Six Farrow & Ball favourites, matched against Dulux's closest equivalent by comparing published hex codes rather than guessing from a photo — with links to see each one in your own room first.
Farrow & Ball's tester pots cost more than a full tin from most mass-market brands, which is exactly why "dupe" searches for its most popular shades — Elephant's Breath, Ammonite, Hague Blue — never really slow down. Most dupe roundups online compare colours by eye, off a phone photo, which is a rough way to match paint.
We did it differently: we compared Farrow & Ball's and Dulux's own published hex values for every shade in both catalogues and ranked the results by actual colour distance. Six matches below are close enough to genuinely consider; one is the nearest available option rather than a true twin, and we've said so.
A close hex match is not a guarantee — lighting, finish and your own walls all change how a colour reads. One photo shows you both options before you buy either tin.
Open the visualiserRanked by colour distance between each brand's published hex value — not by eye. Every shade links to its full colour page and into the visualiser.
The closest Dulux match to Farrow & Ball's Skimming Stone we found — a warm, stony greige within a couple of shades of the original. Skimming Stone runs roughly triple the price per litre; Egyptian Cotton gets you within touching distance for a fraction of the cost.
One of the tightest matches in this whole comparison — Bleached Lichen 2 sits almost exactly on top of Elephant's Breath's warm, pinkish-grey undertone. If you've been quoted for a whole house in Elephant's Breath, this is worth testing first.
A near-identical match for Farrow & Ball's best-selling Wimborne White — the same warm, creamy undertone that keeps a white from reading stark. At this price difference, it's worth a tester pot before committing to the original.
Ammonite's soft, balanced greige is one of the hardest neutrals to match well, but Gentle Moon comes remarkably close — within a couple of points on the hex scale, with the same warm-cool balance that makes Ammonite work in almost any room.
Hague Blue's dramatic, near-black petrol undertone is genuinely difficult to replicate, but Viridian Tide gets closer than almost anything else we compared it against. A strong option for a kitchen island or front door at a fraction of the per-litre price.
Babouche's confident golden mustard has become one of Farrow & Ball's most photographed front-door colours. Desert Island 2 is the closest widely available match we found — a shade brighter and warmer, but unmistakably from the same family.
None of the six pairs below are the same paint. Farrow & Ball mixes its own pigments into a distinct binder system — Estate Emulsion has a chalky, absorbent finish that mass-market vinyl silk and matt simply don't replicate, whatever the hex code says. What we compared is published colour data: Farrow & Ball's and Dulux's own hex values for each shade, scored by how close they sit to each other rather than by eye.
That's a meaningful difference from a lot of "dupe" content online, which is often just two colours that look similar in a photo taken under one set of lighting. A close hex match still means testing a sample on your own wall before committing — sheen, texture and how a colour shifts under your specific light all vary between brands even when the underlying colour is nearly identical.
The paint isn't the same. The colour, on the wall, is close enough that most people won't tell the difference.
| Farrow & Ball | Dulux match | How close |
|---|---|---|
| Ammonite | Gentle Moon | Near-exact |
| Wimborne White | Fine Cream | Near-exact |
| Elephant's Breath | Bleached Lichen 2 | Near-exact |
| Skimming Stone | Egyptian Cotton | Very close |
| Hague Blue | Viridian Tide | Very close |
| Babouche | Desert Island 2 | Closest available, not a twin |
No — it's the closest independently matched shade based on both brands' published hex values, not an official colour match or licensed reproduction. It's a very close match, but the two paints use different pigments and binders, so always test a sample first.
One photograph of your room covers all 6 shades on this page. The first render is free, and no card is needed.