Can You Colour Match Farrow & Ball?

75 years of perfecting paint can’t be matched in minutes.

Can you colour match Farrow & Ball paint? The short answer is no. Not only are colour matches never a perfect match, but 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. Here are five reasons why Farrow & Ball paint is unmatchable.


1. Unique Pigments

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.

Companies that colour match will use completely different pigments, so in the same way that trying to follow a recipe using different ingredients will lead to a dish you weren’t expecting, when you colour match paint, you’re having a completely different colour made up. It just won’t be the same.

2. Expert Colour Creation

No one else understands colour like we do. We use a precise blend of different pigments to create the colours you know and love. This balance is carefully crafted and checked by our experts to make sure each tin is exactly the colour they designed. When Joa and Charlotte (the creative minds behind most of our palette) start designing a new paint shade, they know exactly what look and feel they want to achieve. They share this with our on-site colour lab, where the colour is tested, refined and perfected to make sure it’s exactly as they intended, in every finish we make. It’s a process that takes 18 months per colour but it’s time well worth spending.

As part of the testing, our experts check the colour under all kinds of light, so the colour you fall in love with is the colour you get. Colour matched paint can sometimes look similar to Farrow & Ball under one kind of light, for example daylight, but because they’ve used a different balance of pigments, the colour will shift under another light, like artificial light. As a result, when you turn your lights on the colour match looks totally different, either with a change in undertone or becoming washed out. That’s the difference between minutes to match and months of craft.

3. Our Unique Finishes

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. Our entire range is 100% water based, low odour and rated A+ for indoor air quality with trace, low or minimal VOCs.

Our experts also make sure our colours are available in a wide range of unique finishes, so you can enjoy our signature deeper, richer colour in a range of sheens and on a range of surfaces: from matt, washable wall paint to high-shine Full Gloss for front doors. Sheen always affects how colour appears: the same shade in gloss can look very different in matt. That’s why we specifically adjust the formula for every finish to make sure the balance is exactly right and you get the colour you were expecting. Our colours and finishes are formulated together, so you simply can’t have one without the other.

4. Unrivalled Commitment to Quality

We’re dedicated to perfecting the art of paint. We use the highest quality ingredients, precise formulas and industry-leading technology to create high-performance paint for every project. We’re constantly refining our paint and process, striving for even better coverage, even longer-lasting results and even easier application. Every tin of paint has nine quality checks before leaving our manufacturing site. In fact, we have such high expectations, the accuracy of our tests is higher than the industry standard. Paint colour matching simply can’t compare.

Part of our commitment to making the best paint possible, is a commitment to being considerate of the world around us while we do. We’ve signed up to science-based targets and we’re working hard on lots of ways to minimise our impact on the planet. We’ve made a whole separate page on this, so you can read all about it here: https://www.farrow-ball.com/sustainability

5. Made by Us in Dorset, England

One final thing that makes our paint so special is how it’s made and why we make it that way. 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. Our founders, John and Peggy Farrow and Richard and Ena Rose Ball, set out to make a life for themselves and their families after the Second World War by creating the very best paint they could. So, we’re carrying on their mission in a way we think they’d be proud of. Each tin of Farrow & Ball is 75 years in the making, with a story and personal touch you simply won’t find anywhere else.


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

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