I've used F&B extensively in 2 houses now. Borrowed Light is a fabulous blue. I used Skylight, a sort of sister color in our apartment bedroom.

In our apartment, F&B was successfully used over Benjamin Moore's Fresh Start primer. We had replastered those walls and everyone remarked on the paint which no one usually notices. You can use their primer -- that's pluperfect -- but there's no issue whatsoever in saving some money with Fresh Start.

Here's a link to a Borrowed Light bathroom.

I love this paint and feel it actually improves the look of walls. It's super thick and needs to be stirred very thoroughly. It has a puddinglike consistency -- don't be surprised. But it goes on smoothly, dries quickly and is virtually odorless afterwards.

Have you painted a big swatch for the room and put it up to see the intensity and if there's a color shift? I would suggest that.

I can buy it locally. But they have store locator or will ship it to you if you call them.

rococogurl- Thanks so much! So you do think a primer is necessary then? It's going over an Ellen Kennon Mushroom color. I actually had the sample jar mixed by Benjamin Moore which has me wondering if maybe I should get a sample from Farrow and Ball especially since you mentioned the color shift in the F&B. There was such a color shift in the Mushroom which is precisely why we are repainting. Did you have the primer tinted?

I have found a store in Charlottesville which is about 30 minutes away after going on the store locator. So excited! I will check on the undercoat suggestion when I visit the store. Our walls are in great shape though. I am going to get a sample jar from them and paint a poster board. You actually suggested that to me a couple of years ago and it makes all the difference.

I've used dark and light colors in F & B and used the recommended F& B primer each time. I find F & B easier to use than Ben Moore's Regal (and much easier to use than Aura, which I just cannot get the hang of). Definitely get a sample in the actual F & B if you can because the undertones are different from the Benjamin Moore matches. By the way, I bought my F & B paint from The Paint Store in Warrenton. I don't know if it's closer to you than C'ville.

sis -- With F&B I always use two coats to get the true color. If you want to shortcut over the mushroom you could skip the primer but then it must be two coats and very carefully. For the very best result, however, I would use a white primer not tinted. F&B primer is excellent. But painters like Fresh Start and it's easy to work with as well.

Farrow & Ball is the only paint I know that is color mixed in the factory. I would get a sample pot from them -- it can be extremely different from color matched paint since F&B have many more pigments. It's $8 well spent. At the same time I would get a sample pot of Skylight as the two are very close in color.

I would definitely paint the large sample of BL and put it up. Leave it up for a few days and see how the mutability works. It requires patience. I painted Stony Ground in my apartment and it was the most gorgeous taupe -- that perfect neutral. It got a bit lighter and little more caramel in the morning. That was on the 12th floor. Here in my house on a wooded lot it looks like a different color. It has a khaki undertone in the afternoon. At night it looks charcoal gray.

I also would suggest picking the trim color and putting that up nearby. Their eggshell finishes for trim are the best I've found.

Thanks to all of you! I am going to get the Skylight sample also because the Borrowed Light goes really blue, almost baby blue as the day goes on. Now granted I haven't tried the F&B paint yet so that may change. We are also on a wooded light so our bedroom doesn't get much sunlight at all. Can't wait to have the room repainted. Mushroom is a beautiful color but just didn't work in our particular space. Loved it in evening and at night but not so much the rest of the day. Thanks again!

Love F&B paints! We have Skylight in our kitchen. As DH said the first time we sat down to breakfast in there, it's ethereal. There is just something about the F&B finish that cannot be replicated. I really like Borrowed Light too. Designer Miles Redd used it on his front door and it is gorgeous.

If either BL or Skylight don't work for some reason I would look at Pale Powder or Pavilion Blue. Blackened is another great one but will be pale and complex blue-gray, sometimes flashes lavender. I had it in my home office and it was wonderful to live with.

Some of you may remember Pirula, who's another F&B person. She's in VA and a color that looked amazing in her living room -- a gorgeous pale creamy gold -- looked like a mustard bottle explosion in my house. This paint can be very specific to a house and certainly looks different north to south.

I've also used paint sample pots for furniture. It looks a lot like chalk paint.

