Farrow & Ball Paint
Discussion
I hate it!
Not as a paint to paint with or as a colour range, but trying to mount stuff in or on the walls after they have been painted is horrendous. It shows marks so easily, you only have to breath on it and it shows grease and evidence that you've been there.
Not good when your trying to hang a tv, speaker or the like.
We recently did my daughters bedroom in a extreme matt and that looks amazing.
V.
Not as a paint to paint with or as a colour range, but trying to mount stuff in or on the walls after they have been painted is horrendous. It shows marks so easily, you only have to breath on it and it shows grease and evidence that you've been there.
Not good when your trying to hang a tv, speaker or the like.
We recently did my daughters bedroom in a extreme matt and that looks amazing.
V.
Have done three houses in F&B and IMHO the finish and pigmentation of F&B is well worth paying for.
I've tried getting F&B colours mixed up and never like the end result.
I recently did three rooms in dark colours. Really ladled it on and the finish is almost like a matt ceramic it's so deep.
I've tried getting F&B colours mixed up and never like the end result.
I recently did three rooms in dark colours. Really ladled it on and the finish is almost like a matt ceramic it's so deep.
Used Farrow & Ball and Little Green and really impressed with application and finish. Albany is a good budget choice if saving cash.
Have used lots of Dulux Trade in the past and that used to be my paint of choice but recently I've really struggled to get good opacity and a solid colour with it. I'm convinced the formulation has changed and IMO it's pretty poor value now.
Ya pays ya money...
Have used lots of Dulux Trade in the past and that used to be my paint of choice but recently I've really struggled to get good opacity and a solid colour with it. I'm convinced the formulation has changed and IMO it's pretty poor value now.
Ya pays ya money...
I come across F&B a lot. I'd stay well clear, find the colour you want and then get it mixed if its their colours you like.
I've seen painters have to repaint whole walls because of someone putting their hand or just fingertips on it. With F&B you can't touch it in (especially if its a darker colour) as it shows.
If you want a great paint, check out ColorTrend. Fantastic paint IMO and we use it a lot on furniture. Some of the emulsions contain ceramic for a harder wearing finish, we have it on some of our internal walls at home and three years later it still looks great.
I've seen painters have to repaint whole walls because of someone putting their hand or just fingertips on it. With F&B you can't touch it in (especially if its a darker colour) as it shows.
If you want a great paint, check out ColorTrend. Fantastic paint IMO and we use it a lot on furniture. Some of the emulsions contain ceramic for a harder wearing finish, we have it on some of our internal walls at home and three years later it still looks great.
Done the whole house so far with Little Greene and I love it.
Their intelligent emulsion is washable and still only 5% sheen! I used this in the lounge and normal matt in the bedrooms. The oil eggshell is great but still stinks bit I like the water based eggshell too.
I'm not a brilliant painter but it makes me look good!
My Dad is a decorator and had never used it until helping me, he prefers it to F&B, also worth noting how accurate the colour samples are!
Their intelligent emulsion is washable and still only 5% sheen! I used this in the lounge and normal matt in the bedrooms. The oil eggshell is great but still stinks bit I like the water based eggshell too.
I'm not a brilliant painter but it makes me look good!
My Dad is a decorator and had never used it until helping me, he prefers it to F&B, also worth noting how accurate the colour samples are!
We've used it on several properties and love the finish and colour.
Redoing a couple of rooms now and have gone the route of matching the colour on a trade base.
F&B really isn't practical in any rooms that get any use. Marks way too easily. Was told it was the clay element that gives the finish, but also makes it so vulnerable.
We have an 8 year old and 2 dogs, a slight compromise makes sense right now.
Redoing a couple of rooms now and have gone the route of matching the colour on a trade base.
F&B really isn't practical in any rooms that get any use. Marks way too easily. Was told it was the clay element that gives the finish, but also makes it so vulnerable.
We have an 8 year old and 2 dogs, a slight compromise makes sense right now.
LivingTheDream said:
I suspect you'll get a straight split of opinion on here, somewhere between its overpriced poncy paint and it's the best ever...
Told you!Best to try it yourself and see what you think. 1 thing to bare in mind though is the tester pots only come in 1 finish. Which doesn't show you the low gloss finish of estate eggshell for instance.
Little Greene, much nicer to use and a better finish too.
Zinsser BIN primer and Little Greene top coats, does everything and so, so easy too.
I use their Absolute Matt Emulsion (3% sheen) for walls and the Traditional Oil Eggshell for woodwork, furniture and cabinets.
I painted our kitchen cabinets in 6 hours using the Zinsser and the Oil Eggshell.
