Farrow and Bawl! Posh paint is too tricky to apply, families complain
FOR 70 years it has prided itself on providing deluxe paint ‘brimming with only the finest ingredients’.
But Farrow & Ball – famous for strikingly-named shades such as Smoked Trout and Elephant’s Breath – has been forced to change its formula after criticism from interior designers and professional decorators.
The Dorset-based firm’s products had, until recently, been so tricky to apply that some decorators charge extra to use them – with others boycotting them all together.
Families also admitted they avoid buying larger 5-litre pots of Farrow & Ball paint, priced at £74.50. Instead, they buy tester pots and colourmatch shades then substitute them with cheaper brands. The firm’s head of research has now admitted that up to 20 per cent more pigment has been added to the famous paint pots to improve the intensity of the colour.
Gareth Hayfield, head of research and technical developments, told the Daily Telegraph: ‘We have added more pigment to our paints to improve coverage and opacity.
‘This is anything from 1 to 20 per cent more pigment. Darker paints tend to have very good opacity, it is mainly the whites and lighter shades where the most pigment has been added.’ Another reason behind Farrow & Ball’s ‘difficult-to-apply’ reputation, was its decision to stop manufacturing oil-based products in 2009, instead switching to thinner, waterbased formulas.
But Mr Hayfield says the firm is not prepared to revert to oil-based paint just to make it easier to apply.
While it could instead make the paint thicker again, this would result in ‘more mottling and it doesn’t give the premium look that we’re going for’. Sue Wimpenny, director at interior design and refurbishment firm The Lady Builder, said she stopped using Farrow & Ball paint because it ‘didn’t have enough pigmentation in it’. ‘I stopped using it for a time and some decorators still charge extra because they think it doesn’t cover very well,’ she added.
‘People kept buying Farrow & Ball because it was a middle class phenomenon – you had to have it because of the name on the tin’. However, she has since described the brand’s improved formula as ‘excellent’.