Can I buy my own paint for decorators ?

[missrachael]

Already picked what I want and alot of thought has gone into it, our decorator who is currently stripping the house had quoted nearly 4k for 2 reception rooms, 3 bedrooms and hall stairs and landing 😳 This includes the materials.
Can I expect them to reduce if I say we’re buying our own paint ? Is that cheeky ? I don’t know what the done thing is ?

Yes, the quote should be reduced if you’re buying your own materials but he may have only allowed for cheap/ trade paint so it might not make much difference. The decorator may also have access to trade prices which you don’t so may work out more expensive if you buy it yourself.

We bought our own wall, gloss and ceiling paint, our decorator charged £250 per room, there was not much prep needed, no wallpaper to strip and just filled a few cracks.

That doesn’t sound very expensive tbh. My husband (granted his work is on the upper end and therefore has its price) would charge around 7-8k for that. You can try to suggest this but I don’t think it will save you a lot.

Places like b&q often have 3 for 2 offers

Yes but they do sometimes have brand preference and the paint allowance in the estimate may be lower than you think. They may get a trade discount too

Was the quote including your specific brand of paint? If not they'll have quoted for cheapest possible one, so if yours is posh they might not knock much off. You can ask though.

I guess there's a chance they could get your actual paint cheaper via their trades discount?

We’ve used various decorators over the years. Often they ask what paint you’re planning on using. If it’s something like F&B, they will often charge more as many of them claim it’s more fiddly to apply (I’m always suspicious that they think that, if you’re able to afford F&B paint, you can afford to pay them more!); most refuse to use certain own brand paints. If it’s something like Dulux, then they often get the trade version and it’s cheaper. So I’m not sure that this approach will save you anything.

I wanted a couple of little greene colours for our bedroom and the living room snd f&b for the hall stairs and landing but the rest was dulux. He gave me a leaflet with the paints he uses it was leyland trade and Johnstone’s

No I hadn’t mentioned paint to him yet either

@missrachael It probably won’t make much difference to the quote then if he’s using basic trade paint.

Johnstone's decorator centres do colour matching and the staff are very knowledgeable in terms of what base paint to use.

I am a DIYer but I use Leyland, Zinsser for undercoat/priming and Johnstones colour matched to whatever I want. I have used Little Green but I wouldn't use F&B I would always get it colour matched in Johnstones. The decorator centres are fantastic and their knowledge is good.

Why do people think that if the painter has a trade account he will pass on the saving to the customer? If he had a trade account he gets the difference, he is a retailer of the paint.

You will have to ask him. He may perder to supply and makes a mark up on the paint.

As someone who decorates a lot i agree F&B is really fiddly to paint with. Crown trade paint is excellent and wipes really well. Valspar paint is awful to use and peels off (only the stuff made in the last couple of years). Delux is really good to. Johnston paint is awful and difficult to wipe.

OP thats a really good price for painting that amount of rooms. My hall was £500 alone and I bought the paints via his trade discount.

The painter i hired did. He also did a fabulous job and because it took less time than he anticipated charged £100 less than initially quoted. He is fully booked for months now as he is very good and decent.

They’ll get a discount but it remains to be seen if they pocket that or pass it on - I’d ask for a quote for labour only and one for materials and compare to what you’d pay. I’ve got decorators in at the moment and he said he or I could get leyland mixed to any colour but I just went to wickes and got washable dulux for a good offer and he said that was ideal quality

The leaflets he’s given me have swatches on and there is one that seems to match LG slaked lime I was hoping to use for the living room…
ahhh! This is all stressful, paint has driven me mad the last few weeks

I supplied my own paint, the only thing the decorator asked was not to buy f&b, I got it colour matched at Johnstones as someone else mentioned up thread.

Why don’t decorators like f&b then ? I’ve never used it myself but see people mention it on here loads

You're the customer and will have to live with the outcome for years. Have what you want. If the decorator won't facilitate that, find someone else. Let him know you have specific colours in mind and see what he responds with.

If you supply the paint then of course your decorator will reduce his quote because they'll no longer be supplying it. I've had decorators supply the paint (including my requested F&B) and also supplied it myself - you just need to have a conversation with the decorator about it. If your decorator has a trade account at a local supplier, there's no reason why they should be restricted to just Leyland or Johnstone - unless these are the only ranges that the trade outlet supplies.
You've given your choice of paint colours a lot of thought and you should have precisely what you want. If, for whatever reason, your decorator can't supply the paint you want, then supply it yourself and have them take it out of their quote. This is perfectly acceptable practice.

I think a lot of them haven't actually used it. I used F&B in my kitchen and my decorator (who'd never used it before) was really impressed with it.

F&B is allegedly* more eco-friendly. Some decorators find that it needs more coats as it can be patchy and a pain to apply.

F&B is owned by Crown. Our decorator suggested we go to a crown decorator centre and get them to colour match into a trade matte. It's better than the colour match at B&Q and worked out a lot cheaper.

You know decorating isn’t that hard to do yourself if you take your time?

A lot of decorators don’t like the texture of F&B. It can take some getting used to and I don’t bother anymore, I just colour match. If he wants to use the paint he’s experienced with and likes working with then just ask him to colour match with his own supplier.