Insufficient paint

[JoceAndChris]

I'm in a terrible pickle with paint. I volunteered to decorate a friend's living room in London - she wanted to use a bold scheme she'd seen in Brussels. So we duly went to Brussels and bought the paint from Emery et Cie and ordered the fabric. I thought she'd measured the room carefully by working out the number of square metres and seeing how many square metres a can will do and making all the numbers agree. She said to the Emery sales consultant that the room was 8 metres by 4 metres and the paint was going on the ceiling too. He said that one can (5 litres) would be more than enough and off we went back to London with our ridiculous one can and a lot of chocolat.

When I began yesterday it quickly became apparent that one can would not even complete one half of the room. We rang Emery et Cie and told them that the quantity was miserably short. He said that it was impossible and that there must be a problem with the walls. It was a long call in which my friend put forward a very convincing case for at least free shipment on the remaining quantity of paint we need, but the company would not budge from their position that it was entirely our fault.

My friend now has some green walls and some white walls and no faith left in me or Emery et Cie. In an ideal world we would go back to Brussels and get another 15 litres, but this was never part of the plan or the budget.

Can the paint be replicated in the UK? It's very matt, contains casein and I think wood pulp. It's not got the same texture as any paint I've ever seen before.

 

[Schoolmarm]

1 kg (2.20 lbs) covers approximately 5m² (53.82 sq.f) in two coats (or 7m² in one coat).



Well this from their site clearly shows 5 litres is not enough. Room sizes aren't the normal way to measure for paint though, it is actual wall sizes needed. Do you think they thought it was one wall measuring 8 x 4? Especially if they was "forriners".

5 litres will cover 25 square meters. And she could have 75 square meters if four walls were being done. Anyway one wall 8 x 4 would still be not enough with 5 litres.

Very confusing.

She will struggle to get a perfect match colourwise and would be better abandoning that paint and trying to match it with some other make.

And what a stupid unhelpful company.

 

[Flyfisher]

So we duly went to Brussels and bought the paint . . . .

Now that is keen. Good job your friend hadn't seen the paint in Australia.

As for getting a match in the UK, I'm no expert but I'd guess this would be more risky and troublesome than just buying more in Brussels. Shipment can't be too expensive can it - or perhaps you've already scoffed the chocolate and need some more? :wink:

 

[MdB]

Just so you know, the google calculator is quite useful for working out sums like this.

For example, lets say a wall you want to work the square metre area of is 8ft tall and 4 yards wide with a 850mm wide by 180cm tall door in the middle of it. (units deliberately chosen to be awkward)

Feed this into google as "8ft x 4yds - 850mm x 180cm in square m"
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=8ft+x+4yds+-+850mm+x+180cm+in+square+m
and it will give you the answer of 7.39 square m.

If your paint covers 5 square m per litre then you can feed this in too:
(8ft x 4yds - 850mm x 180cm) / (5m^2 / 1L)
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=(8ft+x+4yds+-+850mm+x+180cm%29+%2F+(5m%5e2+%2F+1L%29
and you get the answer that 1.48L are required to cover this particular wall.

Might be useful to someone.

 

[Schoolmarm]

Bloody good link there 8)

 

[Cloudscape]

Would it be possible to get more paint via the London agent/stockist/place/thing?

Emery Et Cie at Retrouvious
1016 Harrow Road
London
NW10 5NR
United Kingdom
Tel: 0208 969 0222

 

[Schoolmarm]

:shock:

 

[Gareth Hughes]

:shock:

Schoolmarm, do you ever share my feeling that some of us are operating on a rather lower plane than others here?

 

[Schoolmarm]

Do you mean I am? Lol.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Many thanks for all the helpful replies.

MdB, why oh why didn't I ask you that before I left? Well, anyway, those calculations will help in the future and thankyou.

Schoolmarm, thanks for the sympathy.

Do you think they thought it was one wall measuring 8 x 4? Especially if they was "forriners".
.

He couldn't possibly have thought that. There had been a whole month of emails to-ing and fro-ing in which my friend's room had been photographed for design advice, and the photos sent to him! To be honest, this was a boy who looked like he'd spent far too much time on his hair to have a convincing knowledge of required paint quantities; he was kind of modelling the range if that makes sense. He looked particularly lovely in the Vert d'Egypte samples. Anyway.

