Farrow & Ball vs. Little Greene - help!

[lettie9]

I know this has been discussed already, but I couldn't find a recent thread, so forgive me for starting another.

I'm trying to decide between F&B and Little Greene for our Edwardian house. I think some decorators haven't liked F&B in the past (?) but I'm not sure why not? The lady in the interiors shop said lots of people now prefer Little Greene, but I just don't like the colours as much.

Help! 🆘

Bump!

Decorators don't like F&B as it requires perfect preparation ie they're lazy.

I liked both. I think little greene has to be watered down. It’s nice to work with

I love f and b colours. My husband found the chalky one fine to work with but the new emulsion was a pain.

If you're in the Bucks area and want a decorator who loves to work with F&B (she used to work for them), drop me a pm.

Little Greene is much better quality, goes on so well but still had the depth of colour and chalkiness of F&B. LG has sooooo many colours that I've never not found a similar or identical colour. Don't just look at their physical paint charts - on the website there are hundreds more colours.

Dh won't use F&B again and we did use to really like it (begrudging the fact that it's a bugger to use!)

I'm a big fan of both and my decorators are/ have been happy with both too.

F&B do "curation" of their palette extremely well; as there is only ever a limited number of colours to choose from, it's easy to "learn" their colour card and match their colours. The colours are beautiful and work really well in dingy British light. I rate their emulsion highly and have used extensively in my house.

I also love Little Greene, their range is bigger but still manageable (having 3 million colours to choose from is pointless), colours can be more vibrant but also really like their colour "families" in the neutrals eg Slaked Lime, French Grey etc. So we have used French Grey on our living room walls with the Light version on ceiling. You can take that further with the Dark shade on woodwork if you want to, etc.

Major caveat with F&B is the eggshell: it's water-based so IME chips easily. We have Railings on skirtings and stairs here and it badly needs touching up. LG have an (eco-friendly) oil-based eggshell that we've used on our front door and has worn amazingly well in the same time period as the F&B eggshell (4 years).

I also like LG's curated colour cards, the latest is "Stone" which is mainly neutrals (the hardest to get right IME). Makes it easy to pick colours that go together, much as F&B does in fact.

I would choose LG over F&B for woodwork in high traffic areas but both ranges are excellent. Go with the colours you prefer.

Caveat: every time one of these threads pops up, there will be a load of people telling you to get a colour match with Johnston's/ Valspar etc. You can of course, I've done it in the past myself, but you won't get an identical colour (whatever people tell you) and if you like the colour ranges produced by these paint businesses, then support them by buying from the people who actually came up with them.

Little Greene is better for painting anything wood: cupboards, skirting, doors etc as it’s oil based rather than water so that may be why you’ve heard many decorators prefer it. The colour range is fab too.

Little Greene for sure. Every decorator I know prefers it to F&B.

Little Greene all over. Decorators prefer it, and our little Greene painted rooms have lasted so much better than F&B. Fewer marks and when marks do happen, I can clean them with a cloth and fairy liquid, if i do that with F&B it doesn't take off the mark but somehow adds a cleaning mark on top!

I am so shallow that I find myself attracted to the names of colours with F&B

We’ve used F&B and also Paint and Paper Library, owned by LG. LG much thicker, but my DP doesn’t have a preference, not does any decorator I’ve used. F&B seem to have a greenish tinge. Both lovely pigments. F&B sometimes needs extra coat. P&PL covers very well and beautiful colours, especially their neutrals and greys. I prefer their colours to LG. The Stone shades are very good but they have several colours going down in stages so very easy to get the tone right.

Having just decorated the majority of my house in F&B I would recommend Little Greene. F&B has absolutely beautiful colours but the estate emulsion finish is marking so badly already. We have young children so expected some of this but where I've used furniture polish and it's sprayed on to the wall, where I've locked a glass of water off the desk and some has splashed on the walls etc. All marked.

We've used the modern emulsion in some places which has been fine in the bathroom but where we've used darker colours in other rooms it's shiny.

Wasn't hard to work with at all but did need three coats. And now looks like it needs to be done again after only 3 months.

I agree though, the colours are better than LG.

We will be using modern emulsion as we have little ones. I think it has more of a sheen than LG 'intelligent matte' but still matte enough. So I think this gets around what some posters have said about scuffs and marks.

As for oil vs. water based - we will be using water based, so again FB will be ok.

I think it sounds like FB isn't actually much worse than LG? Some posters have said LG is better but not why - any reasons not mentioned thus far that we should consider?

@Roonerspismed why was the new emulsion (you mean modern emulsion?) a pain?

LG is definitely better paint. It covers evenly whereas F&B can go on a bit watery and patchy. (From what my decorator said). Also means you don’t need as much.

LG will also colour match F&B colours. you won’t save any money doing this, unlike using a Johnstones match but you will get a spot on colour match which Johnstones isn’t always.

@minipie

LG is definitely better paint. It covers evenly whereas F&B can go on a bit watery and patchy. (From what my decorator said). Also means you don’t need as much.

LG will also colour match F&B colours. you won’t save any money doing this, unlike using a Johnstones match but you will get a spot on colour match which Johnstones isn’t always.

yes, patchy because the prep wasn't good enough....

Oh and yes do look at Paint & Paper library - same ownership as LG I believe, same quality, huge range of colours.

yes, patchy because the prep wasn't good enough....

Well possibly Shmithecat2 but then why doesn’t the same decorator get patchiness with LG? At the end of the day if there is a paint that gives a better result with less prep work, that’s a better paint and will mean the decorator can spend less time/give a lower quote.

What prep is required for FB? Priming? Undercoat?

I'd rather not get LG to colour match FB. Colour matching has never gone well in my (limited) experience.

I love Blackened, Wevet and Ammonite. The LG colour charts looked less subtle or something in comparison, and I didn't like their neutrals as much.

@lettie9

What prep is required for FB? Priming? Undercoat?

It's the prep on the surface that needs the attention first - clean, dry, greasefree etc. A lot of 'decorators' nowadays don't even seem to know what sugar soap is, let alone use it. And yes, priming and/or undercoat.

If you want neutrals then definitely have a look at Paint & Paper Library. They have loads.

Today 14:13 lettie9

I'd rather not get LG to colour match FB. Colour matching has never gone well in my (limited) experience.

Give it a go! IME LG can match any FB colour accurately.
I’ve really got into LG paint as we’ve recently done a lot of woodwork (where I knew LG was streets ahead of FB) but it’s interesting that many people are commenting LG goes on more evenly on plaster too.

Haven't used Little Green, we have used Farrow and Ball Modern Emulsion on our wall, it's great and very hardwearing and wipeable. Great for pets and kids who don't seem to be able to keep their hands off the wall.