14th October 2014 - Autumn Colours series

Conkers. Nothing quite as pristine and new born in Autumn as a newly emerging, gleaming shiny conker poking out of its spiky husk.

Used variously as cattle and horse feed (to keep their coats shiny), to help prevent piles and rheumatism, to ward off spiders and moths and of course as the ammunition in the time honoured game of 'Conkers' itself.

     

                  

  

The Conker Palette - 14th October 2013 by 

for colour advice and matching including the creation of bespoke colour schemes, visit:

www.paintsandinteriors.co.uk

Keim Mineral Paints Case Study

If you are looking for a breathable, water-based paint then look no further.

Keim Mineral Paints (founded over 130 years ago and in the UK since 1987) is becoming increasingly specified by Architects and builders on new build, and where any form of lime plaster, render or breathable products are used, it is in my opinion the best paint to use.

They are possibly better known for their exterior grade paints, Granital, Royalan and Soldalit, but less so for their interior paints, Optil and Ecosil ME.

The products vary slightly in application, which can confuse some, and the German sounding names do stall some people into thinking it is a very complicated paint to use, but it is not. If you thought of the system as Stabilisers and Mist Coat additives, followed by standard application top coats, rather than Soldalit Fixativs and Grnital Dilutions, there would never be any issue. The fact that the exterior grade paints are measured in Kgs, rather than Litres also adds to the hesitations from the domestic customer, but get over these tiny hurdles and you have a standard paint, with added extras!

Look at it like this - if you want to have a paint that is water-based, chemically bonds to the surface to which it is applied - so will not flake or peel, will allow the substrate to breathe, and outlasts film forming paints by two or three times, then you should be all over Keim Paints.

Yes, it is true that the exterior paints probably work out about 3 times more expensive initially than a standard Masonry paint, but if it lasts 3 times as long, you have already saved yourself 2 lots of labour costs, and in some cases scaffolding costs, neither of which are cheap.

Whilst the exterior grade paints are more expensive, the interior paints are cheaper. 

Farrow & Ball - All White Estate Emulsion - £61.00 inc Vat for 5L
Keim Ecosil - equivalent colour - £32.70 inc Vat for 5 L

So there is also a high delivery charge of £18 per order (no limit on quantity) from Keim compared to £4.95 from F & B, but even with that in mind its 30% cheaper (aside from the fact that it has better coverage, is fully breathable etc etc....)

So to the case study:

Site view

A Norfolk Barn conversion.

A high spec Barn conversion with the emphasis on low carbon footprint and renewables. PV solar panels and heat recovery unit, along with underfloor heating and triple glazing. The customer wanted a breathable paint that would be able to go over a mixture of substrates -  Lime, Brickwork, Plaster and standard render. Interior to be plain white and a flat matt, breathable paint. Exterior, again white on the brickwork, to help mask the huge amounts of variations in brick work renovations (not all good) carried out over the years and to give added protection to the soft Norfolk red bricks, whilst retaining the breath ability of the buildings natural materials.

Paints chosen:

Interior: Keim Optil White - £39.00 /5L inc Vat
Exterior: Keim Soldalit White - £72.60/5kgs inc Vat (5 kgs is approx 3.5l so yes it is quite expensive, but compared to Lime wash -an obvious alternative, it works out way cheaper once you have taken the labour costs into account. Limewash also does nothing to protect your render or brick work, and you are almost better off not putting anything on at all. Keim will give your substrate all the breath ability of a limewash, but the protection of a standard masonry paint).

The Optil is flat matt - approx 1% sheen, massively light reflective, quick drying and has excellent hiding power. The decorators had never used it before and were sceptical, but massively impressed by its need for only 2 coats onto bare plaster, and its ease of use.

They got through quite a lot of Soldalit externally, and this has proved expensive, but i doubt it will need re doing in the next 10-15 years so a saving already.

All interior walls finished in Keim Optil White.

All woodwork finished in Osmo Oils.

With only a few more months to go until the client moves in, my job supplying the Keim & Osmo oils is almost complete, they are, however, very pleased with the results the Keim paints have given. Taking the savings made in using the Keim Optil internally, against a 'designer' brand, the extra cost of the Soldalit for the exterior is negligible and they have a breathable paint, that will not flake or peel off, and will out perform standard film forming paints by over 10 years!

Will we be seeing more of Keim paints? I think so.

For more information on Keim, price enquiries and ordering, please contact me on the details below.

Paints & Interiors,

Units 1 & 2 South Farm,

Alburgh,

Harleston, 

NORFOLK

IP20 0BS

t: 01986 788993

e:info@paintsandinteriors.co.uk

w:www.paintsandinteriors.co.uk

Rigostep Rainbow woodstains

Rigostep Rainbow Woodstains

For flooring in any colour!

