farrow and ball???

mambury

HI just a few quick questions re F & B paints.

I am looking to paint both woodwork and walls in my house but I was wondering if it really is essential to use F & B primers and undercoats or if I will get away with using more mainstream, dare I say it, cheaper primers???

Anyone got experience of having two kids and F & B on the walls??? I'd like to use the paint but if I have to keep repainting every year to cover scuff marks etc then it will be too expensive!

Any thought, comments gratefuly received!

THanks
Mambury

Little_Mama

We've had the eggshell paint on our lounge/diner woodwork for nearly 10 years, we've 2 DSs, washes down beautifully and it's only this year that we will be repainting as we're doing the hall and you can see what's fresh and what's not.

Reason we're doing the hall is that we used Laura Ashley eggshell.......oh how I wish I'd done it with F&B!

LM

nickj_2

imho ,as a decorator i find f+b over rated and over priced
if my customers like the colours i get them scanned/ colour matched in dulux
2 stockist i deal with told me that most painters hate the stuff

Doozergirl

nickj wrote: »

imho ,as a decorator i find f+b over rated and over priced
if my customers like the colours i get them scanned/ colour matched in dulux
2 stockist i deal with told me that most painters hate the stuff

a) you can't colour match with dulux. Farrow & Ball use natural pigment which just cannot be reproduced with an entirely chemically produced colour. Been there, tried it. With neutrals it doesn't matter so much but with any coloured pigment like the blue/greens, purples etc It doesn't work. Nor can they match the textures; you even get that chalky, matt finish with the oilbased eggshell.

b) I don't care if decorators hate it. It's my house, I like it and if I'm paying someone to paint my house then they can like it or lump it. It takes a painter a matter of days to use the paint, I have to live with it for a long time to come. I come top of that preference list.

I'm a moneysaver through and through and I'll save where there is money to be saved and I use other paint brands and Dulux trade magnolia by the bucket load but F&B colours will not be matched by the likes of Dulux. Fair enough if your clients are brand junkies who want to talk abotu F&B but if you've a genuine desire for a specific F&B colour, it's money saving to simply buy the colour you want and cut down elsewhere.

OP, I woudn't worry too much about the primer as long as you're using something half-decent to start off with. They will always only recommend their own products. We've used other primers under the paintwork on our front door and in our hall without problems.

nickj_2

dulux uses a match to its nearest colour in its scanning system
it has over 15000 colours to choose from so i would think there's
a fair chance of it getting a decent match - unless your extremely fussy
the crown system will make it's own recipe so you will get an exact match
if you want to spend a lot of money on paint try the range from beckers - far superior to anything that f+b have to offer

gmgmgm

We use normal white paint as a first coat (on special from wherever) and then use Leyland's matched paints. They know all the F&B codes.

Haven't tried any complex paints, but the chalky whites come up very well from Leyland.

Clive_Woody

nickj wrote: »

imho ,as a decorator i find f+b over rated and over priced
if my customers like the colours i get them scanned/ colour matched in dulux
2 stockist i deal with told me that most painters hate the stuff

Exactly what our decorater said and having painted rooms myself using both F+B and Dulux I would tend to agree. Dulux needs watering down to go on well, the F+B stuff already seems watered down so goes on well too but at a considerably higher price.

Worst paint I ever tried was Dulux Once, it's like spreading porridge on your walls. That'll teach me to be lazy...

LandyAndy

Clive_Woody wrote: »

Exactly what our decorater said and having painted rooms myself using both F+B and Dulux I would tend to agree. Dulux needs watering down to go on well, the F+B stuff already seems watered down so goes on well too but at a considerably higher price.

Worst paint I ever tried was Dulux Once, it's like spreading porridge on your walls. That'll teach me to be lazy...

So called because you'll never use it again.

never_enough

LandyAndy wrote: »

So called because you'll never use it again.

:rotfl: Yep, totally agree with that!

mambury

wow....lots and lots of differing views!

One of the reasons I was drawn to F & B was that I live in a period house (1850 ish, prob earlier but for the insurance man it is 1850!!) and all 'modern' paints and colours don't seem to fit right.

I appreciate all of your comments and will not be purchasing the primers etc from F&B but will be using trade paints (my DH still has all his trade accounts even though he is not trading anymore. He used to be a builder!!) and use F&B as the finishing top coats.

I was going to use the water eggshell for the woodwork, but after Quizzical Squirrel mentioned that it chips easily then I think I will go for the oil based.

I am really excited as we are about to complete an extention and I get to redecorate the whole house!

Oh, and does anyone know if the modern emulsion is okay over lime plaster? We are having the extention lime plastered to
a - make it look more 'oldie worldie', and not a new part of the house
b - we have mate who lives round the corner who will do it for the cost of materials and a few beers!!

Ta again

Mambury

nickj_2

it depends on what sort of emulsion you use
don't use anything with vynyl as this will stop the walls from breathing