Paint…. Is Farrow & Ball worth the price?

gazfocus

Moving into a new house in the next couple of months and will be needing to decorate top to bottom over the first few months. 

I’ve been looking at paint and wondering if farrow and ball paint is really worth the price of £120+ per 5L tin compared to the likes of Valspar Premium at £42 per 5L. 

Obviously I wouldn’t dream of spending that kind of money on the kids bedrooms etc but thinking about the hallway and the living room mainly. 

daveyjp

Can you actually decorate well?  If not spend the money on a decorator who will do fantastic job with paint from whichever trade outlet they use,

DullGreyGuy

gazfocus said:

Moving into a new house in the next couple of months and will be needing to decorate top to bottom over the first few months. 

I’ve been looking at paint and wondering if farrow and ball paint is really worth the price of £120+ per 5L tin compared to the likes of Valspar Premium at £42 per 5L. 

Obviously I wouldn’t dream of spending that kind of money on the kids bedrooms etc but thinking about the hallway and the living room mainly. 

If you particularly like one of their colours and/or the chalky finish then yes, colour matching from other brands never manages to get it quite right. 

If you dont care about the colour then no, for other considerations like durability you get no worse performance, especially when consider the price so can do more coats for less money.

gazfocus

daveyjp said:

Can you actually decorate well?  If not spend the money on a decorator who will do fantastic job with paint from whichever trade outlet they use,

Haha, I might be decorating the bedrooms that I’m not overly bothered with (I’m an ok decorator) but the rooms that matter will all be done by a professional

gazfocus

DullGreyGuy said:

gazfocus said:

Moving into a new house in the next couple of months and will be needing to decorate top to bottom over the first few months. 

I’ve been looking at paint and wondering if farrow and ball paint is really worth the price of £120+ per 5L tin compared to the likes of Valspar Premium at £42 per 5L. 

Obviously I wouldn’t dream of spending that kind of money on the kids bedrooms etc but thinking about the hallway and the living room mainly. 

If you particularly like one of their colours and/or the chalky finish then yes, colour matching from other brands never manages to get it quite right. 

If you dont care about the colour then no, for other considerations like durability you get no worse performance, especially when consider the price so can do more coats for less money.

I’ve read reviews that the valspar paint mixing can get a pretty good match to farrow colours so I’m not overly concerned about liking a colour that I can’t get, more concerned about the finish and the durability. 

What had me concerned was one review mentioned that Valspar doesn’t sand particularly well if you need to touch up flaked off/chipped paint. 

Beeblebr0x

A professional decorator friend of mine said Farrow & Ball will need three coats where other paints will do the job in two. 

FreeBear

gazfocus said: I’ve been looking at paint and wondering if farrow and ball paint is really worth the price of £120+ per 5L tin compared to the likes of Valspar Premium at £42 per 5L.

Personally, I wouldn't use Valspar. Not when I can get Dulux emulsion from somewhere like B&M for £10-12 (2.5l tin).

Did a bedroom with ~3l last year (needed two coats on fresh plaster).

secla

Recently did my living room with it. I was dubious about the price but the wife insisted it was what she wants.
Used the recommended undercoat and 2 coats of colour on fresh plaster. It went on really nicely with a very uniform finish and I have no complaints.

Is it worth the price ? to me probably not but to my wife yes

Green_hopeful

We have farrow and ball on our kitchen. The main cupboards are dulux but the island is farrow and ball. It’s a disaster. It has chipped in loads of places. Not even the places that might get bumped. I now need to sand it off and start again! Very disappointing. The dulux paint is absolutely fine. I wouldn’t buy it again. It was painted by a professional painter as well. 

Grenage

We've used Farrow and Ball estate emulsion in one room because it had the colour we wanted.  I generally use Dulux Trade Durable emulsion.

The Dulux Trade obviously covers better.  F&B marks a little easier but other than that there's not much in it.  Poor durability/chipping is normally down to a lack of preparation.

RipleyG

I've had very different experiences with different F&B finishes. Recently been massively impressed with colour resistance and the ability to touchup their modern emulsion almost invisibly after 15 years! 

Used estate emulsion in a hallway. Beautiful chalk finish, but definitely not durable. A week later a friend leant on the wall to take his shoes off and the oils on his palm left a permanent hand print. In the dining room when I splashed some wine, and cloth marks from wiping it off stayed permanent.

But modern emulsion finish in our bathroom and living room has been phenomenal. Painted in 2007, we later rented the house out for 5 years and returned in 2022. Our tenants were (very!) grubby so I had to wash the walls thoroughly before I could repaint. I had the dregs of the original paint in a rusty old tin so figured I had nothing to lose trying touch ups. I assumed there'd be fading after 15 years on the walls/being washed, and degradation to paint in the tin - couldn't believe it when the touch ups were almost perfect. You could just see them in certain light if you were looking, but impressive after so long. For comparison I also had reminders of Crown durable emulsion, Wickes matt emulsion, and Dulux matt emulsion used in other rooms - when I tried the same with those it was a dead loss and the rooms had to be repainted. 

I will be spending the extra money when we redo our hallway - in the long run I think it will save the cost and time of a future repaint.