In the last few weeks i have been testing Rigosteps new water-based tintable wood stains from their Rainbow colouring system.

Used alongside a professional tinting machine the Rainbow wood stains gives the end user a near limitless choice of tinted wood stain for interior floors, and joinery. They have apparently 486,562 so far so there should be something for everyone in there!

Rigostep Rainbow are essentially made up of four base coat 'Reactive Stains' which can either be used as they are or have pigment added to them. They come in 1L tubs, which cover approx 10-15m2 with one coat - depending on the type of timber and the finish sanding grade.

Salted - Light pink/brown base coat - good for warm, brown oaks, rich mahogany colours and warm blacks as well as a rather striking white pale grey lilac! The pink on the base really affects the tones and i think it is the richest of the four.

Smoked - Light tobacco Brown base coat: This is the lightest of the four starting off life as a light aged oak colour. The colours with this tend to be less intense, and more transparent from a bleached oak, to light and dark oaks.

Seasoned - Light green blue base coat: The mid range of the stains and gives a colour similar to a green oak  with ochre, umber and white added, to a good french brown oak with black yellow ochre and violet.

Charred - Dark blue Black base coat. This is the base that is most suited to the dark deep browns and ebony's. The black is deep and black and with umber's and ochres added it is a lovely dark nut brown. With lighter pigments it ranges from a light to a dark denim colour - and if you want a rich blue - this is the one for you.

Just some of the colours i came up with

Either 1 or 2 coats can be applied to get a lesser or greater intensity of colour, but it needs to be over coated with a hard wearing floor oil like eicó Golvolja or an Osmo Polyx oil - and not a water-based product like a polyurethane. 

With the eicó Golvolja you can add an extra dimension, as this is a tintable linseed, so you are able to pick out the grain of the timber in a different colour to give an aged or distressed look very easily - light colours seem to work best for distressing with a white or light grey on a dark background, and a black oil on a grey or brown base stain can give a subtle aged finish to the timber.

Grey wood stain with light grey eicó Golvolja floor oil.

Although coloured flooring is more common in European countries, it has not yet taken off over here. Whilst not for everyone and with the huge array of companies offering light oaks, dark oaks, etc etc, having a tintable system does allow you to get that exact shade you want.

Rigostep Rainbow is a undoubtedly a very useful product when it comes to colour matching to an existing shade or timber finish. from flooring, to panelling and joinery such as architraves and skirting. 

If you would like more information on Rigostep Rainbow, or would like to get some samples mixed up for testing, then please contact me at Paints & Interiors and i will be happy to help.

e: info@paintsandinteriors.co.uk

w: www.paintsandinteriors.co.uk

t: 01986 788993

Professional Paints - Bespoke Interiors

http://www.paintsandinteriors.co.uk/?p=skylt.ultramatt
http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=110783279534516776#editor/target=post;postID=4056065298792060560;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=10;src=postname

Bespoke Hand-painted kitchens

Special Promotional Offer -

20% off kitchen list price

Offer lasts until 01/05/13* some conditions apply

For more information on our offer, kitchen designs and prices, please contact us in our showrooms at South Farm.

http://www.paintsandinteriors.co.uk/

Taylors Flooring glues by Osmo.

Taylor’s Makes Flooring Install Easy with New Adhesive Sausage and Gun Applicator

Applying adhesive when installing wooden flooring can be a messy job, but thanks to Osmo UK, a more easily controllable solution is available in the UK. Adhesive specialists, Taylor’s has developed a new form for its top-selling adhesive, MS-Plus – the sausage ensures quick and accurate application. The MS-Plus adhesive is a solvent-free product that gives a reliable and consistent performance.

The all-new Taylor’s 600cc Sausages, available from Osmo UK, are the ideal solution for all installation projects. Where accurate application is necessary, Taylor’s sausage allows users to administer the adhesive solution using a bulk gun, giving them complete control.

“Taylor’s adhesive is a fantastic product to use across all interior wooden flooring installations. Advantages of the product is that the bonds made are permanent, it is waterproof, and has sound reducing qualities – eliminating the need for multiple products. Now that the product is available in ‘sausage’ form, the adhesive is even more flexible. Application of any adhesive is a messy job, so using a bulk gun is a great way to get around this. It means that contractors can apply the product far more precisely and quickly, and with more ease” explains Steve Grimwood, MD at Osmo UK.

