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No. 9920

Grate Black

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Delivery Information

Hand Picked

When we receive your order, your paint is picked by our dedicated warehouse team.

Safe and Sound

Every tin is carefully packed to keep it safe on its journey from Dorset to your door.

Out for Delivery

We work closely with our courier to make sure your order arrives on time, in perfect condition.

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Speak to an Expert

Whether you're feeling overwhelmed by endless possibilities or looking for the confidence to try something new, our expert Colour Consultants are here to help either online or in your home​.

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Visit one of our showrooms for help on colour schemes & finishes. Our in-store colour experts can help you find the perfect palette to match your vision.

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Our live chat team are available from 9am – 7.30pm, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays). Click on our live chat button on the right hand side to reach one of our colour experts.

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Just off black

A special hue for connoisseurs of black, Grate Black sits between the softer tones of Off-Black and the more intense Pitch Black, creating a versatile shade for trim and metalwork.

This product is archived and made to order, which means samples aren't available and orders cannot be refunded or returned.

Recommended Primer & Undercoat: Dark Tones

Complementary white: Dimpse

Key features

The finest ingredients

The finest ingredients

We’re dedicated to perfecting the art of paint. At our home in Dorset, we combine the finest ingredients, 75 years of experience and technical precision to help you create beautiful spaces that stay beautiful. Even in our colour rich paints, less than 8% of the tin is the colour. The other 92% is what creates the quality, depth and extraordinary response to light that transforms your home. 
 
Paint is like coffee. The colour is the froth on the top, but it’s the quality of the rest of the cup that makes it taste good. 
– Richard Ball, Farrow & Ball Co-founder 

We use twelve exclusive pigments, all specifically selected for their colour intensity. We take colour seriously, so naturally, we only accept the very best. By using these same pigments to make every colour in our palette, all our shades combine effortlessly, making it easy for you to put together a cohesive colour scheme. 

Deeper, richer colours

Deeper, richer colours

Packed with pigment for an extraordinary response to every kind of light.

We add generous helpings of rich pigment to create our signature look – deep colours with complex undertones. The same space that feels bright and airy in morning sun, can feel cosy and intimate by evening. Our teams design each shade under every kind of light, so it will be perfectly balanced in every setting.

Extraordinary response to light

Extraordinary response to light

We spend months carefully crafting and testing each of our paint colours to make sure they share our signature extraordinary response to light. This beautiful reaction to changing light, like bringing out different undertones or shifting intensity, is what makes our paint so special.

Interior and exterior finishes

Interior and exterior finishes

From walls, floors and furniture to radiators, skirtings and sheds, our range of paint finishes can help you transform almost any surface in your home (and outside it, too).

We even have multi-surface finishes like Dead Flat and Full Gloss, so you can tackle walls, woodwork and metal at the same time. 

Our comprehensive range is comprised of paint finishes that not only look beautiful, but offer different practical benefits. Designed for a variety of different surfaces, each finish is compatible with our high-performance Primers & Undercoats to ensure exceptional coverage, adhesion and depth of colour. 

Complementary White

Complementary white: DimpseComplementary white: Dimpse

Dimpse

Dimpse is a delicate grey with subtle blue undertones that work particularly well in modern architectural spaces.
Find out more about Dimpse No.277

We pair each of our colours with a complementary white, hand-picked from our palette based on undertones, so they work wonderfully together and create an effortless, considered feel.

Find your perfect finish:

Available in new
Dead Flat

 

Walls, woodwork
& metal

Kitchen walls & ceilings

Bathroom walls
& ceilings

Ceilings

Interior
woodwork

Interior
flooring

Front doors
& woodwork

Exterior
metals

Exterior walls

Traditional plasterwork

Intricate mouldings

Recommended Primer & Undercoat

Primers & UndercoatPrimers & Undercoat

Dark Tones

When it comes to using dark colours, the deeper the better. So, for an irresistibly inviting finished look, pair darker shades with our Dark Tones Primer & Undercoat. Based on the colour of Down Pipe, combining this primer with your topcoat creates an unrivalled richness and makes quite the statement.

Made with the same natural ingredients and pigments as our topcoats, our Primer & Undercoat is the crucial foundation for creating a rich, even and longer lasting finish.

