I have the F&B fandeck. The chips are actual paint, I believe. When I hold the chips up to the brochure and look at them in a mirror, the chips look to be every so slightly deeper. This may be a function of sheen. Are you painting a room this color or a piece of furniture? Would love to see what's going on...

I am seriously considering painting the wall behind my washer/dryer in Orangery. Somehow, F&B is able to make bright colors that aren't too garish.

Hi Amy

Nothing much going on -- yet. My bedroom draperies went in and the vibrant yellow -- approx color of the citron on the folder -- is making the muslin walls look so bleech. I have the awning green doors French doors that are scraped down to have traces of powder blue showing. I'm going to back those with leftover drapery material. So I decided to either paper the walls or paint.

I found a fabulous old paper but it's $$$$ and my issue is adding to that by hiring someone to put it up. It's just a dressing room. But I don't feel confident about hanging the paper myself. Besides, there is not a single unbroken wall in there -- one has the window, the other two have closets and the fourth has a huge mirror. So, without some type of wall to show the paper it sort of seems like a waste since the repeat is fairly big and it will be all chopped up.

So I thought paint and for once, the F&B looked pretty good with the fabric. Funny thing is I did a concept board and using some color aid paper in yellow and the color aid paper is EXACTLY the same color as the fabric. Those papers are 24 18 or so but I actually thought about using those for wallpaper but I'd lose my mind getting 4 lines straight on even part of a wall so that's out.

Broke down this a.m. and ordered a sample pot of the citron and another green color for the guest room which needs repainting since the wall color and carpet aren't the greatest.

Thanks for checking for me. If the paint's a tad darker it won't matter.

I am really loving the orange colors. I have the fandeck for Sydney Harbour and they have a color called Mango that is a knockout. That deck is a brushout. Wish I could use the color but it just doesn't go anywhere in my house. Not even furniture. Boo.

But I'd love it if someone used it because it's so fresh and vibrant. I can scan it if you're interested. Sydney Harbor will send sample pots. Their Sol is close to my drapery fabric but just a bit brighter and I don't want the curtains to look dirty so I went to F&B.

The SH paints do look a lot clearer than the F&B. I think that "dirtied down" quality is what makes the colors easy to live with...when you find the right one.

Mango looks similar to the Orangery. But brighter. I'll most likely be pairing the orange with Parma Gray which reads a muted blue to me. I am mad about blue and orange together! Thanks for offering to scan Mango for me. I think I'll pass since I have been so happy with F&B of late. Not willing to branch out for something as mundane as a laundry room!

Looking at Sydney Harbour's neutrals does make me wonder how these colors might have impacted my journey toward F&B Buff in my living/music room. Whatever...I am done!

Sounds like your dressing room is a good candidate for paint. I have hung wallpaper myself, but only above chair rails or a half-wall of tile in bathrooms. It's not that difficult, but would perhaps be more intimidating with expensive materials.

I may yet paper my guest bath if the stripping process leaves a mess. I hope not. I am leaning toward F&B Blue Ground in there. At least it is a WP color so I can be sure there will be WP in that colorway if I need it!

My house has odd light so I need to watch the paint. Rooms with eastern exposure go very dark and western rooms go nuclear in the afternoon.

Medium range colors look so dark in my house I haven't been able to use them. I've stayed with light, bright (white) color vs those which are grey'd, or toned down.

But when I took a swatch of the wonderful pale Naples yellow that my kitchen (east exposure) is painted up to the dressing room (west exposure) it looked like cream.

So I'm hoping that the more intense F&B yellow that's also bit toned down will work. I looked at the SH Sol but it's so much brighter I fear it would glow. The yellow/green in there is already a strong combo. The only reason I can get away with it is because the room is so chopped up and there is either a window, a mirror or closet light on every wall.

Amy, I really like orange/blue. It's a classic pairing and always looks great I think. Sounds like your house is coming along beautifully.