They can mix you F&B colours with the Little Greene too.
Zinsser BIN primer and Little Greene top coats, does everything and so, so easy too.
I use their Absolute Matt Emulsion (3% sheen) for walls and the Traditional Oil Eggshell for woodwork, furniture and cabinets.
I painted our kitchen cabinets in 6 hours using the Zinsser and the Oil Eggshell.
They can mix you F&B colours with the Little Greene too.
Used F&B Ammonite on our bedroom recently and it is lovely after two and in some cases three coats, however to back up the above there are already a couple of bits that need touching up two weeks later thanks to being touched/inadvertently polished up through brushing against it etc
Have a decorator coming in tomorrow to start on the rest of the upstairs and he'll be using Dulux diamond matt emulsion on the walls so will see how that goes.
Have a decorator coming in tomorrow to start on the rest of the upstairs and he'll be using Dulux diamond matt emulsion on the walls so will see how that goes.
We bought an old house to do up last year and ordered loads of testers to help us choose colours. I painted them all onto a wall in a big matrix to help us choose and we had two big surprises:
1. The way the paint goes on - i.e. coverage and texture was different between brands.
2. The appearance of the paint when its dried (I don't know the arty terminology to describe this) was different between brands.
Farrow & Ball were way ahead of Dulux, Crown, Albany and Homebase's own brand on the above. I had mistakenly thought it was just colour that differentiated them.
My brother in law is a decorator so I thought I'd ask him what he thought of our big wall full of testers, which incidentally was just marked with numbers and I was the only one who had the crib saying which number was which paint. He spotted the F&B instantly and he said it's his favourite to use if a client can afford it. Everyone else who popped over seemed to pick out the F&B instantly too (not by name - they just said that they liked it the best), and remember we just had numbers against each square - only I knew which was which.
Needless to say, it's all we use now. We generally use one or two coats of a cheap white paint to cover up the existing wall colour, and then two coats of F&B over the top. We also use a cheap white paint on the ceilings. F&B does cost more, but having seen the results and compared against other paints, I personally think it's worth it. I did some research into paint and it seems that there is some science to this too, in terms of the quality of the things that go into the paint.
1. The way the paint goes on - i.e. coverage and texture was different between brands.
2. The appearance of the paint when its dried (I don't know the arty terminology to describe this) was different between brands.
Farrow & Ball were way ahead of Dulux, Crown, Albany and Homebase's own brand on the above. I had mistakenly thought it was just colour that differentiated them.
My brother in law is a decorator so I thought I'd ask him what he thought of our big wall full of testers, which incidentally was just marked with numbers and I was the only one who had the crib saying which number was which paint. He spotted the F&B instantly and he said it's his favourite to use if a client can afford it. Everyone else who popped over seemed to pick out the F&B instantly too (not by name - they just said that they liked it the best), and remember we just had numbers against each square - only I knew which was which.
Needless to say, it's all we use now. We generally use one or two coats of a cheap white paint to cover up the existing wall colour, and then two coats of F&B over the top. We also use a cheap white paint on the ceilings. F&B does cost more, but having seen the results and compared against other paints, I personally think it's worth it. I did some research into paint and it seems that there is some science to this too, in terms of the quality of the things that go into the paint.
Edited by RobM77 on Wednesday 27th May 14:03
Amusingly polar opinions here.
With regard to problems with F&B marking I've never noticed it tbh. When we did the first house the kids were 1 and 3, the second when they were 4 and 7 and the third when they were 6 and 9. But others seems to have had this issue, so fair enough.
I've also never had any issues touching it up either, although, again, others seem to have had it.
The only problem I've had was with one of the twelve walls I recently did myself. My wife offered to help with one of them and duly applied a really patchy second coat. If you look closely from a shallow angle the paint finish looks uneven. Luckily you're unlikely to do that to that particular wall so I just left it but it if was more prominent I'd have had to give it another going over. But that's not the paint per se, it's just my wife being a bit slapdash.
With regard to problems with F&B marking I've never noticed it tbh. When we did the first house the kids were 1 and 3, the second when they were 4 and 7 and the third when they were 6 and 9. But others seems to have had this issue, so fair enough.
I've also never had any issues touching it up either, although, again, others seem to have had it.
The only problem I've had was with one of the twelve walls I recently did myself. My wife offered to help with one of them and duly applied a really patchy second coat. If you look closely from a shallow angle the paint finish looks uneven. Luckily you're unlikely to do that to that particular wall so I just left it but it if was more prominent I'd have had to give it another going over. But that's not the paint per se, it's just my wife being a bit slapdash.
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