A colour match of a Farrow & Ball shade can look close on the day, but it is rarely the same colour on your wall. Matches are made with different pigments and a different base, so they tend to shift in a different way as the light changes, often looking right in daylight and wrong by lamplight. If it is the colour you love, the most reliable route is the genuine paint, tested first with a sample pot.
That is not a criticism of anyone who offers matching. Scanning and tinting technology is clever, and a match can be perfectly serviceable on a garden shed. It simply cannot reproduce a paint that was designed from its ingredients up. Here is why, and what we would suggest instead.
Photo Credit: Farrow & Ball; Colour Used: Oval Room Blue (85)
Why matches rarely look right
A colour is not just a hue; it is a recipe. Farrow & Ball say their colours are made from a precise blend of their own exclusive pigments, chosen for colour intensity, and that using the same pigments across the palette is what lets their shades sit together so easily. A matching system has to recreate the same appearance from a different set of pigments.
The two can agree under one light and part company under another. Farrow & Ball point out that a match may look similar in daylight and then shift under artificial light, with a change in undertone or a washed-out look. Complex colours suffer most: a shade like Dead Salmon (28), which Farrow & Ball describe as rosy in some lights and more brown and grey in others, depends entirely on that balance of pigments.
Colour and finish are made together
Farrow & Ball state that less than 8% of each tin is colour. The rest is the base, which they say creates the quality, depth and response to light, and their formula is adjusted for each finish. In their words, their colours and finishes are formulated together, so you cannot have one without the other.
That is why the chalkiness of Estate Emulsion (a 2% sheen) or the flatness of Dead Flat is part of how a colour looks. Put the same tint in a different base with a different sheen and the colour itself appears to change.
Photo Credit: Farrow & Ball; Colour Used: Dead Salmon (28)
What to do instead, step by step
- Order the genuine sample. A Farrow & Ball sample pot holds 100ml of Estate Emulsion, enough for two generous boards.
- Paint large boards. Two coats on A3 card or lining paper, painted to the edges, tells you far more than a small patch on the wall.
- Look in your own light. Move the boards around the room and check them in the morning, in the evening and under lamps. This is exactly where a true colour and a match would differ.
- Choose the finish. Decide where the colour is going: Estate Emulsion for quieter rooms, Modern Emulsion for kitchens, bathrooms and hallways, and Flat Eggshell or Modern Eggshell for woodwork.
- Measure carefully. Work out the quantity before you order, so you buy what you need and no more. Every tin we sell is mixed to order.
If cost is the concern
Most people consider a match to save money, which is entirely reasonable. A few ways to keep the genuine paint within budget:
- Buy the right quantity. Over-ordering is a common hidden cost. Measure walls carefully and subtract doors and windows.
- Spend where it shows. Use the genuine colour on the walls and woodwork you see every day, and keep a plain white for cupboard interiors.
- Check our Wonky Tin Outlet. The Wonky Tin Outlet offers genuine paint from the brands we stock, in dented tins or mis-mixed colours, at a reduced price, so it is worth a look before you order.
If you prefer another brand's finish
Sometimes the reason for a match is a finish: you love a Farrow & Ball colour but want a particular paint from another maker. Rather than matching, we would suggest looking at that brand's own palette for a colour with the same spirit. Little Greene and Paint & Paper Library each have their own carefully developed colours, made to sit with their own finishes. Order samples of the Farrow & Ball original and two or three alternatives, paint them side by side on boards, and choose the one you love in your room. Our guide to the one question to ask before choosing a colour may help narrow it down.
Questions we are often asked
Do you colour match Farrow & Ball?
No. We share the view of every brand we stock: a colour can never be reproduced exactly, because so much of its character comes from the rich pigments each maker chooses and the base they are mixed into. That is true of Farrow & Ball, Little Greene and Paint & Paper Library alike. Every tin we sell is the genuine paint, mixed to order in its own finish.
Is a colour match ever good enough?
For a small, practical job where the colour does not have to sit beside the original, it may be. Where it will be seen next to genuine Farrow & Ball, or across a whole room, the differences tend to show.
Will the genuine colour look the same as on screen?
Not exactly, which is true of any paint. Screens and printed cards are only a guide, so always make the final decision from a painted sample in your own room.
