A paint problem

[Penners]

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.

That's certainly the danger. The best solution is to make absolutely certain that your first mix produces enough paint to do the whole job. The second-best is to measure your mixture proportions meticulously and keep a record of them, so you can exactly reproduce the mix. But even that isn't a sure-fire route to an identical second (third... fourth... etc.) batch of paint.

 

[Moo]

Oh, I wasn't intending to mix the whole lot myself - it was just an attempt to find a colour that would work without going to the expense of buying yet more samples.
However, now I've found it I seem to be no nearer to a solution. I now have a piece of card painted with the colour I want, together with paint charts from F&B and Earthborn* and neither of them have anything that comes anywhere near what I want.
I may well be reduced to buying a bucket with a screw lid, decanting a five litre can of each F&B colour into it, and then stirring like mad. So long as I make sure to start a new bucketful at a corner it won't matter if there's a miniscule difference in the mixes.

Penners helpfully said "Wouldn't life be so much easier if the whole world was beige?"
But, dear Penners, have you any idea how many shades of beige there are?





*The £5 architects' chart of claypaint colours is amazing. But it still doesn't have 'my' colour.

 

[Moo]

A sudden thought -

Did someone say that Brewers or Paint & Papers will tint F&B paints?

 

[Penners]

Penners helpfully said "Wouldn't life be so much easier if the whole world was beige?"
But, dear Penners, have you any idea how many shades of beige there are?

Not in my world, there aren't. There's Dulux Magnolia.... and that's it.

I'm so ashamed.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Moo, I read somewhere that there is a way of applying paint colour in slightly different shades of the chosen colour which helps to overcome the problem of the colour appearing too dark or dramtically changed in different light/dark corners. Probably rather painstaking and will involve a few buckets of the colour from pale to paler etc , keeping the paint line sprayed down and being quite sure whereabouts you want the colour to be pale or dark. Try it in your smallest landing area starting with a pale version and then deepening the colour as you move on or vice versa.

 

[AMc]

Did someone say that Brewers or Paint & Papers will tint F&B paints?

I suspect that they can mix any F&B paint to order on the premises from an emulsion base coat and approved pigments. A custom F&B paint colour may be possible - you'd have to ask.

Certainly they can mix any one of the million Sanderson colours they have on that big display by the door - I picked up a number of those cards then used it to specify the colour our kitchen doors were sprayed.

Lots of places can colour mix paint to a sample of the colour you're looking to reproduce but you may be limited to modern emulsions. You also run the risk that the colour of the base may affect the final dry colour - as tobydog mentioned.

Moo - did you look at Little & Greene ?
http://www.littlegreene.com/

Not in my world, there aren't. There's Dulux Magnolia.... and that's it.

Magnolia = vibrant beige
Brilliant white is also a colour I like though I'm not sure what makes it "brilliant".
Travis Perkins sell both in massive tubs for very little money - be warned that it will simply scrub off gypsum plaster should you spill wine on it.

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.

I thought Saab were saved, but you have to build you own according to their website...
http://www.saab.co.uk/gb/en/start#/buy-own/customize-your-saab/build-your-saab/
There is a "strawberrys and cream" 2CV owned by someone who works in a local school. It makes that brilliant sewing machine noise and tilts alarmingly as it rounds the corner near the church. A car who's doors lift off - what's not to like?

 

[Moo]

Thanks for that link to Little & Greene; their colours look good, but I'm a bit apprehensive about the durability of their distemper (all the emulsions are acrylic, which rather rules them out).
I think I'll ring Brewers and Paint&Paper about the possibility of tinting F&B's Estate Emulsion. I'll report back.

 

[Moo]

According to Brewers and Paint&Papers, F&B won't allow suppliers to do tinting.

So I may well end up with a large bucket and a paint paddle fixed to my drill......

 

[JoceAndChris]

Oh heavens! So very tricky.

I know the samples are a total pain with the spiralling cost of trying lots out, but I think it's preferable to mixing two colours together ( your job though Moo!). FnB paint needs regular stirring anyway, stirring a great 10 litre container regularly sounds arduous but it's up to you.

Also remember that FnB needs 3 coats. I don't know how many litres you need Moo but I do know that my little ceilings here use up 5 l over 3 coats.

It's really difficult to know if you like a colour sufficiently to live with it over a large expanse. I've made mistakes, and subsequent changes, in nearly every room. From now on I'm resolved to paint as much of a wall as two little sample pots will allow and live with it over a period!

What do you think of Zoffany's Silk Yellow Moo?

http://www.zoffany.com/pages/products/paints

Or Rose of Jericho's Straw?

http://www.rose-of-jericho.demon.co.uk/index1.htm

 

[Feltwell]

I thought Saab were saved, but you have to build you own according to their website...
http://www.saab.co.uk/gb/en/start#/buy-own/customize-your-saab/build-your-saab/
There is a "strawberrys and cream" 2CV owned by someone who works in a local school. It makes that brilliant sewing machine noise and tilts alarmingly as it rounds the corner near the church. A car who's doors lift off - what's not to like?

