Farrow & Ball colours

[badkitty]

OK, in need of some help here - have decorators in next week to decorate downstairs + upstairs bedroom/nursery and I am in a total quandary re paint colours. We have a victorian terrace with the traditional through lounge/dining room downstairs. It is all dark wood furniture. DH v much wants the dining room part in a traditional green, which I have come round to the idea of but don't want it too dark - am thinking of F&B Ball Green. However I don't want the lounge part of the room green as well - think it would be a bit much - so want a nice warm classic neutral which would not clash with the Ball Green. I have painted so many tester pots that DH thinks I am an addict, and I still can't tell what will work or not. Thinking maybe Savage Ground (but will this actually be too light? - I don't want it to look washed out) or String (which I haven't actually tried but saw in a magazine yesterday and thought looked nice).

For nursery/bedroom I think am going to use Joa's White, which seems to be nice and warm when I put it on the upstairs walls, but weirdly looks totally different on the lounge walls and is far too light for in there!

Any opinions on the colours I have mentioned (or other colours I might try?)before I go making some horrible mistake?

thanks badkitty! will wait for suggestions (am off on hols next week but will check when i get back)

I hope nobody uses pure brilliant white gloss with their lovely chalky F & B paint?

All the woodwork in our house is all painted in F & B Pointing oil eggshell (it's a lovely mellow milky white colour).

Our sitting room is Zoffany Fennel - it is the most gorgeous green you will ever find. Our family sitting room is F & B French Grey - a lovely sludgey greeny grey.
Our boot room and conservatory (inside and out) are F & B Ball Green - It is lovely but it is quite a grey-green so perhaps you might want to be careful if your room is north facing or lacking in light. Zoffany's Fennel is far lovelier and looks sunny and lovely in the day and festive and traditional in the dark/with the fire on.

Page62 - I had a look for the exterior paint but couldn't find it, we mustn't have had any left over and I can't remember what it was sorry!

Fawn is now on in lounge and is v nice. Ball Green probably going on in dining room today (Swedes unfortunately your post came too late for me - Fennel sounds v nice) so am slightly nervous to see what it looks like when I get home...

It is a long time since I have been brave enough to use any colours other than pale off-white... am hoping however it will be more of a success that the time when I decided to paint the spare room half blue, half lilac, or the time when I painted the kitchen in our old flat "daffodil white" which made the walls look just like lumpy custard.

I've just discovered this thread and it's great! Badly in need of some advice. I'm getting a new kitchen in soon and I'm having hand-painted cream cupboard with a couple of units done in Farrow's Light Blue. I need help on which shade I should do on the rest of the units and which shade for the walls. I was thinking of White Tie for units and Clunch or Slipper Satin on walls.

What does everyone think?

Valie.

We have Dead Mouse under the stairs

Valie, our kitchen units are painted in F&B Pointing and it's the perfect cream, not a hint of yellow to it at all. We then have Saxon Green walls with it which look great

Our house is a temple to F&B it's 16th Century though so modern paint looks odd. I can help with outside. Our weatherboard exterior has just been painted with White Tie and it's beautiful

Do test a large area as the colour can be really surprising when dry. We have pointing on the ceilings & it looks white

Oh, oh, have not read all of the thread, but completely second fruitstick: F&B colours are great but their paints are really not childproof and get filthy really quickly. We painted everywhere downstairs using F&B, including hallway and stairwell and are now regretting it. Won't be F&Bing again, I'm sad to say...

Have you tried the Modern Emulsion? It's meant to be wipeable.

Have tried the Modern Emulsion, but the finish is appallingly streaky - and it's not just my rubbish decorating skills (honest): the man who runs our local F&B shop doesn't recommend it because it is so streaky. I insisted he order me some and he said I wouldn't be happy with it and he was right...

oh no! am gutted. am just about to paint again and was hoping that might be the solution.

we have ballroom blue on the front door (eggshell) lovely

Sorry, ingles2 - although we did do our last lot of decorating just before the arrival of 2nd dc, who will be 4 soon, so maybe F&B have improved the finish since then?? (Still have awful streaky sittingroom, although at least it is not covered in handprints like the hallway is: we went for Tallow in a big way and it shows every last grubby finger print)

Hi Valie,

I have just come across this thread as I am looking to paint my wooden kitchen units, so looking for inspiration on colours for the unit and walls.

There is no option but to use Farrow and Ball in my eyes as I have that on every wall in the house and love it

What colours did you end up going for in your kitchen, and did they work well for you?

If you go on to the F and B website there is a really useful guide to all their colours which they originally published with house and garden. very worthwhile looking at. Its called "key looks with colour" and tells you, for example, the base colours for all the whites and the look it will give you...eg joas white, red base, gives a warm modern relaxing feel

personally think the two shade thing top and botoom is a bit passe these days... F and B have such great colours i see no need to set them off with anything else, but i would try a different colour woodwork rather than just white.

now.. am thinking about pantry in calamine pink or cooking apple green....

Oooh, calamine pink and cooking apple green both appeal to me also. I currently have green ground on my kitchen walls which I really like. One option is to keep the walls the same colour and paint the units a white/cream colour but I fancy something different.

Thanks for the hint about the f&b colour guide - it's interesting reading. I also come across this;

www.farrow-ball.com/Company/NewsDetails.aspx?language=en-GB&nr=272

Has anyone else used these colours (blue gray, light gray, slipper satin, shaded white) and have any opinions on them?

My kitchen walls are cooking apple green with slipper satin cupboards. Just looks 'clean' but muted IYKWIM! Slipper satin is the 'white' in most of the house.
Main bedroom is shaded white on the walls with pointing woodwork. It comes over as a pale grey and is beautiful! (well I think so!)
If you are able to pop into the showroom the staff are really helpful. I've taken fabric to them!

Can't believe this thread is still going!!! I may as well ask another question now I have found it though - getting a dado rail put up in hall so can paint a darker colour below to hide all the scuffs and smudges, and light above. Think maybe slipper satin for the above bit - any suggestions for the underneath?

oh thats good. link to guide itself is www.farrow-ball.com/Company/NewsDetails.aspx?language=en-GB&nr=380

Is there really one called clunch?

sorry

Do what I did and take your Farrow and Ball colour chart to your nearest paint shop where they can mix up what you want, in a better coverage paint (F and B is terrible) for half the price.

Have just done front fence, front door and side gate in rip off Blue Gray eggshell.

What about colour advice ?

shaded white allegedly has no green in it according to shop but i see some

string too green for me

not mad on joas white

matchstick not for me

slipper satin one of my faves although not bright i thinkof it as sueude ish

our house painted all woodwork pointing although not as durable as pb white gloss

this thread is hilarious! sadly i know all the colours. my fave is blue/green