Farrow and Ball copy - perfect match

I've written before about the difficulty getting Farrow and Ball copies which match Farrow and Ball - the worst case involving my having to add 2.5 litres of white to an off-white ColorTrend copy (F&B New White) to get it somewhere close to the Farrow and Ball.

A recent project saw the painter insist that Johnstones were doing exact copies. So I gave it a whirl - deciding to paint the first coat Johnstones and 2nd Farrow and Ball. But when the Johnstones went up, I painted some Farrow and Ball as 2nd coat and there was no difference.

So, colour match is pretty much perfect. Not so sure the copy captures the absolute tones of the original, but pretty close.

And Johnstones is pretty cheap: 50 quid or so for 10 litres, which would cost 220 or so in Farrow and Ball. Indeed, the 10 litres Johnstones is only a 5er more than the 5litre Johnstones.


Beware painters using Farrow and Ball tins refilled with copy paint - my painter said. Apparently there's quite a demand for empty Farrow and Ball tins