A paint problem

[jocelyn plummer]

The Chap I spoke to in our branch of Brewers told me that he had mixed some milk paints, special order. Craig and Rose, B & Q do a nice warm yellow, Adams Cream.

 

[Feltwell]

Not sure Craig & Rose will be breathable though, if that matters. It's years since I dealt with them but it's just ordinary (if nice!) emulsion I think.

 

[tobydog]

This has all been very useful. Last year we painted our main living room in F&B Winbourne White. It was no mean feat what with all the beams and studs. We now regret the time we spent doing this because it was already stark white, now looks slightly off-stark white and still feels very cold. We are going for the Earthborn clay paints and were considering Vanilla or Lemony.

It's very hard to judge any final colour finish in a room like ours which is fairly dark, particularly in winter. We will get some test pots and see how it goes.

From a breathability standpoint, the F&B already on the walls in Estate Emulsion but I can't vouch for anything earlier. I was considering sanding the wall down to the plaster for the first few feet but I know we have gypsum so I'm probably wasting my time.

I will be using lining paper in our old kitchen because the wall is very uneven and and has several difference finishes already. I've done this elsewhere in the house without any problems, however, can someone please tell me what the advantage is of horizontal papering rather than vertical? Not heard of it until this thread.

 

[Moo]

If you're coming into Norwich I can give you half a match-pot of Lemony to try, and you can see it on a patch of wall in our back hall beside an off-white door frame.
I think you might find it rather a cold colour and, like the other claypaint sample I've just tried (for a different room) it's very pale.

I'm off now to Brewers to get yet more sample pots and to enquire about the ins and outs of tinting. The local F&B stockist I was so excited about* turned out to be a great disappointment. Half the ground floor was a coffee bar, the other half was full of trendy knick-knacks, and the narrow gallery that ran round the upper floor just seemed to sell F&B paint. It turned out that they didn't open until ten o'clock but I couldn't face drinking coffee and reading home decor magazines for forty minutes with pop music thumping out of the loudspeakers.



*In Cattle Market Street, in case any of you want to save yourselves a trip.

 

[AMc]

Paint & Paper in Norwich stock F&B, Earthborne, Little and Greene and Holkhams (not that that matters here)
I've found them generally helpful and knowledgeable - certainly if you want colour cards they have them all.

I used Little Greene's distemper on bare brick, skimmed and plasterboarded walls in the vinery. Nice stuff and looks great but only comes in massive tins and direct.

 

[Feltwell]

I will be using lining paper in our old kitchen because the wall is very uneven and and has several difference finishes already. I've done this elsewhere in the house without any problems, however, can someone please tell me what the advantage is of horizontal papering rather than vertical? Not heard of it until this thread.

I don't think you need to worry if you're painting. I *think* it's done if you're then wallpapering over the top to ensure the seams can never align. I had pro decorators do a house for me a few years ago to get it ready quickly for selling, they hung the lining paper horizontally even though they were then painting over the top just in case anyone wanted to wallpaper over it in future. They claimed to prefer hanging it horizontally as well - I didn't mind which way they did it.

I've always hung it vertically, seems simpler to me!

 

[Penners]

I *think* it's done if you're then wallpapering over the top to ensure the seams can never align.

That's my understanding, too. Vertical lining paper with vertical finishing paper over the top gives too many vertical seams, risking their becoming very obvious. So the lining paper is hung horizontally to obviate this.

 

[Moo]

It looks as though I'm going down the lining paper+F&B Estate Emulsion route.

Brewers (thanks, Joss) were very helpful, but said that there was no way they could tint claypaint, so that's that. However, they did say that Estate Emulsion has less acrylic in it than their standard emulsion. Is this true?

Luckily there's a branch of Homebase very near to them, so I popped in and picked up some more sample pots. Although I didn't like the look of it on the shade card I brought home a sample of Hay because Joce recommended it so eloquently, and have just tried it out on a couple of areas - and I think it's the one!!!!

So thank you very much Joce. It's lovely to have such a perceptive (and persuasive) interior designer on the forum.

 

[Feltwell]

It looks as though I'm going down the lining paper+F&B Estate Emulsion route.

Brewers (thanks, Joss) were very helpful, but said that there was no way they could tint claypaint, so that's that.

Moo, dare I ask - what's wrong with the Norwich branch of Paint & Paper, who are on the claypaint website as offering tinting?

My own colour dilemma today (it's all the fault of you lot, it's catching this colour lark!) - if to paint our exterior doors Old Red or Spruce Green, to go with a Buttermilk frame (which is the same as the windows & new gates).

http://www.holkhamlinseedpaints.co.uk/products/linseed-oil-paint.html

Decisions decisions.

 

[Penners]

Wouldn't life be so much easier if the whole world was beige?

 

[Feltwell]

Ahh, spoken like a true man!