Taylor’s 600cc Sausages are the ideal solution for all installation projects. The one part component 100% solids, cross linking, MS polymer-based adhesive is ideal for all types of wooden flooring, including wood block parquet, engineered wood plank, acrylic impregnated plank, bamboo and pre-finished and unfinished solid wood flooring.

Taylor’s range of adhesive products including the new 600cc sausages and bulk gun are available directly from Osmo UK. Taylor’s adhesive range is environmentally friendly products

For more information on Taylors adhesives please contact us at South Farm.

http://www.paintsandinteriors.co.uk/
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Solid Timber Worktops

Staves:

The individual boards that make up the worktop. Stave width can vary, but we try and source timber giving individual stave widths of between 100mm to 240mm. Generally 4 or 5 stave widths for a standard 600 worktop. Being that every worktop is bespoke, we can however give you any stave width you want – dependant on the timber available at the time.

An example of a random stave beech top.

Joints:

Generally tongue and grooved joints, giving a joint that runs the full length of the timber. We can also biscuit joint, so no joints can be seen at the ends of the worktops.

Worktop joints.

Worktop Ends and Edges:

Our worktops ends will finish with the stave widths and joints clearly visible. We can fit end caps if requested.

End caps can be fitted as an extra.

Worktop edges can come square edge or rounded. We can produce shaped tops at an extra cost, but will need a template to go from.

Detail of rounded worktop edge – Ash top

Knots:

All our worktop timber is sourced very carefully, and the best timber is chosen for the job in hand, but please do expect a few knots (in fact we prefer there to be a few small ones). We can supply completely clean boards with no knots, but please do specify when ordering, your chosen preference.

 

Example of knots in one of our bespoke worktops

Useful Links:

Worktop Oils - http://www.osmouk.com/osmopolyx.cfm?chapter=29

Biscuit Jointing- http://www.howtohq.co.uk/how-to-improve-your-biscuit-joinery

If you have any questions then please do not hesitate to contact us at South Farm - 

http://www.paintsandinteriors.co.uk/?p=contact

Spraying & Hand-painting Kitchens

Despite the last two weeks being the coldest of the winter so far, we were busy, thermals on and heaters turned up, in the workshop painting some bespoke kitchen door and drawer fronts for a customer.

We often get asked to make up  tulip wood doors and drawers to go onto shop bought carcass units or as replacements for tired old ones, which we then hand finish in the workshop, to give the look of a hand-painted bespoke kitchen, without the price tag.

In this case the customer could not find a colour she liked, so we created a bespoke colour for her (scanned from the colour on our business card no less!), which we then mixed up in Eico Alterior Eggshell - an interior and exterior Eggshell which is incredibly hard wearing, flexible and durable.

The door and drawer fronts made of solid tulip wood for the rails and stiles, with a MR MDF panel (another option for the panel is a veneered Oak, or Ash MDF which shows the grain through the paint for a slightly different overall finish), for a traditional Shaker design.

A simple Shaker design was requested by the customer

Detail of Mortise and tenon joints

Two coats of a tinted i-can Grepp V Acrylic Alkyd primer undercoat were sprayed onto the fronts, sanded in between each coat with a medium grit sponge sanding pad. This high performance primer is similar to a Zinseer 123, and covers beautifully, giving the timber the best protection possible.

The workshop with the primed kitchen drying on racking.

A sprayed coat of the Eico 100% acrylic Alterior Eggshell in the bespoke colour was then applied, to which we added approx 10% to volume of paint Owatrol Floetrol, and a small amount of water. Floetrol is a paint conditioner for acrylic or latex based paints, which when added makes the paint behave more like an oil paint. It increases the open time, meaning less visible brush and spray patterns, helps with coverage (especially in colours with poor hiding power such as yellows and reds), and helps look after your spray equipment, with less blocked nozzles!

A single hand-painted finish coat on the backs of the doors and 2 hand painted coats on the fronts was then applied to give the desired finish (again sanded between each coat). 

By painting the units this way, you build up the base layers with 3 smooth sprayed coats, with the final hand painted coats giving a slight brushed finish.

The end result!

The end result is a bespoke hand finished door!

If you would like kitchen doors, drawers, end panels or any other item of furniture or joinery (such as windows, doors and worktops) hand finished, then please contact me at South Farm and i can discuss prices and availability.

Links & address book:

i can primers: http://www.raymunn.co.uk/online/shop/primers/ican/ican-grepp-v-750ml-detail

Eico Paints:http://eico.co.uk/

Floetrol:http://www.owatrol.com/index.php?langue=en&page=produits-floetrol

Stockists:

East of England - http://www.paintsandinteriors.co.uk/

Central London - http://www.raymunn.co.uk/