What are you trying to paint, Red? Walls or cabinets? I reread your post, and I think you are talking about walls. I have F&B French Grey on my island cabinets. But, the cabinet man said that cabinets are painted with lacquer. So, I bought a can of the FB French Grey for him to match in lacquer. I don't think you can buy lacquer in paint stores. The cabinet man matched the FB French Grey with no problem. I cannot see any difference, and I am color sensitive. My favorite paint is Donald Kaufmann, and I have tried them all, many times. At times, they (they meaning DK) have sent me a pigment and they specify it to be mixed into Pratt and Lambert paint. So, for paint you can pick up locally, I prefer Pratt and Lambert. I would have them mix the FB match for me if I were not to get the real FB.

Brushworks, I appreciate your responding. Actually the SW coat went on and seemed to adhere perfectly. Everything looked great until I started with the F&B primer after the followup skimming and resanding. After doing some more researching and talking with the drywall finisher, I think there were several things going on including the dust from that last sanding, fresh drywall for which F&B says to dilute the primer, the temperature was likely mid-fifties or lower with some of the wall maybe even being close to 50F (temp in there now is 61F and it was much cooler that day), and lastly, the F&B primer may not be compatible with the SW latex primer. Is the F&B interior wall and ceiling primer an alkyd? And does putting an alkyd water-based primer over a latex primer cause failure? I've tried sanding and it is not working out very well for me. It is dry as I am getting dust. I've called the drywall finisher and asked him to come back out and skim over the rough areas. After he finishes and I (this time) clean the dust off and make sure the temperature is well above 50F, what primer should I use before putting the F&B primer on to make sure there are no compatibility issues? I have used Zinnser primers (BIN and 123) before and have trust in them and have read that Cover Stain is recommened - would that be the latex or oil-based? I called F&B and they tell me they don't test with other brands and so can't guarantee compatibility. Or should I put a diluted F&B primer coat on the skim-coat areas and then follow up overall with a regular coat? Not all of the wall will have a skim coat on it. Brushworks, Do you think it really was just the dust (and maybe temp) issue and I don't really have to worry about compatibility? Thanks for any and all advice. I really want to avoid messing this up again.

I went to Sherwin Williams first, and the guy was hesitant to match It all depends on the color. Some colors cross brands flawlessly. Some don't. And that's not just my opinion. We can pull data to prove it. It's a mistake to say that you can have any color matched in any brand as much as it's wrong to say that you NEVER can cross brands with any color - sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I'll tell you exactly how I deal with this. The only way to know for sure is to buy a sample of Clunch directly from F&B, paint a sample board and have SW use that real-paint sample as the target for matching. F&B paint chips are notoriously "off". Which is why you have to buy a sample. Any other brand and you could use the chip - but not Farrow & Ball. F&B has issues and this is just one of them. Then buy a Color Muse - you can pick one up right at the SW paint counter because they sell them with Sherwin Williams branded stickers. It will be $50 or $60 well spent. 1. Download the Color Muse app. Even if you buy the one with SW stickers, the Color Muse app will work with the device. 2. Follow the directions to connect the device and calibrate it. 3. Find and Choose "Inspect" it's a triangle icon. On my phone it's in the lower left corner. 4. Tap "options" and from the choices of Inspect Options, choose "d65 Lab". 5. Tap "options" again to close that menu. Now you're ready to scan. 6. Take the cap off and put it on the button end. 7. Place the device scanner eye end directly on your painted F&B color sample. 8. Tap the big "Reference" square on the app. It has a finger tapping a button icon. 9. Place the device scanner eye end directly on a DRY version of the Sherwin Williams draw down sample of their attempt to match Clunch. Do this right at the counter in the store. 10. Tap the big "Sample" button. It too has a finger tapping a button icon. 11. The app will compare the two colors based on their color DNA and it will tell you in terms of Delta E if it's a good match or not. It looks like this... A Delta E below 0.5 is a really good match. I would buy the paint. A Delta E below 1.0 is going to be decent, usually close enough for most people. A Delta E above 1.0 and it's a matter of settling and deciding that the match is good enough and you'll be happy with it. IF YOU HAVE THE DATA THAT PROVES THE STORE CANNOT MATCH YOUR TARGET REFERENCE COLOR THEN YOU ARE NOT OBLIGATED TO BUY THE PAINT. They all understand D65 Lab color data values and Delta E differences. Using the device and the data is VERY different than standing there and just saying "you don't like the color and you don't *think* it's a match". If you have the data, everyone KNOWS if it's a match or not and there's nothing to discuss or debate - it's either an acceptable match or it's not. Period.

I know this comes up from time to time and I think I found this before but of course quickly forgot so here is a handy dandy list of quite a few popular paint colors and their equivalents from Benjamin Moore to Sherwin Williams and vice versa. Of course they all do color matching but if you only have access to chips from one, I would think this is helpful Benjamin Moore color Equals Sherwin Williams colors