Thought I'd update my progress thus far. Visited the F&B store and bought a large fandeck and the borrowed light and skylight samples. And I can honestly say that I am more confused after painting the samples. There are times when I like each of them depending on the time of day. The Skylight goes better with my rug( Lt. Blue Bryson by Pottery Barn) but is pretty dark at night and not the ethereal feeling I was thinking. The Borrowed Light is pretty but goes kind of babyish blue in my room. Not bad really. The light in that bedroom has a north facing exposure and an eastern exposure which makes for some weird lighting. Looked at Pale Powder but it goes a little greenish. I am in Virginia and have had a really hard time picking paint. It seems every color is so much more intense in our home. Do any of you have this issue and if so what have you found? Thanks.

It takes a lot of zen to work with this paint. I find I need to leave samples up for several days. Sometimes longer. I used to think I was indecisive until I read Rose Tarlow's book and she said she sometimes looks at fabric and color swatches for weeks. After that I thought it will take what it takes.

I don't put the samples near each other. I rotate them in and out. I'd also look at Pavilion Blue or Blackened. The other thing is to change the lightbulbs in the bedroom to LED & see if that helps at night. It's brighter light. Make a huge difference in my yellow bedroom.

It will be gorgeous eventually and work the worth the work once the right choice is made.

rococogurl- I do use reveal bulbs as they give a clearer light and not the yellowish light. I was thinking the LED bulbs were harsh but maybe not. Hadn't thought about not having them next to each other though. Can't wait until morning so I can see them throughout the day. I will check out the other two colors that you suggested. Thanks so much!

sis, I'm in Virginia also. I found the F & B colors change significantly over the course of the day. Like rococogurl, I lived with the swatch boards (big ones) over several days so I would get sunny days, overcast ones, morning light, afternoon light, and candlelight. I also found that the colors in the furnishings affected the undertones as well. Some colors just did not work despite how much I loved the color on the swatch board. Give it time, but don't fret if a color doesn't work. The F & B colors are very complex and interact in surprising ways with the surroundings.

Sort of off topic but glad you posted because it prompted me to do a search of F&B stores close to me to see if anything had opened up in the past few yrs closer to me than having to drive to NJ. Lucky F&B day for me! Thanks for posting.

sis--I always used the Reveals for the same reason. They are 3400K so you get bright light but they have a red interior coating which is difficult to see. So in reality Reveals are a bit pink. Lowe's has good "soft white" LED bulbs 3000K by Utilitech (their house brand). I switched out all my lamp bulbs to those. I found it made a big difference. I have lots of color in my house but most of it is pale and that type of color is very mutable. GE also has new LEDs at Target. Perhaps it will work the same way for you. Here's some more lightbulb info.

larecoltante -- exactly my experience as well.

The sample pots are so pretty I wish I could think of something to do with them.

DId you say they have a fandeck? That would be new. I've only had the pamphlet; i was under the impression there was not fandeck, which I kind of like as an edited palette is easier!

It's interesting someone said it was odorless, like Aura. We haven't done our own panting so I haven't noticed one way or the other an FnB odor. But I have had bad luck with Aura and would not use it again, eps now that I know FNb also doesn't have off-gasing.

I use the left over sample pots for small painting projects. Those only come in Estate Emulsion which looks a lot like chalk paint. I did a small clock once. When I get the 38,987 other more important things on my list done I want to find time to paint some small pieces of furniture that have been sitting around.

There always has been a fandeck. Mine's at least 8-9 years old. Those weren't accessible until the last year or two because they sold over the phone or wholesale. Sometimes they ran out of them and you had to wait for them to come from England. Even six years ago I had to go to the wholesale showroom in the D&D building to see brush outs and get sample pots. At the time they only were selling to/through designers.

They've expanded tremendously and are retailing through their own stores now. Much better.
The website also has been modernized with palettes and helps with coordinating colors.

The paint is as close to odorless as it gets IMO and dries quickly. Their wallpaper is also beautiful.

I Can smell Aura. Farrow and ball has no detectable smell at all. Painting my hallway Borrowed Light and trim in Winterborne White.

I used their wallpaper in our beachhouse (the Japanese inspired net). Very happy with it. Interesting, I have a FnB store 20 minutes away and Ive never seen what Id call a fan deck (ie like the BM decks). Just the pamphlets. I am going to have to drop in and see what im missing!

