The Best Farrow & Ball Colours for Your Home
Farrow & Ball – the home of luxurious colour
Beloved by both homeowners and designers, Farrow & Ball is the paint of choice across architectural and interior design magazines, makeover television programmes, and instagram. The reason for this is simple – Farrow & Ball colours are rich, vibrant, and complex due to the traditional methods used to formulate the paint. The homegrown brand is renowned for its palette of 132 colours, and this autumn/winter Farrow and Ball paint colours include 9 new shades.
Ultimately, when it comes to colour what matters is that it is your home – if you design a scheme that makes you happy, that you want to live in, that’s what counts. To find that scheme, know the space that you are painting – watch how light affects it, think about the light when you most use the room and what it is used for, and always test colours under all conditions.
Here we look at the ways to use Farrow and Ball colours to transform your home, from Hague Blue to Elephant’s Breath. Below we look at tone palettes, or skip ahead for a more general look at Farrow & Ball paint colours based on room and light.
Playing with neutrals – Calm, understated elegance
Farrow & Ball ‘Ammonite’ – Easy Neutrals
‘Neutral’ does not have to mean boring. The six Farrow & Ball neutral colour palettes are Yellow Based, Red Based, Traditional, Contemporary, Easy, and Architectural. The ever-popular Farrow & Ball Elephant’s Breath is part of the Contemporary Neutrals which get their colour from an underlying lilac.
‘Ammonite’ (pictured), named for the fossils of the Jurassic Coast, is a subtle grey that is in the Goldilocks zone between warm and cool. It sits in the Easy Neutrals group, designed to be clean, understated, and adaptable for any home.
Attention-grabbing or gentle blush – Pink and red
Farrow & Ball ‘Nancy’s Blushes’
‘Nancy’s Blushes’ (pictured) is a true pink, one of the range of pink and red Farrow & Ball colours. Rectory Red is deep, luscious, and berry-like, Picture Gallery Red is more orange toned, while Radicchio is bright and modern. Remember, though warm colours make a room feel more relaxed, they also make it feel smaller.
When using a strong colour, think about the flow from room to room. If you want to use strong colours in every room, use colours with the same weight within them so it flows rather than jars. These colours are also perfect for striking feature walls or complementary colour blocking.
Make it a feature – Bold, vivid tones
Farrow & Ball ‘St Giles Blue’
If you want the Farrow & Ball touch but can’t afford to use it for every surface, a feature wall is the perfect option. Particularly popular are the Farrow and Ball blue paint colours such as St Giles Blue (pictured), Hague Blue (an ocean-deep rich blue), and Farrow & Ball Stiffkey Blue, named for the mud and cockles of Stiffkey.
Blues work particularly well in east-facing rooms, and St Giles Blue keeps its bright colour even in the darkest of spaces.
Scandinavian and Modern – Shades of grey
Farrow & Ball ‘Worsted’
The Scandi trend for interior design does not seem to be going anywhere, and colours inspired by the autumn sky in Stockholm or Norwegian beaches still dominate. Layering greys in gradually lighter tones from floor to ceiling will create a restful, sophisticated space.
‘Worsted’ (pictured) lies between Mole’s Breath and Purbeck Stone in tone, and pairs well with accent colours. It has no cold tones, bringing Scandi style without the Scandi environment.
Fresh and tranquil – Green hues
Farrow & Ball ‘Yeabridge Green’
Green hues are naturally uplifting, infusing a space with freshness and serenity. In east facing rooms, the light is naturally a little blue, and working with this by using a blue or green paint will create as much light as possible.
‘Yeabridge Green’ (pictured) is a colour at home in rural farmhouses, modern homes, and as part of a more historical colour scheme. It pairs dramatically with both lighter and darker colours, such as Hague Blue, and works well as a background to brighter accent furniture.
What makes Farrow & Ball colours so special?
The Farrow and Ball colour palette of 132 tones is renowned in interior paint and design circles for its rich colouration and the way it responds to light. But what gives it these qualities? It is their unique method of blending their pigments with the ingredients for the base paint. Up to five pigments are used for each colour, providing a coating with a unique character that changes with the light and season, and stands out among the wall paint options.
The base paint is made of chalk, china clay, and titanium dioxide (called ‘titanium white’ when used as a pigment). Each Farrow & Ball paint is water-based, making it low-odour and more environment and health conscious. The colour pigments are added to this base, each carefully formulated for the complexity and depth of colour. After extensive testing the paint is ready to be sold.
On the importance of light
Everyone has had that experience of discovering that a colour does not look the same at home as it did in the shop. This is because colours respond differently in different lights – think of the difference between harsh supermarket lighting and a warm fireside. As the day waxes and wanes, so too does the light, changing how a colour, and a room, looks.
Morning light is more blue, so east-facing rooms benefits from green and blue tones. Sunny yellow-based colours work well with bright rooms which overlook a garden, avoid grey and green bases in cool north-facing rooms, but south facing rooms are full of light all day, and are perfect to really let you imagination run free.
Coatings – Ireland
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