Farrow and Ball paint, is it worth it?

[FlopMadeMeDoIt]

Considering using their dayroom yellow and wimborne white for bedroom. Never used F&B before, don't mind paying more if it's actually really good quality etc.

Thanks all. Going to look at some of the other brands people have mentioned. I do like valspar and found it good in the past but wasn't sure if they're available in stores at the moment?

Go to a Dulux decorator centre and get it colour matched in Diamond Matt. Lasts years and you can scrub it. If it makes you feel better, it's fairly pricey.

Another Valspsr fan here. The finish you get with this paint looks professional even when slapped on by a novice like me.

The whole point of the original F&B paint for walls was that it’s a chalky finish! It’s not made to be scrubbed. If you are going to want to do that, it’s the wrong paint for you. They do make more durable wall paints now so have a look. You need to choose the right paint for the right area. As for silky walls though! No thank you.

DD has used Little Greene and liked it. We are just getting a tester from Ca Pietra Proper Good Paint for our dining room. We will see! Other brands are Designers Guild, Fired Earth, Paint and Paper Library and Craig and Rose from Homebase at the cheaper end.

There is a difference between paints and you have to factor in wear and location. I don’t want scrubbable paints anywhere. Just do a quick repaint or take care!!

We colour matched - I found it easier to pick as the F&B range is so much tighter in the number of options but the decorators had no interest in painting with it

All the colour matchers offer flat matt finishes comparable to F&B. If you're happy to pay a premium for paint that's difficult to apply evenly and doesn't wear well then that's your choice.

Wouldn't ever use Valspar again - just do a quick google of Valspar paint reviews OP if you're considering it.

Colour matching light colours works really well, dark not so much. Like previous posters I prefer Little Greene to F&B. Lick paint is also really good value & goes on like a dream but it's a different offering/selection of colours to F&B / LG. Younger, less "heritage" etc.

My decorator had concerns about our wood cladding but did what I wanted. 10 years later it is still perfect. Decorators are an odd bunch and have fear of the unknown. In recent years no debate at all.

Per the comment above, Dulux trade (from the decorator centres) is the way to go. We had F&B in our old house, and it was nice, but the decorators need to use an extra coat compared to the Dulux.

Most expensive but also ridiculously awful to paint with and marks so so easily.

Colours are beautiful though

Never had a moment’s issue with F&B. I cannot imagine what others are doing. You have to do a bit of prep and it’s never been a one coat paint. The costs build up the depth. DD used Little Greene recently for a big change of colour and that needed 3 coats.

We are just painting over ours with matt white- the F&B has been up for 16 years and had no marks.

Colour is gone. White matt is the way forward.

It's just paint. With a premium price because of it's snob quality.
Ask a professional decorator what they recommend.

Little Green will mail you a paint chart for free. The range of colours is vast. The chart uses real paint chips rather than the photos of colours beloved of Dulux et al.

I don't like painting with it and the colours are ubiquitous.

Used Lick several time and really love it, their sample stickers are 100% accurate, application is super easy and their colours are superb.
Limited range though. And not cheap by any means.

I think that if you’re going for an intense colour then yes, it’s worth it and colour matching can’t quite do the trick, but I did a whole room in their All White and I shouldn’t have bothered, it’s just white!

I've just had all the bedrooms done in F & B. No idea if they mark or last as they've literally been painted a couple of weeks. Looks great though.

If you don't have young kids it's totally worth it! Recently, we've also started to use the appropriate F&B primer too - it makes a huge difference. Because of the amount of pigment they contain F&B paints are just 'alive' somehow - even the most straightforward 'All White' is so many different things - bright/warm/true/alive - anything but flat. Not sure how else to put it! And while you can colour match their colours, you cannot match the way in which they change with the light. Can't ever see using anything else.

Farrow and ball colours are absolutely beautiful but the finish is hard to get right. I’ve used pigeon & denimes and the colours are lovely. But I used the wrong finish for the bathroom and it looks absolutely awful, water marks everywhere. You can’t touch up either, instead you need to repaint the entire wall. I’m going to try little greene, and Neptune next.

Baffled by people saying they struggled to paint with it. I thought it went on beautifully on my walls, and I've no issues with marks etc (they just wipe straight off).

Yes I always use it and it lasts and lasts. previous paint job lasted 15 years and still looked perfect and its washable. I only use the modern emulsion though. The other stuff needs to be applied by a professional.

Benjamin Moore is lovely paint, I haven't tried Little Greene yet, but hear it's lovely.

@Ck91

No, save your money. I’ve used it in two rooms. One room it’s marked so badly and when you wipe it it makes it worse. And in another room the paint just comes off if anything touches the wall. I will say the colours are beautiful and the finish looks lovely when you first do it, but it’s just not practical in everyday living environments. I would just have them colours matched in the future.

This sums up exactly how I feel about f and b