A Guide For Amateur Home Decorators

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31880, 7 January 1969, Page 14

A Guide For Amateur Home Decorators

Interior decoration , , , can be done at any time nf the vpar although or the yeai, annougn generally the summer

is the most suitable as the house stays reasonably warm, allowing modern interior paints to dry overnight.

Exterior decoration can be done at anytime from late spring to mid or late Autumn, though its wise to pay attention to the weather forecasts since heavy rain is bad for any kind of paint.

Woodwork too, takes time to dry out, so the first fine day after a wet spell is definitely not the time to snatch the chance of slapping a coat of paint on your doors and windows. Give the timber at least a few days of reasonable weather. If you don’t there’s more than a chance you’ll be troubled with blistering and flaking as the trapped moisture tries to make its way out.

Don’t mix different makes of paint, either in the can or on the work. As a rule, if its only a matter of applying one top coat on top of an old but sound surface, any brand of house paint will go on top of any other brand.

But if you are doing more than this, if you are giving the job the full treatment which should be at least ope coat of primer, one coat of undercoat, and one coat of top coat, then it is advisable to buy all of one make and follow the instructions on the tin. If you add thinners, use the type of thinners the makers recommend.

Most painting is no more than common sense either indoor or out. Naturally the surface to be painted, must be clean . and (he paint mus( not be loose, flaky, dusty or greasy.

A dark colour tends to show through a light one, so if you’re got a dark brown door and want to paint it white it will require at least one and possibly two undercoats to stop the brown showing through.

There are one or two snags. New plaster and cement will attack the usual paints, especially the linseed-oil based paints. You must use a special alkalin-resistant primer as the first coat. Creosote on woodwork will “bleed” through almost every paint. The remedy is to apply one coat of aluminium primer. New metal (e.g. copper, steel, zinc) does not take paint much either. The remedy is to de-grease and apply special primer.

Some paint firms offer “allpurpose primers” which can be used as the first coat on any of these surfaces and so save having to buy several different primers.

On ordinary timber, the familiar pink primer is good enough. But don’t leave too long between primer, undercoats and finish coat. Not only will the surface get too hard and so not give a good “key”

but (especially outdoors) it will get dirty and greasy. A substantial improvement in' resistance to rain penetration should result from the use of cement paint on brick walls and since the tools amount to not much more than buckets and brushes it is a job well within the capabilities of any home owner.

For very porous walls, especially those in exposed positions something more may be required, possibly the first application of a bituminous covering before final decoration, but no detailed general treatment can be recommended since every case needs to be considered separately.

Both indoors and outdoors, don’t be afraid to be quite bold in the use of colour. In fact enterprising use of colour, to suit the aspect of your house or the outlook of

individual rooms, can make 'a tremendous difference. Houses or rooms which face i south and get little sunshine need gay, warm colours, those facing the north cooler colours, blues, whites, pale greens. Externally this is sound sense because dark colours painted on the northern aspects absorb a tremendous amount of heat on a sunny day and the paintwork will actually decay much sooner when dark colours are used.