safe.....

wimborne white is the colour of white chocolate in our downstairs loo (north west facing but has a big window)

Skimming stone is lovely but again not white. I have the lotus wallpaper with skimming stone as the background colour in a south facing room and it is more putty coloured.

Wimborne white sounds nice.

I didn’t want white. My wooden floors aren’t expensive enough to carry it off!

I have painted my hallway in skimming stone and it is a soft ivory/grey colour, I really like it. I have bought an F&B book on decorating with colour and it states that skimming stone has lilac tones! ( I hate pinks and purples!)

Sometimes the colours work and sometimes they don’t - I particularly like green tones so F&B usually work in my favour. If it is wrong for you change it you will have learnt something and hopefully will end up with something you like.

Skimming stone does have pink tones. My curtains are the colour of dried plaster and they go well and make the skimming stone look more pinky but if I put

Oops if I put real grey next to it it reads more grey

Is it just FB paints that change so much depending on light or all paint colours?

F&B change with the light due to the pigment of colour which adds depth.That is the appeal of them for me usually though I like the chalkiness too. But some are more suited to sun or north facing rooms which personally I think they should put on their website.

I’m unsure if other paints do the same. Crown/Dulux don’t change and are flat colours. I tried a tester of Vogue paint recently and it was an interesting paint, very smooth and dried to a lovely finish. Probably too bright for me as I prefer subdued colours. I I suspect Little Greene is similar to F&B as it contains more pigment and it is the pigment that gives the depth of colour. I’ve never tried Kevin McCloud paints but I imagine they could be similar too....