Rococogurl and Amy, Since you are talking F&B and seem to have some of the color cards or samples or something, may I ask you to give me your impression of Borrowed Light? Maybe I'm just seduced by the name of this color but I so want to get a bead on it. I did get a sample and it is such an interesting color. Whereever I have applied it - especially on different or facing walls, I see a different color - really pale but luminescent blue somewhere, a dusky gray green on another wall, and an unmistakable navy submarine gray on another. I'm sure that it has a lot to do with the background wall color that I've applied the paint onto but still ...

BTW, Rococo, I'm just outside Boston and since we're probably at about the same latitude, we probably share the same light. Because Boston and its environs is a fairly low-living city and trees do abound, I've got some around the house that probably do something to filter the light as well. I don't like colors much so I am a patron of the washed out pale (but cool) colors that have been much scoffed at as lily-livered and unadventurous in many a decorating lexicon but that's what I like. Even pastels are too dark for my taste. In my opinion, the light in my house further amplifies my preference for these very pale colors.

I'm not sure that Borrowed Light qualifies as a very pale colors but i'll be danged if I'm not being seduced by it. I'd love to know what you guys think of it.

Thanks!
-ls

Mindstorm, just posted on your other thread.

amy has the fandeck. I've got an old color card which, unfortunately does not have your Borrowed Light on it. But if I was going for gray in my house I'd be sampling Blackened or Shaded White if I didn't mind some khaki undertone. F.ex. Great White looks mauve to me and Lime White looks ochre.

But like some other things, I share your preference for tinted paint -- color that's barely there.

You're a few hours north of me but I doubt the light is all that different. My house has east/west exposure though -- not ideal as one side is dark until noon and the other side dark after noon. My neighbor, who just finished building, happened to mention how much trouble he had coming up with a color and how gray the light was in his house as well.

I know that in my place I need tints (bright paints with a lot of white) rather than tones (grayed) which is why the F&B colors haven't worked for me. Warm colors look good on the east side; cool on the west.

I had very good luck with the BM whites and serenity cards (isn't serenity unfortunately named?) The FPE white on the screen doors looks ivory next to the BM white jambs.

Pirula was nice enough to send me big samples the c-2 Stockholm and Thermal which aren't dark but were so dark when I taped them up I couldn't leave them on the wall. I also have learned to keep the samples taped up for a really long time before I decide because my snap decisions are usually wrong.

I can't live with dark, intense or have too much color shift between rooms so the idea of color shift within a room -- not so sure.

Well, I'm coming from a totally different place here...I'm in Florida and I love color. Real, saturated color!

That said, Borrowed Light is very beautiful. It reminds me of the EK Gustavian Gray I have in several rooms. It is very much a blue imo, though one that changes, as you have noticed.

I agree with rococo that Blackened might be a safer choice for the color averse. And that Great White does indeed look mauve.

I can't stress enough how important it is to get a sample pot. The chips just don't do justice to the paints in situ. The brochure is even worse.

Rococo, my house is shaping up well, I am happy to say. It is interesting to me to look at pictures taken only a few months ago and note the changes. Art has migrated, accent tables have arrived, tchotchkies have been shifted hither and yon, etc. I forget that this is an evolutionary process, sometimes glacial in speed but always on the move. And, I suppose its never ending.

amy, if I lived in Florida, I'd paint that mango in the living room and go all white furniture with some shots of wenge or ipe, and probably do a red kitchen. I'd do lavender and aqua. Woo hoo CSI colors, what fun.

I remember a progress photo of your living room, which looked great. Hope you'll show more pix at some point as it's nice to see how things are going with those you "know".

Thanks for the help with the yellow. The sample pot is on the way and I threw in some Green Ground as a candidate for another room. The F&B woman told me that the card is printed and admitted variation in the color, so who knows.

Hope mindstorm checks in -- wonder if she changed lightbulbs or what.