Saab's troubles aren't over yet I think, at least for Saab GB.

http://www.saab.co.uk/gb/en/start#/...mited-placed-in-administration/carrousel:all/

2CV's attract their loyal following, but for a car where you can take bits off and go places slowly, give me a nice Series iia Land Rover. Whichever model you buy, even a hardtop, it's an easy job to take the roof off and leave just the screen and door tops on for the summer. Or get an ex-military lightweight and not bother with doors at all, they look fine without them. Much more interesting than a French sewing machine :twisted:

 

[Penners]

there is a way of applying paint colour in slightly different shades of the chosen colour which helps to overcome the problem of the colour appearing too dark or dramtically changed in different light/dark corners. Probably rather painstaking and will involve a few buckets of the colour from pale to paler etc , keeping the paint line sprayed down and being quite sure whereabouts you want the colour to be pale or dark.

I can't help thinking that that's making life rather overcomplicated, investing immense amounts of time and trouble in something that nobody will ever notice.

I know... it's me. But this voice in my head speaks to me. It shouts, "just paint it"!

 

[Feltwell]

But this voice in my head speaks to me. It shouts, "just paint it"!

Are you sure that's the voice in your head, and not Mrs P reminding you about something you've not done? :wink:

 

[Moo]

"just paint it"!

Funny you should say that, Penners. I'm sorely tempted to solve the problem by cutting out all the little sample chips from the 'breathable' paint charts, put them in our Scrabble-letters bag, stir well, and then use the first one that comes out.

Life was so much simpler when I could just get my plastic emulsion mixed to match.

 

[Penners]

Dulux Magnolia matches Dulux Magnolia very nicely!

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Penners is right, just paint it!!!

 

[Moo]

I'm going to do just that. Enough of this precious faffing around!

 

[tobydog]

Act in haste - repent at leisure. Why do I get the feeling this thread will be going full circle very shortly? We spend days and days choosing paint, we then get totally confused and 'just paint it', realise it doesn't quite work, and then spend days and days choosing our next multiple paint layer before......................!! :roll:

Modern emulsions are incredibly thin when applied at the recommended quantity and do actually have an element of breathability. Maybe it's only after we have applied our 10th option that the physics of breathability starts to fall apart.

 

[Feltwell]

Modern emulsions are incredibly thin when applied at the recommended quantity and do actually have an element of breathability.

Very, very unscientific view on this:-

Not long ago I stripped one bedroom here of emulsion covered lining paper, which came off quite easily - but - that was largely because it was very poorly stuck to the surface below.

The surface below was an emulsion paint, over another layer of lining paper. The steam stripper did not penetrate the paint at all - the technique that I found that worked was to heat the paint layer up with the steamer but not for too long, and then you could peel the paint away as a plasticy film from the lining paper underneath which was completely untouched by the moisture from the steam. If you heated the paint for too long you still did not penetrate it with the steam, it just meant that the paint layer came away in 1000 little stretchy pieces of plastic film rather than one big lump.

The lining paper underneath, once exposed to the steam, changed colour and came away almost instantly.

The point of the above is that although it was a thin film of only 1 colour, probably 2 coats, it was doing a damn good job of stopping a steam stripper getting any moisture through, let alone allowing the room to "breathe". I'm sure some emulsions may have an element of breatheability as you say, but some most definitely do not.

 

[MdB]

I'm sure some emulsions may have an element of breatheability as you say, but some most definitely do not.

Trade matt emulsion is breathable and if you find the ingredients list (I did for one make a while back) it was basically lime + titanium oxide if I remember correctly. Good luck in finding it in anything other than white or magnolia though. It has to be breathable as it often put onto still damp plaster to get the job done quicker.

 

[AMc]

I'm sure some emulsions may have an element of breatheability as you say, but some most definitely do not.

Trade matt emulsion is breathable and if you find the ingredients list (I did for one make a while back) it was basically lime + titanium oxide if I remember correctly. Good luck in finding it in anything other than white or magnolia though. It has to be breathable as it often put onto still damp plaster to get the job done quicker.

On the plus side Trade matt emulsion is cheap and breathable. On the minus side it washes off if you spill something on the wall or get water "behind it". But then it's cheap and easy to slap another coat on...rinse, repeat...
I guess you could buy a 15 litre tub of Travis Perkins (or whoever) brilliant white and mix in a tester of a dark colour - you'd end up with a colour I'd call "pot luck" but it might work?

A "whisk" (as the builders called it) is invaluable for mixing larger tubs of paint - as you can see from the user reviews I'm not the only one who ummed about it then discovered it was well worth £6 after wasting time mixing paint by hand
http://www.screwfix.com/p/titan-power-paint-mixer/61617?_requestid=552447

I think the breathability of regular emulsion is quite variable, sometimes by design. I've deliberately bought this stuff for bathrooms and it comes off in sheets if water gets behind it (thanks to the undercoat of TP contract emulsion).
http://www.littlegreene.com/paint/finish/ultimatt-emulsion
However if it doesn't get water behind it then it can be washed down but doesn't have that "plastic" look of vinyl matt emulsion.