Farrow and Ball in a sprayer?

[miclee15]

We’ve been redecorating my daughters bedrooms and our friend who is a designer is helping them.  The paint of choice for the walls and trim was F&B, I would have just gone Sherwin Williams, but different story.  I’m the contractor, painter on this job.  .  He asked that the bookshelves we have be painted using the F&B paint and I was wondering if anyone has experience using a sprayer wth this paint?  I have a fuji mini 4 and have used Target coating successfully in the past.  I would be willing to get a Graco Ultra or similar if people have had good results with it as well.

 

[bnaboatbuilder]

No experience with F&B, never even heard of it. Honestly any color can get near matched on another paint system, go with a paint you know and have used. Not all paints are the same, don't act the same, don't spray the same. SW is excellent paint, available most everywhere in the US.

100% acylic latex with Floetrol does very well on trim with a brush.

I painted a room 4 years ago with my Fuji Q4, walls and ceiling. Did it for the experience of the tool to that application. While the paint job turned out great, the process of using an HVLP for walls and ceiling kind of sucks in comparison to an airless or good old brush and roller. Maybe if you use a pressure pot to extend paint volume and reduce weight at the gun, then I would say sure go for it. But a regular HVLP gun with a quart of paint is tiring on the wrist, then add regular refills. Not to mention all the taping and plastic needed for spraying of any kind in a room.

Something designers and architects are terrible about (and I have many friends who professionally practice both) is that they have zero understanding of practicality.

Why use a paint because Architectural Digest blah-blahed about it Sept 2017 issue. Take the paint swatch and get it in a SW can or PPG or Behr for that matter.

 

[pixelated]

F&B is lovely paint, and brushes and rolls very nicely and we're very pleased with the living room project we did with it last year. But it's quite thick, if your sprayer could handle spraying mayonnaise, it might work, the stuff is almost that thick.

FWIW, I've read that F&B is very difficult to color match, because of the amount of pigment they use, but that's probably mostly internet lore. The primary reason we used it was because my wife is very allergic to most paints and we found that she was able to tolerate the F&B better than anything else we've tried.

 

[miclee15]

F&B is lovely paint, and brushes and rolls very nicely and we're very pleased with the living room project we did with it last year. But it's quite thick, if your sprayer could handle spraying mayonnaise, it might work, the stuff is almost that thick.

FWIW, I've read that F&B is very difficult to color match, because of the amount of pigment they use, but that's probably mostly internet lore. The primary reason we used it was because my wife is very allergic to most paints and we found that she was able to tolerate the F&B better than anything else we've tried.

Agreed, the paint is very nice and thick.  I painted the walls and trim already.  I agree that the color is very hard to match.  I don't think it's internet lore to people with a good eye for color.  I was skeptical, but seeing is believing.    Funny you mention the allerigy as I did find that the fumes less or at least more tolerable with the F&B paint.

I'm thinking with the thickness of the paint an airless would be best.

 

[bnaboatbuilder]

F&B paint is $100/gallon. That's what yacht paint starts to cost.

Benjamin Moore apparently has all 132 F&B colors on file and can create the tints. Sure they won't be dead on the same if a wall is half painted with BM and F&B, but you just use one and that's all anyone sees, so there is no side by side.

Several designers have posted online a chart matching F&B colors to existing BM colors as well.

Appears there are less than 100 F&B stores nationwide, and 1000s of BM outlets so that gives people options to get those colors locally and less expensive.

Looking at store locator puts most F&B in NY, CA and a few large metro areas.

 

[miclee15]

F&B paint is $100/gallon. That's what yacht paint starts to cost.

Benjamin Moore apparently has all 132 F&B colors on file and can create the tints. Sure they won't be dead on the same if a wall is half painted with BM and F&B, but you just use one and that's all anyone sees, so there is no side by side.

Several designers have posted online a chart matching F&B colors to existing BM colors as well.

Appears there are less than 100 F&B stores nationwide, and 1000s of BM outlets so that gives people options to get those colors locally and less expensive.

Looking at store locator puts most F&B in NY, CA and a few large metro areas.

Thanks for the research and your opinion.  Yes the paint is expensive, so are Festools.  Yes you can get "close" to the color but it will not be the same.  I respectfully do not wish to get into a debate that color is all the same, as the end results is in the owner/buyer.  A saw is a saw, they all cut wood regardless if it cost $150 or $600.

I live 5 mins from a F&B store.  As I posted, the rooms are painted with F&B already. 

The original question was has anyone sprayed it?

 

[Wooden Skye]

Do you have any leftovers from the rooms you already painted?  If you do, I would experiment and see if you can get it to work.  Maybe call the store near you and ask them.  It just seems that not being a very common paint you may not get many people who have used or prefer using other brands. 

 

[miclee15]

Do you have any leftovers from the rooms you already painted?  If you do, I would experiment and see if you can get it to work.  Maybe call the store near you and ask them.  It just seems that not being a very common paint you may not get many people who have used or prefer using other brands. 

