Farrow and ball or Dulux?

[NegativeNellyy]

Anyone any opinions?

Just moved into our first house and we're looking to do one wall in a statement blue (yes I know it's a cliche)!

We've narrowed it down to Stiffkey Blue by F&B and Sapphire Salute by Dulux.

They are either ends of the top row.

DH can not tell the difference at all and is no help!

We are decorating at the moment. We are using dulux white above the picture rail and farrow and ball ammonite below.

The F&B goes on far far better than the dulux. The dulux is a nightmare and we are only painting white over magnolia. It needs three coats.

Plus Dulux isn't a great company to support.

If it’s only one wall, what difference does it really make as it’s just a small tin? F&B has no application problems. A feature wall probably will never get messed up. My DC never messed up our painted walls and they are all F&B. I’ve never had to scrub a wall. If you are that sort of family, choose a scrubbable paint.

Stiffkey Blue is a very recognisable colour if you know your paints. It’s a great one.

Do you have kids?

I am pretty sure the lounge diner (The whole downstairs basically) is F&B as it looks like it, and the previous owner was very close to the neighbour who worked for F&B so could get a discount 😂. Looked beautiful when we moved in.

Three years of abuse from our twins (9 months old when we moved in) and it looks absolutely awful - covered in sticky finger marks everywhere which you cannot clean off.

We painted their room in Dulux washable paint and have wiped down their walls so many times after projectile vomiting, poo smearing... looks good as new. Still has a nice matte finish but so easy to clean.

If we didn’t have young kids I’d use F&B but any rooms we paint from now on will be in washable paint.

If you looked at two walls painted side by side in the different types I’m sure you’d tell the difference. But really it will still look lovely.

Have Valspar fixed the odour issue? I know it’s been a few years since they had to compensate a load of customers whose houses smelled like cat pee and they had to strip back even the plaster to get rid of it. I don’t trust them now!

I’ve used valspar recently. It’s been really nice to use with no odour problem.

Farrow and Ball estate emulsion can be touched up very easily if necessary. I always keep a jam jar of paint for each room just in case there's damage that needs a touch up. The rooms in F&B touch up without any issues.

Clearly though the longer it is since a wall has been painted the more dirty it will be and the more difficult it will be to touch up the marks since the walls will get generally a bit dirty.

If you are that sort of family

Some quality MN shade for a Wednesday morning

Plums

😂

thanks for the comments! Especially the shade haha!

I don’t get why DC put sticky fingers over walls. Never have and never will. Wipe their fingers. I’m not overly house proud but DDs just didn’t do this. Do they go up to the walls immediately after eating and wipe their hands down the walls! I just don’t get it and my friends DC didn’t do this either. Perhaps we just live differently?

We don't have kids so that's not an issue but I would agree !

We have very few sticky fingerprints on the wall, but it does happen sometimes. A wobbly child, a grubby hand. Having a paint that’s so unforgiving is just nonsense if there are other options available. Or perhaps you’re one of those families who has perfect model angel children. Mine are just regular excitable children who are mostly fine but sometimes not.

Have a look at victory colours paint they are beautiful and go on really well also no paint smell!

Neither. Johnstones colour match of f&b in durable matt

F&B here as well, never had any problems with painting with it. Love the coulours. Johnsons is also very good and do a good match up with F&B

As for Dulux, just yesterday I opened a new tin of eggshell for woodwork as I have used it before, went on rubbish difficult to paint with now today it looks awful, patchy to much of a sheen and I will have to re do the lot.

Also we had a huge problem with Dulux weathersheald paint so bad they sent a technician to check it all on brand new windows that cost thousands of pounds then admitted the paint was at fault, all had to be stripped and re done...twice, not a fan of Dulux anymore

The doubling-down! The wide-eyed naïveté! Perfection.

In relation to your question, OP, if you do go for Dulux then go to one of their decorators’ centres when they reopen and get their trade paint. I find it much better than the retail products.

My painter really loathed painting with F&B but I preferred the colours.

Decorators hate F&B because they can’t get discounts on buying the paint.
Many decorators include the cost of the paint in their overall cost, the cheaper they get the paint the more money they make.
I used to work in a paint/fabric shop and lots of things being said on this thread are opinions not fact.
If you don’t think it’s worth buying F&B don’t bother getting a sample pot in the first place. It’s like looking at an expensive fabric, then trying to replicate it with a cheaper one, same thing.

I painted my living room with F&B (Hague Blue). It was absolutely fine and I don't know why people say it's hard to paint with?
The colour is beautiful, so much depth and you can tell the quality is on a different level.
Def worth it in my opinion.

@Itscoldouthere possibly true - but we buy the paint ourselves and physically pay for it ourselves so the decorator isn’t diddling us on it

My favourite paint brands are Zoffany, little greene, dulux, f and b in that order.

Totally agree with Bubbles about Stiffkey Blue. It is an awesome colour and instantly recognisable. We have it on one wall in our bedroom, and will be using it on some woodworms elsewhere. I looked at all the other brands with similar shades and nothing compared to how it holds and uses the light, and the depth and complexity of the shade.

No, decorators hate it because they hate painting with it

@Itscoldouthere we bought our own paint so not always the case. Our decorator just said it wasn’t worth us paying the extra for F&B when we can have the same colour mixed which is also easier to work with and easier to clean (like PP’s we have the matt scrubbable and it’s great).

I would have gone for F&B paint had I not discussed with the decorator as I love the colours but I’m really happy with ours.