How we get Farrow & Ball colors matched by other paint companies

THE POPLAR COTTAGE

If you’re like me, you don’t plan ahead enough to order paint before the day you need it. So what’s a girl to do when she wants an iconic color from Farrow and Ball’s collection of handcrafted paints in England with a week-long shipping turnaround? Have it color matched locally, of course ;) Today I’m sharing a step-by-step guide for matching any brand’s paint colors by Sherwin Williams, Benjamin Moore, or whatever company you have locally.

Paint samples top row: FB Pigeon, FB Light Blue; bottom row: SW Debonair, SW Escape Gray, SW Halcyon Green, SW Svelte Sage.

We recently painted the bunk room at the Poplar Cottage in Farrow & Ball Light Blue (the sample on the top right), color matched by Sherwin Williams. This wasn’t our first time color matching, not even close. Garrett and I have been doing it for over a decade now, first as a way to shop paint sales when we were starting out and renovating on a super tight budget, and now as a way to make unaccessible paint more accessible (and let’s be honest, more budget-friendly too ;).

Every time I share a room that we’ve painted in one of Farrow and Ball’s beautiful shades that we had color matched by another brand, I get a ton of questions about the process. So let’s get into it…

ladder; FB Light blue (wall paint), BM Swiss Coffee (trim + ceiling paint), fir floors

Isn’t that just the prettiest blue?! FB Light Blue feels like a cozy hug in this bunk room and I love it against the Swiss Coffee trim and fir floors!

what is color matching

Color matching is when one paint company makes another paint company’s color.. Say you like Farrow and Ball’s Light Blue but you’re at your local Sherwin Williams paint store, so you ask SW to make you a can of it. That’s color matching and we’ll explain exactly how to do it in a sec…

is color matching exact?

Paint matching is not an exact science. Each brand of paint has their own colors, which they’ve designed to look how they look in that company’s unique paint products. Farrow & Ball, for instance, handcrafts their paint in Dorset with ingredients like minerals, pigments and resin so it's impossible to get the exact same look with paint made of different ingredients in the USA. BUT…we've found that color matching can usually get you pretty dang close.

This also means that no two paint companies will match a competitor’s color in the exact same way. We painted the kitchen cabinets at Poplar in FB Old White, matched by SW, and Kismet House painted their cabinets in the same color but matched by BM and they look quite different. Of course lighting and products/sheens affect the end result, but it’s just something to keep in mind. If you really want an exact match of a color, make sure to plan ahead and buy from the original creator of the color either in person or online.

How to color match paint colors

Having one company match another company’s color is usually very simple. For the paint at the Poplar Cottage, I just walked up to the counter at Sherwin Williams and asked for a gallon of Farrow & Ball’s Light Blue. I told them I’d be using it for a wall and I wanted a satin finish and they recommended a product (Emerald in satin). Then the employee looked up the color in their system, said they had the formula on file, and 10 minutes later I had a gallon of paint. Easy peasy!

A couple notes that may be useful:

The paint color’s number (Light Blue is No.22) is a helpful way for competitors to look up the color and verify you’re talking about the same color
Most paint company’s formula databases are nationwide. So if I can get FB Light Blue at my local Sherwin Williams, then you should be able to get it at your store too.

Now sometimes it isn’t that easy. You might find yourself talking to a newer employee who has limited experience color matching and they might never have heard of Farrow & Ball. In that case I usually let them know that Farrow & Ball is in fact a paint company out of England and that Sherwin Williams does indeed carry some of their color formulas in their system. Sometimes I find myself spelling out ‘Farrow & Ball’ and the name of the color (English spellings can be a little unexpected). And as I mentioned, it’s very helpful to know the number of the color you are asking for.

Unfortunately not every Farrow & Ball color formula is in Sherwin William’s database (or Benjamin Moore’s or Behr’s, etc) so know that if you’re asking for a less popular color, you run the risk of them not having it. In that case, you have a couple of options.

One, google the color and see if someone’s posted a picture of their paint can with the formula (see below ;). Show that formula to the paint store and they should be able to recreate it for you.
Two, bring FB’s color card with you to the paint counter and have them color match it on their paint scanner. More on that process here.
Three, use an online tool like Match My Paint Color to find the closest color match to your desired color in another brand. It will be less of match than the actual color, but it’ll likely still be close (just be sure to sample it!)

Farrow & Ball Light Blue

Here’s what the formula for FB Light Blue looked like from Sherwin Williams:

Farrow & Ball Stony Ground

We also used FB Stony Ground on the staircase and upstairs doors. It’s a gray/beige/neutral color and it’s lovely! We had it color matched by Sherwin Williams, naturally, and here’s what the formula looks like.