Rococogurl, Sorry for being so long in responding. I'd just gotten back from a trip on Monday and have been getting caught up with work, sucked into deadlines, and putting out fires. Re: lights, I responded to you on the other thread. But indeed, you're right, my problem seems to be poor light because the room looked great in this morning's natural light when I finally got to see it, although I do indeed have the Reveal bulb in one of my lamps.

Re: Borrowed Light, this was a candidate for a different room and not the bedroom of the previous thread but my go-no-go philosophy will likely be the same although I'm not hard over on the very pale blue-gray here. I think I was getting overly attached/seduced by the name (dangerous with paints, no?).

Funnnily enough, Blackened and Strong (not Shaded) White are indeed two other colors I'd ordered (sample tins) from F&B. I LOVE blackened and had considered it for my bedroom prior to getting DK24 but decided it may be a bit too dark there. I'll have to try it out again for the study and spare room I need to paint. Both are basically a loft on the second storey of my house and have windows in every single direction (except the divider wall between the loft and the room. I'll look at Blackened again there. I haven't tried Shaded White but did get Strong White which I thought was too yellow and immediately rejected it.

Amy, Thanks for your thoughts on Borrowed Light. It is funny you say that it harkens of Gustavian Grey. I had tried Gustavian Grey about a year ago (sample tins three times) because of the raves I've read about it. BUT I have to say that GG in my house - three rooms - has always been just a vibrant green. I've never in any of these three rooms been able to find the blue in it nor the gray. It looked luminescent and green while I prefer more muted colors that are basically white (shades of gray) or blue-gray :-). I loved that I could see Blue in Borrowed Light.

Rococogurl reminded me that indeed I will probably not like seeing so many colors in one room, let alone at the same time! That was one of the reasons I had to paint over some previous colours!

I wish F&B would change the darned name though because it is so alluring.

Mindstorm, when I used the GG in my bathroom, which has a central wall of green tile, the paint turned mint green. Really bad. Had to make that go away! Sounds like what you're experiencing with the C2. The GG in my dining area, just off the pool, is a pale watery blue. Just lovely.

I have been thinking about full spectrum and how it might be "too much of a good thing" for you. I remember that EK talks about no black pigments in her paints because they are light-suckers and counteract the FS effect. Then, I think about Blackened, which as I understand it, is white with lamp black added. I wonder if the "absorbent" quality of the black pigment would help moderate the poly-chromatic effect you are looking to avoid. Hmmm....I think about paint way too much!

Rococo, here's a shot from today.

Now, I need to get in gear around the WTs. What did you do about yours, btw?

amy, that's the photo I remember. The wall color looks excellent to me and I recall that door but you have it well under control. The room looks great and I trust you're getting a lot of satisfaction from it. I would.

Should think your wts would be very easy and logical (or at least to me). Wall color or trim color. Easy pleat style. Big decision for me would be whether to use open fabric or tighter that closes off the light.

I'm at a point where I can take my time. No large issues except coffee table and no lighting striking there yet.

It's nice to rest my mind and tweak a little here and there with wall color. The dressing room photo's too dark to post, alas.

Samples of the F&B arrived last night. The Citron is related to the color on the card but certainly not the same color. The one on the card is golden; the Citron is a really nice lemon.

I must say I find a bad color card a most unfortunate way to sell me paints. I'm so not interested in 10,000 sample pots at $6-8 per.

Green ground appears nearly white and gray under light. It has nice color on the card.

I'm painting both on sample boards but I just got an email from FPE -- they will color match to any sample and I have an exact color sample. Anyone do that?

Wanted to post an update.

The colors are not remotely close to the color card with F&B s paint, which I find to be really annoying since it means you need to buy multiple sample pots.

I already had two -- and when I opened the Green Ground it looks so terrible. It looked yellow going on the sample board. But as Amy mentioned, the surface is very nice when it dries and when I put the board in the room, it looked great. It's a really odd color -- celery is the best description but even yellower.

