Views on Farrow & Ball paint (interior & exterior)

katejo

I am planning a lot of redecoration including a new front door. I haven't previously used F & B except testers but I am coming across quite widely differing views. I would just like some feedback here from those who have used it. I had chosen Hague blue for my front door but the firm doing it wants me to get it matched in another brand. Meanwhile a designer has recommended F &B for my interior decorating. Thanks 

juliedee4663

Having previously worked in a DIY store, F&B is vastly overpriced and the quality does not match the price. Valspar from B&Q is vastly superior, and they can exactly match any colour including F&B.

flashg67

I've used many different brands and not found much difference - in fact Wilko was my go to brand, and still is for most painting jobs. My OH decided she liked a particular F&B colour and I relented, despite the price (estate eggshell interior for some woodwork) and it is the best paint I've used by far, IMHO. The colours are rich and the coverage was great, even to the point of only needing one coat on primed bare wood to give a good finish. 

phoebe1989seb

I love F&B's colours for their deep, rich chalkiness which colour matching cannot come close to, imho. We've used F&B (estate emulsion, eggshell and exterior eggshell) for many years across our last five houses, but have recently become a convert to Little Greene which I think has slightly better coverage overall.

As a result, our current home is a mix of F&B and LG with a bit of Craig and Rose thrown in for good measure 😁

When we've had both F&B and LG colours matched (by professionals making timber windows) we have found that the colours are a poor match and - in the case of our current (new) windows - we will have to repaint them with the real thing as the matched LG is nothing like the real thing on our external doors 🙄

Personally I'm not a fan of Valspar paint - which we used when doing a house up to sell and found we needed way more coats than more expensive brands - and if the price of F&B means colour matching is a must, I've heard that Johnstone's is the best option.

Gavin83

I also don’t think colour matching works that well. You’ll roughly get the colour (and not even that sometimes) but it’ll be lacking the depth and the superior pigment.

However I’m not particularly a fan of F&B. Ironically we considered Hague Blue for our bedroom but it was essentially grey.

We’ve used about 5 different brands in our house for various different jobs. For general top coats IMO Little Greene is hard to beat. We’ve done several rooms with Little Greene now and they look amazing. It’s great to work with as well. It’s not cheap but it’s a similar price to F&B.

Doozergirl

You cannot match F&B.  If you really love a colour and can appreciate the depth, then don't expect an exact match.  If you're not bothered, you'll get something close but not as 'dirty'.

I've used F&B for years, as well as other brands.  I honestly have no idea what the critics are on about.  I do have a lot of experience with the brand, as well as many others.  

I painted Peignoir over Fired Earth's Caragheen in two coats.   That's a massive change in colour from a deep, deep purple to a pastel.  

Our old front door still has Stiffkey Blue on it and that must be 5 years old with no issues at all, painted over a deep red. 

Our new house has F&B in every room.  I'm sitting in our lounge, which is Card Room Green with Pitch Black and the green is such a rich colour, I adore it.  

I think some people might feel it's like the emperor's new clothes when they see the price tag and  can't appreciate what natural pigments can bring to a room, but I don't like the chemical brightness of many other brands that don't use natural pigment.  There's absolutely nothing wrong with its coverage.  

If you can see it, it's worth it.  If you can't, it's probably not.  No one is wrong.  

shinytop

I've recently done a lot of painting .  As far as application and coverage goes, F&B is almost, but not quite as good as the high end trade paints. The colours can be matched very well but not the very flat, matt effect if that's what you want.  

I asked a couple of professionals when hanging around the paint suppliers.  Neither would choose it because they thought coverage wasn't great but would use if asked.    

Having said that most of my house is/will be F&B and it does look good.

   

katejo

Thanks for the feedback. The issue wasn't the cost but opinions about F & B. The guy who is going to paint my new door (and his colleagues who fitted the door) have a low opinion of F & B and won't use it. Today I have been to a Dulux Trade paint place and bought their match of the Hague Blue. It does look close. I took a painted piece of lining paper with me to see them together. Discovered that they have a generally low opinion of F & B too. I have only previously used Dulux (most of the time) and occasionally Valspar so can't compare them. I have got F & B testers on my wall now but that isn't enough to make a reasonable comparison. 

ashe

katejo said:

Thanks for the feedback. The issue wasn't the cost but opinions about F & B. The guy who is going to paint my new door (and his colleagues who fitted the door) have a low opinion of F & B and won't use it. Today I have been to a Dulux Trade paint place and bought their match of the Hague Blue. It does look close. I took a painted piece of lining paper with me to see them together. Discovered that they have a generally low opinion of F & B too. I have only previously used Dulux (most of the time) and occasionally Valspar so can't compare them. I have got F & B testers on my wall now but that isn't enough to make a reasonable comparison. 

Do they have a low opinion of F&B because people using it aren't using their matched paint?

Doozergirl

katejo said:

Thanks for the feedback. The issue wasn't the cost but opinions about F & B. The guy who is going to paint my new door (and his colleagues who fitted the door) have a low opinion of F & B and won't use it. Today I have been to a Dulux Trade paint place and bought their match of the Hague Blue. It does look close. I took a painted piece of lining paper with me to see them together. Discovered that they have a generally low opinion of F & B too. I have only previously used Dulux (most of the time) and occasionally Valspar so can't compare them. I have got F & B testers on my wall now but that isn't enough to make a reasonable comparison. 

Given that Dulux Trade Centres don't sell F&B, I'm not sure what opinion you'd expect them to have of a competitor's product!

I swear there's an inverted snobbery around F&B.  I've had a couple of decorators appear sniffy initially but literally no one has ever said 'I can't work with this' or even come close to saying it.  

Gavin83

Doozergirl said:

katejo said:

Thanks for the feedback. The issue wasn't the cost but opinions about F & B. The guy who is going to paint my new door (and his colleagues who fitted the door) have a low opinion of F & B and won't use it. Today I have been to a Dulux Trade paint place and bought their match of the Hague Blue. It does look close. I took a painted piece of lining paper with me to see them together. Discovered that they have a generally low opinion of F & B too. I have only previously used Dulux (most of the time) and occasionally Valspar so can't compare them. I have got F & B testers on my wall now but that isn't enough to make a reasonable comparison. 

Given that Dulux Trade Centres don't sell F&B, I'm not sure what opinion you'd expect them to have of a competitor's product!

I swear there's an inverted snobbery around F&B.  I've had a couple of decorators appear sniffy initially but literally no one has ever said 'I can't work with this' or even come close to saying it.  

It’s not that I’ve got anything against F&B, it’s just that for the same money I much prefer Little Greene. The internet seems to agree with me as well. I read quite a few forum posts from many people recommending Little Greene over F&B. 

I tried the Hague Blue a few days ago that the OP mentioned and in all honesty I hated it. Didn’t really help that it wasn’t blue. Saying that I think it could work on a front door.

Obviously we’ve all got our preferences and I’m glad it works for you. Personally I’d only consider F&B if they had a colour I really wanted and couldn’t get elsewhere. I do agree getting a colour match in something like Dulux is a poor replica though.

On another note we used Tikkurila Anti Reflex for our ceilings and I throughly recommend it. Beautiful finish. Wasn’t too expensive either, we paid about £45 for 10 litres.