What’s the obsession with F&B colours?

[Loveflatwhite]

Pointless thread but I really don’t understand the obsession with F&B colours. Literally every home I’ve been to either has F&B or has colour matched to F&B . What’s wrong with all the other colours out there. There’s literally millions of colours to choose from and loads of brands out there on par if not better than F&B . Also colour matching is the worst it’s never an exact match and what if you run out or need to touch up? The next batch will be different. Surely it’s easier to use something else or get the real deal

Noticed it too. Smb I know who is renovating their house now have just shared on IG how they cannot decide on the FB colour for their shed floor. Hmm
Also seen it in adverts on right move numerous times. Agents like mentioning it as a selling point. Who cares?

You remember the Dulux dog?

You remember Ronseal's 'it does what it says on the tin'?

Good marketing is the answer to your question.

Personally I like them because their colours are very greyed/blackened and I love that, it makes me all nostalgic! Other paint brands are just as good eg Little Greene, but their colours are cleaner and that's just not a look I go for.

I also think F+B are very clever with their marketing. Their website is really good, shows you lots of colours of the paint in different lights and also gives complementary whites and suggested colour schemes. Their books are really excellent - whether or not you use their paint - and taught me a lot about how to use colour.

It's like a whole colour system which makes it very easy to use. I know some people say their paint is difficult to work with, or marks easily. I have never found it difficult (and I love the lack of pong). I always use their modern emulsion which is scrubbable, though they now have a new flat which covers all surfaces and can be cleaned.

So that's why I'm a fan! I do like some other paint brands, too - Mylands and Paint and Paper Library.

Should add that I've never had a big house and do my own painting so can afford this luxury. Never really understand the point of colour matching - just buy a colour you like from a cheaper range?

because their depth of pigment is the best. Proper F&B and not colour matched shit is like no other paint

I buy FB because I like the slightly murky aged looking colours. Small house and I don't decorate often so £80 or whatever it is on a 5L tin, enough for one room, feels an affordable luxury

Agree with other comments here - sometimes it’s just the ease of it.

F&B have a good number of colours (but not too many!), their website is easy to use with good examples of the paint in various rooms / lights, and makes complimentary colour suggestions.

Having used a mix of Dulux and F&B in our home, the Dulux paint is great quality and paints easily BUT it really lacks the depth of colour that F&B paint does. I have used Dulux in large high traffic areas such as the hallway, but will always go for F&B (or Little Greene) in rooms themselves!

I don't get it either, but I prefer bright, light colours. I really couldn't care about the depth of colour of a paint.

The colour palette works really well in cool British light.
Colour in general is heavily influenced by the lighting and, as others have said, there are so many examples of the F&B colours in different settings, so less trial and error in your own home because you can see the difference in how it will look between the examples.
The colours generally are on a greyed out theme and so work well together. Your house can look more cohesive if you use colours of the same chroma.
Sometimes choice is overwhelming and the F&B colour collection is heavily edited so decision making is easier!
Also there is something reassuring about choosing colours that so many others have. Not very brave, and maybe people should be more confident with doing something a bit "different", but with limited time and budget to get things wrong, it's nice to have the comfort that lots of other people have done the same as you.
Having said that, other companies provide a similar offering in a different way.

In the past it had a soft chalky finish -not shiny plasticky finish of other emulsions.

I remember viewing a property a couple of years ago. The owner kept mentioning, at least six times, that the walls were painted in Farrow and Ball except she was saying Farrow and Bell. 😁

I think it's a subtle way to tell you they are better than you.

Personally… for me one of the attractions is the restricted number to choose from! I find Dulux etc just too overwhelming plus as there are less people often recommend specific colours.
a friend recommended Wimborne White ages ago and now it’s my go-to fresh neutral as it does seem to have a really lovely quality to it. I can’t be arsed resting a million Dulux similar tones

How do you know that every home you've been to is F&B? Are people telling you that? I don't think I've ever been to someone's house and they've announced what brand of paint they use. Should I be asking?

This is fun

You can get any colour you like from places that do Trade mixing for the likes of Dulux. Even F&B. They can even scan and match paint samples or fabric samples ( though I'm not conviced about how accurate that would be, esp with shiny surfaces). All I have read or heard suggests F&B is just overpriced standard paint with clever publicity.
Craig and Rose do some muted colours, I saw a nice colour chart of their only a few weeks ago; I can't vouch for the quality these days as I haven't used it recently, but it certainly used to be very good when I was in the business.

F&B is now owned by Crown, and it’s bloody awful to paint with. I agree that the colours are lovely so I go to my Crown Trade shop and they mix the colour for me. Much easier to work with, and saves a fortune.

@Nitgel brilliant! Pmsl😂😂

I don't think using F+B has snob value these days - too many people use it for that. Even 12 years ago my local PTA did a Farrow and Ball quiz night as a self own. Nowadays the really trendy people are all using Graphenstone and Bauwerk, surely?

So I also think that dissing F+B as a mark of how you're not one of the sheeple is a bit passe too. It's not edgy to call it shit! Let's us all just use the paint we like 😁

You know how you can go to a cheaper clothes shop that has lots of clothes and you have to sift through to find the good stuff or you can go to a more expensive shop that has less variety but someone has already picked out the good stuff for you. That’s how I see Farrow and Ball the colours have been curated by someone else making choosing colours much easier.

I also really rate their website. Even if its just looking for ideas and have no intention of using farrow and ball the website has so many photos of the colours being used in different circumstances and so many people unload photos with reviews it’s so so useful to be able to see how the colours actually look. They are also good at telling you which colours go with which other ones.

You can also search the name of farrow and ball colours on Instagram and see even more examples of the paints being used.

One of the most helpful things about the F&B site is that they usually tell you what the undertones are. That’s important if you want to pick the right colour based on the direction the room is facing. We have a couple of north-facing rooms and these are trickier to decorate well; we have just bought a tin of F&B for our north-facing bedroom and the test swatch looks ideal. The spare room, however, is south facing so basically anything will look decent in there. I painted it last week with a £15 tin of Wilko (RIP) paint and it looks great.

Agree - some of the colour ‘matches’ are nothing of the sort!

We have a friend who’s posted all over social media that she’s painted her lounge in Hague Blue but it’s clearly nowhere near.

The depth to the F&B colours are wonderful and it has an excellent finish.

Thank you - Bauwerk has exactly the paint I never knew I wanted. It will take more than a newly painted bathroom to make me cutting edge sadly.

Does FB mark easily though? Everyone wants deep matt colour rather than brilliant finish, the drawback is that the former often gets marked by the smallest contact such as a suitcase up the staircase, a chair leaving agains the wall etc. Dulux did do a special emulsion with a more cleanable surface without the shiny look but it won’t match the deepness of proper matt products.

The website is excellent. It's very similar to what Lisa Eldridge does as a MUA. A highly edited selection of colours so you're not drowning in choice and examples of how the colours look. In particular, I like the undertones info.

I love the colours but IME the paint itself is poor. I always get it mixed at johnstones and the colour match has always been perfect.