Picking Paint*

It’s no secret around there that we love paint. It’s one of the quickest, easiest and cheapest ways to transform your home. Your colour choice can be safe & neutral, bold & daring or anything in between, and if you decide you need an update or don’t like the result, it’s a super easy thing to change, too!

Our hallway used to be painted in a muddy brown with a green ceiling. Whilst we have sanded the floor and restored the staircase, the biggest change is still down to painting the walls. It just feels much fresher, cleaner and even larger.

Since starting to renovate our home over 5 years ago, we’ve inevitably tried and tested a lot different paints in a range of different finishes and colours (as well as pretty much every paint stripper out there!).

In life you often you get for what you pay for, but can the same be said for paint?

For us, the main consideration when choosing paint is always the choice of colours. We probably have around 10 different colour charts and our decision is first and foremost always based on the colour that we like best.

But, it’s not just the choice of colour that influences our paint decision (no, it’s not the pretty names). High quality paint like Farrow & Ball paint has a much higher quality of pigments which means that the paint has a much higher depth of colour which also tends to change in different light.

The walls in our recently painted guest bedroom for example are painted in Pale Powder by Farrow & Ball.

Depending on the time of day, the colour changes considerably. Sometimes it’s a soft green, sometimes it’s more blue and sometimes it even looks grey – all tones are gorgeous and the different shades definitely make for a more interesting finish.

For our less than perfect walls, the estate emulsion is perfect. The matt chalky finish hides imperfections and has a lovely contemporary finish.

The floor in the same room is painted in Farrow & Ball All White Floor Paint. We love the finish that we were able to achieve. The paint was silky smooth to apply, gave great coverage and dried super quickly which meant there weren’t days of waiting involved.

Most of the woodwork in the rest of our home is painted in Dulux Pure Brilliant White. Whilst we were initially happy with it, we have had some problems with the paint starting to yellow over time. Not great when you’re after a pure brilliant white finish (apparently they’ve since changed the formula).

Another big reason for us to choose water based paint is the cleaning aspect. Washing your brushes under water is definitely much quicker and easier than using mineral spirits or another solvent cleaner. Farrow and Ball paints are also low odour, just a day after painting our bedroom there was absolutely no smell and you wouldn’t have known that it had been recently painted. Their water-based paints are also low VOC and eco friendly which helps to protect the environment

Our master bedroom is painted in Farrow & Ball Skimming Stone Estate Emulsion. It’s a lovely warm colour with greyish undertones. Just like Pale Powder in our guest bedroom, the colour changes with the light and time of day. In sunlight it’s really bright and crisp, in the evenings it feels much warmer.

So, the more you pay, the better the paint? Yes, overall we would say that “posh” paints are worth it. Don’t get me wrong, you’re not going to find me painting our cellar walls and floor in expensive paint, but the higher quality and quantity of pigments and greater depth of colour make Farrow & Ball one of our favourite paint brands.

Have you ever made a design choice that you’ve regretted? Do you have a favourite colour or brand of paint? Do you have tips for picking paint? Have you ever painted a room and immediately regretted your colour choice? What do you think – is high quality paint worth paying a bit more for?

*Disclosure: This post is in collaboration with Kent Blaxill. All opinions and thoughts are of course our own! Thank you for supporting the brands that make it possible for us to keep creating and sharing content here at Little House On The Corner.