Mtn - Fan deck is the only thing with accurate colors. The little folding giveaway color cards aren't accurate -- maybe better now but I wouldn't trust them. The colors included in the deck used to depend on when you buy it LOL. So some of us who have them from different times check in if we don't have the color we need. They have introduced quite a few new colors over the last few years and they retire some though no idea how -- trends I suppose. Years back there was a whole group of us painting at the same time. We practically had our own F&B forum. That's when we found how how these colors depended on latitude. One of my friends, who lived in VA, painted her old DR chairs Joa's White. When we went to lunch they looked fabulous. I tried that color in my apartment and it looked like I had pinned up old flesh-colored 1920s slips all over the wall. The color was literally nauseating in my house. Kitchendetective, who you may know, is in Texas. She was talking about using Brinjal in her living room. I'd need Vit D injections if I used that color in my house. So I always love to see the rooms after they are painted. I hope sis finds a blue that works for her.

Wow! Of course, if that fan were a clock, I've pretty much only used colors between 4:30 and 5:30, so I probably don't rate a fan deck. But good to know!

It seems I now need to drive to Melrose Ave and visit the F & B LA showroom to pick up a fan deck. Thanks!

You definitely deserve a F/D Mtn. Go for it! I swear it's worth buying for the whites. Those are the most amazing of all. I've got 3 different whites in my house. I'm wonkier about paint even than tile LOL.

@ chispa - see if they have the brush outs on small wood squares. Also very helpful for a browse.

Hi everyone! I've got to sart out by thanking rococogurl for the LED light suggestion. Truly I have spent most of my day trying out lightbulbs and going back and forth to Lowes. I ended up really liking the natural daylight LED bulbs and found they gave me so much more light than the Reveal bulbs that I was using. They will take some getting used to but I love having the extra light. And my colors look cleaner if that makes sense.

Speaking of colors, I have narrowed my choices down to Skylight or Glass Slipper. Going to look at the samples over the next several days. Honestly I believe they changed every few minutes especially during the morning. I felt absolutely schizophrenic!

MtnRdRedux- that fandeck is so nice and like rococogurl said, it's so much better looking at the large swatches. I could spend hours looking at colors and get absolutely nothing done! The sample pots are cute! I was thinking of planting a flower in each one or something along those lines.

Thank you all for your help! I'd like to hear your experiences with lightbulbs and color in your homes. It's amazing to me the difference it makes!

Glass Slipper?? Must be new or revived? Would it be too much trouble to post a sample? Would love to see that color.

Glad you had good luck with the LEDs. Lowe's does a great job with those and when two malfunctioned they exchanged them without a murmur.

Over the past 3 years, I've switched out as many of my lights as possible to LED. The ceiling lights, all on dimmers, are a long and continuing story, too long to recount. I wrote about it here. My electric bill did go down about 10-15%. Haven't had an LED bulb break off and fuse into the ceiling fixture because they don't get hot. I switched out all my lamp bulbs and have better light. And because the bulbs stay cool, my silk shades will last longer. That's another whole story. Bottom line for me: I prefer the LED light to incandescent exactly for the reason you mentioned. It's cleaner light and less color distorting with any paint but especially good with F&B or EK paints, which is what I have.

rococogurl- glass slipper is a Benjamin Moore color. I had seen it online and decided to try it. Very close to Skylight but maybe a little less gray. Skylight is beautiful during daylight but as sun starts setting it goes rather dark. Going to just look at them for the next few days and decide.

The bulbs made an incredible difference in the bedroom. I never knew how dark it was before! I don't like overhead light for some reason but prefer lamplight. Just cozier I think. Again, thanks so much for the light bulb suggestion. I hope others will try it, especially if they are having issues with color in their house.

@rococcogurl — You used Benjamin Moore Fresh Start Primer and then F&B paint and that worked okay? I was planning on doing F&B paint in our remodel but now our contractor is actually ahead of schedule and wants to prime this weekend and I’m not sure we can get the F&B in time.

My painter uses Fresh Start primer underF&B paint with no problem. The showroom guy at F&B confirmed this. My painted tinted the primer as close as Benjamin Moore could get to Dimity so I will only need one coat F&B which saves me a bundle! BM has F&B formulas but the final effect isn't the same but it was close enough for the primer.