Farrow & ball or Dulux Endurance paint? Post Reply

[Laura9]

Does anyone have any experience of Dulux endurance paint? We have a decorator starting in a couple of weeks (recommended on here, thank you!), he'll be painting our hallways & landings. He uses Dulux endurance paint as he thinks it is harder wearing with small children. We've used Farrow & Ball before and my experience is that it goes on more easily that Dulux and the colours are good... Obviously F&B is far more expensive than dulux, but we want it to last well. Any thoughts or experience from anyone? Many thanks!

[Camille]

Farrow & Ball is lovely but ours, like friends with toddlers who have used it, shows every little grubby hand print...crayons, etc forget it!

I think this is standard for all brands of emulsion though. We have thought of endurance paint and would be interested to know how you get on as I think it washable to a point. My only reservation would be whether or not it is actually matt or slightly shiny.

[tooting_mummy]

We originally used regular Dulux on our hall/stairs/landing and it did have a lovely matt, almost floury (if that makes sense!) finish but within days it was marked and within weeks completely wrecked. Partly our three year old, partly us, buggy.... Blah, blah.
Luckily we were getting downstairs and outside painted before I went on mat leave so we got our decorator to redo it in the same colour but Endurance. Baby is 7.5 months and not a mark anywhere. The finish isn't as nice as it is slightly shiny but it looks a lot better than the old paint with all the marks.
So can't comment on F&B but a big thumbs up for Endurance.

[kiwimummy]

A vote against F&B if you have toddlers. Our painter also tried to get us to use Dulux Endurance - wish we'd listened!

[Laura9]

Thank you all for your very helpful replies. Looks like we'll be going for endurance then!

[Bluebutterfly]

The whole of our ground floor has been painted in Dulux Endurance and I am really pleased we did! I frequently scrub off food, mud, buggy marks etc and have also removed biro and felt tip pen. Definite thumbs up from me, although I agree the colours/finish aren't as nice. Btw it is good to do up the stairs too as lots of grubby hands go up and down, as well as suitcases scraped along etc...

[Mummyofayummy!]

I was really interested to see your post. Many friends rave about F&B but my parents have used it in their house and I find it so stressful taking my toddler home. Every single mark shows up and unlike other brands you can't touch up, you have to re paint the wall. Although I can't speak about Dulex Endurance I think this is what we will go for in the future. At the end of the day we would drive our selves potty trying to stop the small people touching the walls so the next best thing is to have something that wipes down well and can be touched up as needed. Good luck with the paint job and let us know how you get on x

[tooting_mummy]

The choice of Endurance colours is slightly limiting but we used Malt Chocolate which is a good neutral that can be used everywhere. We originally wanted Mellow Mocha but upon testing found it too pink.

[Hattie]

I had my sitting room painted in Endurance. I loved two of the F&B colours but it was SOOO expensive. My decorator was able to get the "recipe" from some clever paint computer programme thing and copy the make up with Dulux so I got the F&B colour at the Dulux rate. Worth a try! Try asking in any good Dulux Trade shop (rather than somewhere like B&Q) because they are pretty savvy.

[Laura9]

Really interesting reading all the comments about this- I'm so glad I asked! Thanks for that tip Hattie. I was looking at the dulux website last night wondering about colours. It looks as though the endurance paint has a limited choice of colours, but they look pretty neutral. It's certainly not worth the worry (and expense) of using F&B when little hands, buggies etc so easily mark walls! Will let you know how we get on with it! Thanks again everyone.

[Dachshundsrule11]

The other thing you can do is use any emulsion paint and you can get F & B paints made up by other paint shops. To protect it put on a dead flat water based varnish from Polyvine (you can put it on top of wall papers as well). It is very quick to apply and goes a long way. There is a paint shop called decorators mate on Streatham high road (by Telfold Avenue) where you can park outside the shop for nothing and they can mix your F & B colour and they sell the Polyvine dead flat water based varnish. I am a painter and have used it for years especially on areas where there is a lot of heavy traffic ie hallways and landings.
I'm sure your decorator will know about this product and you will have a larger range of colours.
Good luck

[Laura9]

Thanks very much for the info, Dachshundsrule. I'll chat to my decorator about the shop you've mentioned.

[tintin]

Farrow & Ball's 'Modern Emulsion' is great for rooms with high usage such as kitchens, children's rooms, halls etc. It's got a low sheen and is extremely wipe able.

[webreview]

I used Farrow & Ball Modern Emulsion in my kitchen - no pets - no kids - experienced in refurbishment. Do not do it. You will not be ale to remove marks, maybe very light marks, but if you have the smallest splash of coffee for example, forget it, the best you will do is make it fade - the only thing that will be on your cloth is the paint. Do not think you can varnish over it, it will darken the colour regardless of how good the varnish is, sometimes very very slightly, but it will.
Little Greene Company paints are much more highly rated by the trade than F&B and they do the traditional colours and finishes, just better and harder wearing.

[lemonzest]

Sorry, no time to read the whole thread, but a vote for Dulux Endurance. Had F&B in flat we last lived in and it was a completely pain in the behind. No chance of touching up the inevitable smears/scrapes which toddlers produce.