I just purchased a colour match sample pot as Little Greene paint was also coming up a bit pricey. The Albany paint alternative is nowhere near the same quality ie very watery and thin, but mostly the colour is waaaaay off. Hopefully someone else will have better experience but I'm off to buy Little Greene next week....£££ gulp!

Hi I am interested in this topic - fingers crossed coming to the end of the kitchen/side return project and need to render the rear of the property too. Our doors will also be anthracite grey. Neighbours seem to use white paint on the bottom half of the properties but it looks very harsh. What colour did you decide on and any chance of some photos of the finished look? thks

Just to weigh in on the Howdens comments, the key is to make sure you know someone in the trade who can put you forward to them, that way you just get dealt with as a trade using their account. They do have sales on but generally speaking the price doesn't fluctuate much through the year, except when they have their big sale on which is usually October time. I do use Howdens and no, they're not perfect but most of the grumbles I hear are more to with customer service which don't fall in line with the glossy showroom kitchen providers. The quality of the kitchens is very good (25 year warranty iirc) so if you have access to them then do get a quote from them. I think what I would say is that if you go to Howdens, expect a slightly tradesman type relationship (the showrooms are far from impressive) but a key thing is that they hold stock on most items. If you get a damaged door for example, it can be replaced next day, try getting that out of Homebase....... With regard to appliances, we have SMEG in our kitchen and I'd never buy it again. Hobbs been fine, but three new ovens on warranty and whilst it now works fine, the previous two didn't. Previously we had Bosch for everything and it all worked faultlessly, so I can't recommend them enough.

The taps mentioned above they are all good. Just tap is a brand we have been working for a while and we can say they are same quality as Hansgrohe but more affordable. We haven't had any issues with them and would definitely recommended.