I'm going to do the same with the citron and see how that works vs the yellow I already have.

The odd thing is that the colors don't match, they don't look right when they go down on the sample board but when the color board gets propped up against a wall in the room it's being considered for, it looks great.

No wonder paint drives everyone so crazy!

Rococo, did you do two coats? I am always amazed at how very different the paint looks on the chips (real paint) and on the walls. I think the sample pots are Modern Emulsion. The finish of the Estate Emulsion is even better.

It is interesting how the angle of the board changes the look of the paint. And how the environment changes the colors. I bought my sample of Cooking Apple Green up north and fell in love with it. Thought it was the answer! Back in FL, it looked dreadful on my bedroom walls.

Amy, I didn't do two coats.

Every time I walked past the door of the room where the board was propped up I thought I'd better do a second coat.

Maybe you'd look at it after I'm done. It's the worst looking color -- it is exactly the sicky color of Campbell's Cream of Celery soup before it's diluted!

But I have a totally a rug in that room that a Chinese deco and the ground is red-violet. It has some blue and green leaves and traces of yellow. The green of this paint isn't in the rug and is nowhere near as intense but it stand sup to it somehow. Everything else just died or went gray.

Guess this Yellow-Green is the opposite of BV.

Will do a second coat on the board.

I just found this thread. I'm sorry Jane, I could have told you that the F&B fandex is not the greatest at telling the real color. I found it's completely different. All but two of my F&B colors were surprises. PLEASANT surprises, but surprises nonetheless. Not good if you're trying to match something.

Ivette

But Ivette, if you hold the chip up to the wall, does it match? Mine seem to, even though they look totally different in each format.

Rococo, tsk tsk. Do the second coat! You'll get a new color entirely, I bet.

Ivette, I knew that. I ordered the samples because the color of Amy's living room looked so good, you loved the paint and because there were 2 yellows on the card that were close to what I need. The green was a flyer.

I have a piece of color aid paper that is dead on the curtain fabric swatch. The F&B citron is close -- I've got the board up. I need to look at it for a while and see if I want to match or go a bit lighter. Yellows aren't easy and right now this is my distraction. hehehe

My complaint is having to spend the cost of a quart of paint to get a color right because a high end paint company cannot produce an accurate fandeck.

Amy, you're right. It's more intense with the second coat but the color seems to work better than anything else I've found with that rug. Better than colors pulled from the rug, oddly.

Amy:

With the exception of Cooking Apple Green and Farrow's Cream, yes the fandex chip does match when held up to the walls, even though they seem very different separately. With the aforementioned colors, it's off. Maybe it's just my light.

Jane, you shouldn't have to buy a quart of this stuff. They sell little sample cans that I found went very far and allowed me to do big swatches. Now with them, the only color that surprised me was Farrow's Cream, but that is in two large rooms and I think that that's why. No way a big swatch could have shown me what this color would really do. It's lovely though.

F&B colors are tricky, no doubt, but beautiful. I'm just not sure they're going to work for matching something. But if you're willing to go a shade lighter or darker so that you have something that is complimentary and looks beautiful together, then yes, it would be great.

Citron is pretty yellow. Are you trying to go more yellow or less? Farrow's Cream is much more creamy than yellow, it also has the bizarre *hint* of olive in it, that only I and my Dad can see. It drove me nuts at first, but now that all my stuff is in the room, I've grown to really love it.

Ask for the sample pots! I think they're $5 each, which is about what a C2 giant chip costs and that's about the size of swatch I got out of them.

Ivette

P.S. Definitely multiple coats change the color. But I found that to be true with all the paints I used, except for FPE. F&B in particular seems to benefit and grow more luminous with more coats. I deliberately did three coats in three rooms because of that, and I'm glad I did.

Okay, I'm glad I'm not the only one who does a third coat because I'm having fun...!

My VdT in the MBR looks like velvet. Three coats.