 

[JoceAndChris]

Moo, very very pleased to read that, and thank you for the lovely comment. (I'm certainly not an interior designer but do spend a silly amount of time pouring over colours and papers and Regency ideas! ) I can picture "Hay" in your house and I think it will give that mature depth needed - it would also look great against any black or gold frames.

Yes the estate emulsion is miles nicer than the modern emulsion, which is plasticcy. I also think it's more breathable - I've got it on three outside -facing walls and I've had no problems with it.

Toby - I've got Wimbourne White on my music room ceiling, it's very fresh, very crisp - nice against appley greens. I wouldn't use it on it's own - try Farrow's or Dorset cream. Our skin needs flattering shades in the evening time; ochres and warm creams are lovely and rarely cause offence.

Feltwell - I think all your woodwork ought to be a sludgey green going towards soft olive. :wink:

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Modern emulsion is plasticcy and gives an awful finish. Hay is a good colour choice, and I am glad you found Brewers helpful! Craig and Rose does a chalky finish in the Adams Cream, not plasticcy. Just to add more confusion to your choices, don't forget Francesca's chalky emulsions, Norfolk colours and lovely paint finish.

Years ago I posted a question on here about Paper and Paints--- some of you might remember that I questioned how it is that they MIX up the F&B paints out at the back-- how do you know you are buying the real F&B product if they can mix it at the back at stick it in an F&b tin.

 

[AMc]

Paint & Paper are listed on the Farrow and Ball website as a supplier.
They have a whole wall of F&B tins and offer soft & casin distemper, gloss, estate, dead flat, limewash and all the other flavours I think it's safe to say they are authorised to mix F&B - I can't see why they would bother doing anything else?

http://www.paint-paper.co.uk/paint/farrow-ball/cat_14.html

 

[Moo]

Thanks for that, AMc.
Actually, I've had quite a productive morning so far:
It turns out that in daylight Hay is Not Right - on my walls it just looks a pale khaki. And Day Room Yellow is much too bright.
But - if you mix a teaspoonful of Hay with a teaspoonful of Day Room Yellow (as you can see, I'm very scientific) the result is really very acceptable.

Yesterday I e-mailed Paint & Paper to see whether they really will tint claypaint and this has just come back:


Dear Maureen

We have an Earthborn architects' colour swatch with a further 126 colours on.

This is available for £5.

We are not, however, able to tint Earthborn to customers own colours .

Let us know if you would like the architects swatch and we can post.

Kind regards
Stephen Dix

So now we all know. But it beats me why they didn't let on about the 'architects' colour swatch' when I went in the other day.

 

[LadyArowana]

Thanks for that, AMc.
Actually, I've had quite a productive morning so far:

Dear Maureen

We have an Earthborn architects' colour swatch with a further 126 colours

Let us know if you would like the architects swatch and we can post.

Kind regards
Stephen Dix

So now we all know. But it beats me why they didn't let on about the 'architects' colour swatch' when I went in the other day.

I bet you didn't do the secret handshake.

 

[AMc]

But it beats me why they didn't let on about the 'architects' colour swatch' when I went in the other day.

Were you wearing a black polo neck, "difficult" glasses and driving a Saab?
:evil:

 

[tobydog]

Moo - thanks for the offer of the Lemony test pot. We were heading to Norwich this coming weekend but decided against it as we would just spend money we need to spend in Jim Lawrence. Our next door neighbour was burgled recently and we want some more door bolts. Unfortunately all our door / window fitments in the new extension are JL so upgrading isn't that cheap.

I like the idea of the Earthborn architects paint chart. We did try a test pot of Earthborn Freshair clay paint a while back. We put it on two areas of a new lime plastered wall. The paint was a nice pale blue but within minutes of putting it on the off-white lime I couldn't tell where I had been. I still can't and I think it got lighter. This is annoying with paint charts especially on websites. They are notoriously bad.

 

[Feltwell]

So now we all know. But it beats me why they didn't let on about the 'architects' colour swatch' when I went in the other day.

Bit naughty that it's up on the claypaint website then.

I went into Bromborough Paints today to get a tin of linseed paint, having change my mind on the colour about 50 times already - then changing it again on seeing the painted swatch "in the flesh" - the colour was nothing like the online colour, which I know varies by monitor, or even the printed swatch. The difference was so extreme that even I, as a man, could spot it a mile away!

I noticed they sell claypaint as well - I asked about tinting, but they also don't do it. It seems to be a rarely offered service, which is disappointing given how suitable the paint is for old houses and that their standard colour offering is not great.

Were you wearing a black polo neck, "difficult" glasses and driving a Saab?
:evil:

What are all the architects to do now that Saab is no more? They can't even go back to the 2CV's they drove as students, they've been out of production even longer. :wink:

 

[JoceAndChris]

Very fraught for you Moo. It's best to get it right though - you don't want to be half way up and realise you can't live with it.

You'll be so glad once you've found the colour - I'd be very nervous of mixing two colours as you suggest, if the proportion gets altered over the course of the job it will show.