Home DIY

I always buy tikkurila paint now, its very good.

with paint you get what you pay for

Yes and no.

F&B have nice colours and a particular type of finish, but is that worth the money? Idk. It is if that's what you must have.

Cheap paint is generally shit and isn't worth it. We've never used "expensive" paint, but have used more expensive mid-tier ones like the Dulux kitchen stuff and Layland Trade which both went on with fewer coats. For colours we've always gone for Valspar from B&Q out of geographical convenience, and it's been good - the darker, more solid colours go on differently to the lighter ones idk why.

My folks had a very pro paint job and for the hall/staircases/etc. had F&B matched to the Dulux hard wearing stuff. Got to be closing on 15yrs since their refurb and it still looks great. Admittedly it's no longer a high traffic family home and like I said was applied by quality pros but still I think that says something vs our shitshow of a hall 5yrs in.

We took samples from F&B, Lick and Valspar to get matched at the local Dulux centre with their Diamond Matt and have been really impressed so far. It's only marginally cheaper than F&B I think, but went on really well and is hard wearing and 'scrubbable'. We stupidly painted before having plaster coving fitted and for the most part, were able to clean away all the crap that left behind without having to do any touch ups.

With rollers, I wish I had realised at the start of our decorating just how much better even the cheap Dulux branded cages and sleeves they sell at the decorator centre are than whatever you can get from B&Q/Wickes/etc.

Not a paid ad for Dulux.

As others have said, it's worth considering the hard wearing stuff. I've got a load of paint in my place that marks incredibly easily, it's really bloody annoying.