Yes, I do, but I don't have a airless yet  [big grin]  Given the paint is from Great Britiain I was hoping our across the pond Festool fans would have some experiances. 

 

[Wooden Skye]

Do you have any leftovers from the rooms you already painted?  If you do, I would experiment and see if you can get it to work.  Maybe call the store near you and ask them.  It just seems that not being a very common paint you may not get many people who have used or prefer using other brands. 

Yes, I do, but I don't have a airless yet  [big grin]  Given the paint is from Great Britiain I was hoping our across the pond Festool fans would have some experiances.

I meant trying to test in the Fuji you mentioned you have.  The other thing is this should be a slam dunk to get approval from the wife to buy an airless sprayer.

 

[miclee15]

I meant trying to test in the Fuji you mentioned you have.  The other thing is this should be a slam dunk to get approval from the wife to buy an airless sprayer.

Oh, yes I'll will be giving it a try, but i'm guessing that it will have to be thinned out a lot giving it's very thick paint. 
I think I'm just looking for someone to validate that a airless would work great as it's not as much of a slam dunk as it's a 3 point shot at this point. LOL

 

[Pnw painter]

I’ve never used F&B, but I’m doubtful that you’ll be able to spray it with your HVLP. You’ll probably have to thin it far beyond the recommended amount to get it to spray correctly.

If you’re looking to get an airless sprayer check out the Graco GX19 or Titan ED655.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Roachmill]

I have zero experience spraying with it, so I'll not open my mouth on that front. I have used it on cabinets (eggshell) and used a non F&B primer... it took about 5 days to dry to the touch on light coats. I then learned they say to use their own brand primer and I can now understand why So I guess the moral of the story is to try a sample if you're thinking to use anything non F&B along the way.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

[jt073]

I have not tried spraying F&B emulsion (wall) paint, but I have sprayed estate eggshell and exterior eggshell satisfactorily with my HVLP (Fuji Q4).

I have had paint colour matched to F&B, but as alluded to earlier this is a big subject - even though the colour may be a good match, the look of the paint may not be, and in my experience isn’t. There is more to it than pigment as I understand it, eg fillers etc that affect the paint’s reflectivity etc etc.

The F&B website gives detailed guidance for each product on recommended application - in most cases airless and HVLP are recommended - in the case of HVLP, they suggest that thinning of up to 30% may be necessary.

Do not ignore the guidance to use the correct F&B primer - there is plenty of evidence that using other primers will potentially cause problems (don’t ask me why).

Finally, in my experience, whether sprayed or brushed on, the eggshell paint does take some days to get to a hard finish - until then even when apparently dry it can still feel a little sticky - no problems once fully dry though.

Hope that helps

Cheers

 

[miclee15]

I have not tried spraying F&B emulsion (wall) paint, but I have sprayed estate eggshell and exterior eggshell satisfactorily with my HVLP (Fuji Q4).

I have had paint colour matched to F&B, but as alluded to earlier this is a big subject - even though the colour may be a good match, the look of the paint may not be, and in my experience isn’t. There is more to it than pigment as I understand it, eg fillers etc that affect the paint’s reflectivity etc etc.

The F&B website gives detailed guidance for each product on recommended application - in most cases airless and HVLP are recommended - in the case of HVLP, they suggest that thinning of up to 30% may be necessary.

Do not ignore the guidance to use the correct F&B primer - there is plenty of evidence that using other primers will potentially cause problems (don’t ask me why).

Finally, in my experience, whether sprayed or brushed on, the eggshell paint does take some days to get to a hard finish - until then even when apparently dry it can still feel a little sticky - no problems once fully dry though.

Hope that helps

Cheers

Thank you very much for sharing your experiance.  I did read accounts about the primer from a few years ago, but haven't seen recent accounts.  Regardless, it's cheaper to do it once with F&B then 2 times trying to save a few dollars (or pounds in your case).

 

[DRCC]

Hi All,

I am several years late for this discussion but if you are still pondering the ins and outs of spraying F&B I can give a little feedback.

I use F&B Modern Egsshell (40% gloss) for finishing cabinets and get consistent results by adding 30% distilled water and 5% Target Coatings Retarder. 
I use both target coatings and F&B primers for different parts.  Face frames etc can be primed with F&B only but any large panels get hit up with a few coats of Target Coatings emtek primer and sanded back before applying F&B primer.

I use a FUJI Q4 to lay on 3 pretty wet coats ( 1mm ) of Modern Eggshell and spot sand at 600 grit if theres any issues along the way.

Its helpful to keep your finishing booth at around 70% humidity and 70 degrees temp to allow plenty of time for leveling out.

F&B isn't formulated to be sprayed and can be fussy which can be frustrating, but once you have your rig set up appropriately it atomizes well and levels out easily.

Best,
C

 

[madjalapeno]

Just to add - we're slowly redecorating our house with F&B paint. It is expensive, but most rooms can be done with 1 can (lots of windows).

The color is magical though - really changes wall color depending on the ambient lighting. Very happy with it.