Why Choose Farrow & Ball?

Extraordinary response to light

We spend months carefully crafting and testing each of our paint colours to make sure they share our signature extraordinary response to light. This beautiful reaction to changing light, like bringing out different undertones or shifting intensity, is what makes our paint so special.

Matt 

Modern Emulsion is a beautiful, durable matt finish with 7% sheen.

Tough and Easy-to-Clean

Our super-tough superstar for washable walls, Modern Emulsion has a high-performance formula that makes it easy to wipe away spills and marks – not paint. We use high-quality minerals and strong binders to make sure it’s also resistant to knocks and scrapes. 

Resistant to Mould

Our expert chemists add a preservative to Modern Emulsion that protects it from mould, keeping moisture-prone kitchens and bathrooms looking fresh. So, although it makes a wonderful addition to every room of your home, it’s the best finish option for these steamy spaces in particular.

Scuff and Stain Resistant

We use high-quality minerals and strong binders to make sure Modern Emulsion is stain resistant and scuff-proof. 

The finest ingredients 

Even in our colour rich paints, less than 8% of the tin is the colour. The other 92% is what creates the quality, depth and extraordinary response to light that transforms your home.

Deeper, richer colours

We add generous helpings of rich pigment to create our signature look – deep colours with complex undertones. The same space that feels bright and airy in morning sun, can feel cosy and intimate by evening. 

Made by Us in Dorset, England

Every single tin of Farrow & Ball paint is handcrafted by our team in Dorset, England. As it has been since we started back in 1946. Each tin of Farrow & Ball is 75 years in the making, with a story and personal touch you simply won’t find anywhere else.

Responsibly sourced

We have long-standing relationships with suppliers who share our ethos, and we work with them to ensure that every single one of our ingredients, including our range of pigments, is responsibly sourced and not created or sourced as a result of exploitation.

Paint that can't be matched


Asking ‘can you match Farrow & Ball colours?’ misses everything else that goes into the tin to make our industry defining finishes. We pack our paint with quality minerals, coverage-enhancing pigments and resin (using a much higher proportion than many other brands), ensuring an exceptional base to add colour to.

100% water based
Our completely water based paint range doesn’t discolour over time like solvent based paints can. So your spaces stay beautiful for longer.

Toy safe
Independently tested and certified toy-safe in accordance with Safety of Toys Part 3: Migration of certain elements (EN 71-3:2019+A1:2021).

Low VOC
All of our finishes, including our tough trim and floor paints, are made with a low-odour, low-VOC water base that scores A+ for indoor air quality. 

Order Two Sample Pots, Get One Free

The best way to experience our colours before taking the plunge is with a true-to-colour paint sample. To help you narrow down your shortlist of shades, we've curated three of our most popular shades to help you find your perfect match.

Sample selection contains 3 x 100ml Sample Pots of our beautiful Hopper Head, Off-Black and Pitch Black.

  1. Paean Black
    Paean Black
    No. 294
    No. 294
  2. Tanner's Brown
    Tanner's Brown
    No. 255
    No. 255
  3. Down Pipe
    Down Pipe
    No. 26
    No. 26
  4. Hopper Head
    Hopper Head
    No. 305
    No. 305
  5. Railings
    Railings
    No. 31
    No. 31
  6. Off-Black
    Off-Black
    No. 57
    No. 57
  7. Liquorice
    Liquorice
    No. CB10
    No. CB10
  8. Pitch Black
    Pitch Black
    No. 256
    No. 256
  9. Black Blue
    Black Blue
    No. 95
    No. 95
  10. Bible Black
    Bible Black
    No. 225
    No. 225
  11. Grate Black
    Grate Black
    No. 9920
    No. 9920
  12. Smelt Black
    Smelt Black
    No. G18
    No. G18
  13. Tar
    Tar
    No. CC1
    No. CC1

View All Black Paint Colours

Far from dark and dreary, black paint creates intimate, inviting and thoroughly sophisticated spaces to escape to at the end of a long day. Go bold and take it all over or simply add a touch to your trim.

 

Discover Black Paint Schemes

Find inspiration for your project and view beautiful images of black paint schemes in real homes.