Would it be possible to get more paint via the London agent/stockist/place/thing?

Emery Et Cie at Retrouvious
1016 Harrow Road
London
NW10 5NR
United Kingdom
Tel: 0208 969 0222

Cloudscape, smart as ever. But according to friend it's no more than a walk-in advertisement; they won't order you anything in to be picked up in the UK. What a pathetic waste of precious London space.

Not sure if Gareth means some of us need to stand in the corner with the dunce's hat on, but I have woken up feeling awful that she'd wanted Brussels quirky splendour and has ended up with a replica of the Nigerian flag! And she's going in for major spinal surgery next week and will be on that sofa looking at it for a long time. Oh well, as FF comments, another trip in the future for more chocolat will be needed (it's cheaper to get a good Eurostar deal than pay their shipment charges).

Thanks again for the response, good to share this.

 

[philmac1944]

Some good quality hardware stores have a `computer` which analyses paint samples and reproduces
colour / type of paint. Can`t remember what it`s called but will check it out tomorrow.
We`ve successfully used it many times.

 

[philmac1944]

Joce
Found some info lurking in an old file...
The machine is called a `Specto` and Crown Paints on 01254 704951 will
advise you on a local stockist.
They`ll need a 4" x 4" sample with 2 to 3 coats on it - have you enough left ?!
regards
Phil

 

[Penners]

we duly went to Brussels and bought the paint

Sorry, but old age is catching up with me. I thought you said you went to Brussels to buy some paint.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Pford75]

Maybe I'm missing something, but surely for anyone to advise on the amount of paint needed to cover the walls and ceiling, three dimensions would be required? A room of 8x4 with 6'6" ceilings will require rather less paint than something with 14'6" ceilings.

From what you say about the paint, you need to match more than just colour....so I would not be optimistic about matching in the UK. You might also consider these people http://www.businesslinkukcouriers.co.uk/ since they do specialise in shipping paint (although don't knwo for certain if they cover Brussels)

 

[JoceAndChris]

Pford and philmac, thankyou very much indeed for your suggestions. I will certainly pass those along to my friend and see what she says.

Too sad, now, for any of the banter and teasing going to Brussels to buy paint probably richly deserves - lost my beloved cockerel and another hen to a fox. Nathaniel was huge and gentle, the perfect boy - he followed me round like a shadow and insisted on eating from my hand; he hadn't even got to the cock a doodle do stage. So now I have to put all other things to one side, go and dig a great big grave and get myself and the girls over this.

 

[Schoolmarm]

Did the fox take them through the day?

 

[JoceAndChris]

6.45 pm. I went out at 7.00pm- too late. The bodies were still hot; I heard the rustling of the fox leaving. If I'd been any later he'd have had the lot. They're normally in earlier but I was helping Chris with the coving. Very much blaming myself for this, but, with free ranging them it was probably just a matter of time for the fox to find them, day or evening. They'll have to be captive birds now, until I can properly fence the area.

 

[Flyfisher]

Sorry to hear that Joce. We used to let our eight hens have the run of the place but they became too adventurous and would disappear up the lane and into neighbouring gardens. We also lost two of the eight, during the day, when they had total freedom so we fenced them in and have had no trouble since. We're fortunate to have lots of space so their 'pen' is about 1/3rd acre, which is hardly restrictive for them.

To be honest, I'm a little surprised we haven't lost anymore. The fencing is not particularly fox-proof, just 1m rabbit wire and we tend not to shut their shed until after dark, by which time they've put themselves to bed.

Still, 'nature red in tooth and claw'.

 

[Schoolmarm]

So difficult the balance between safety and quality of life. Although FF seems to be managing, I bet that is down to savvy chickens or good luck. :lol: :lol:

 

[JoceAndChris]

It certainly is difficult, that balance. Everyone who comes up here says it's crazy to free range them at all, dog walkers get greeted by foxes through the day who they report as being as bold as brass and the other day a sparrow hawk was sitting on top of the run. But I really do believe that every animal should be able to wander about and do its thing.

FF, how long did your fencing take? Was it a DIY job? How deep did you sink the fence posts? And how long has it lasted so far?