HOME DECORATION

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 288, 5 September 1928, Page 17

HOME DECORATION

USE OF OIL AND WATER PAINTS SIMPLE INSTRUCTIONS In (he course of an article in the “English and Amateur Mechanic,” Mr. R. Garnett offers some useful hints in regard to interior painting and renovation work for which the spring is regarded by many home-owners as au appropriate period. The article is written for those who wish to reduce expenditure by doing the work themselves. No elaborate array of tools or materials is proposed. “Let us at Hie outset,” says Mr. Garnett. "set this clear: Unless you are likely to remove in the near future, got the best out of your labours by making for permanency in the job every time. What you do should stand three or four years’ wear at least; next spring must not see you at the same task again. Remember, in painting costs, labour represents a high proportion, 60 per cent, and more, and faulty, cheap materials must not prove to have wasted your time. .Admittedly it is a commonplace to say: Get good materials. You must know, however, that paint is unfortunately a commodity whose quality can be treated very elastically. The writer had the remark once made to him by a representative of a prominent paint manufacturing firm that “we can supply you with that paint at any price you like,” an eye-opening revelation as tf> the obligingness of some manufacturers to compound good and bad materials in descending and ascending percentages, and call it “paint.” “These notes being intended, not for the painter by trade, but for the average householder, the vote goes to ready-made paints, with the exception, if you like, of white bought in paste form. Spare time iq precious and much cannot be afforded for mixing. Do not get those paints labelled ‘quick-drying’; they certainly are quick to dry, but that is their only recommendation. In recommending ready-made paints, I do not mean to bind you to the standard colours as put up, for you can buy oil colours in tube form specially meant for modifying. Has it not been said that the best colours arc those that cannot be described?

Paint and distemper have such an attractive way of setting each other off, the one with its light-reflecting gloss or semi-gloss, and the other with its dry “bloom.” that you are well advised to profit by the combination. As, then, we take a tour through our rooms let us sort out for consideration the possibilities. For walls, assuming a change from patterned paper, we have eight different covering preparations from which to choose. Commencing with the cheapest: (I) Ordinary whitewash, made from whiting and size; its only merit is its cheapness and it serves well, and might be used oftener, to give light in dark cellars, pantries, sheds eleven in the roof, if you arc of those who cannot see useful space not used; (2) coloured distemper, made by tinting whitewash with dry colour; (3) readymade distemper, with whiting for its base and not washable; < 4) washable distemper, with lithopone for base, and •which stands light cleaning down with sponge and water; (5) flat wall colours, of recent introduction, with oil and lithopone basis, consisting flat-drying oil colours, really washable and of good covering power, so that one coat often suffices where two of distemper are needed; (6) oil paints, of the usual type; (7) aluminium paint, useful behind geysers, gas stoves, and most excellent for all piping, lavatory cisterns, etc.; and (S) enamels, for bathrooms and kitchens. Note that (4) and (5) go well on wood, and the former with a coat of varnish is becoming more appreciated aud used for its clear, fresh effect.

“As regards brushes, it is better to keep to a few, that you can find time to care for, than to purchase a number. Personally, I find most use for a IJin. flat, bevelled, bristle for window, frames, etc., and three wide flat wall brushes of bevelled, stiff black bristles, two, 4in. wide, for dark and light paints, and the third, Bin. wide, for distemper. It is true the two-knot brushes usual for distemper hold much more colour, but in the hands of amateurs they are also apt to cause more mess. For cleaning down work, with hot water and soda, the household scrubbing brush does quite well. A note as to brush bristles — hog’s bristles are the best and can be distinguished from the cheaper horsehair by their tapering to fineness at the tip. Horsehair is uniform in thickness throughout its length. A putty knife and a push-knife are also needed.

“At this stage most amateur painters want to know how much colour to buy; here is the usual rule for work already painted. Every seven square yards need a pound of paint as thinned for use, whilst for distemper every six square yards will need a pound of paste, i.e., as bought, and before adding water. "Now as to method of work. The natural starting point on a wall, say, is the top left-hand corner. In the course of much home distempering and painting the following method has been evolved for covering large surfaces without sign of join. The idea is to map out the ■wall in imaginary panels of wide oblong shape. Starting at the top left-hand hornet- you cover a strip of handy width, say, 30-3 G inches, observing that you terminate your panel on the right hand with an edge sloping inwards. Having

worked a panel downwards Im- a depth of 24 inches or so, continue with another panel, again with the inward sloping terminal ion, but a good eight or nine inches less in total width. The result is that as you proceed down and across the lace of the wall the irregular, broken spacing of the joints, togct ier with their diagonal inclination, optically Jess discernible than any other direction of line, ensures a good uniformity of tom, even for a beginner s efforts. It is less complicated than it rends, and after your first wall it miH have become a habit. It results in Gunner, evener coats, and is far better than the resort to excessive paint most home painters employ to lessen their difficulty. ; "Similarly, a little thought as to mampulating the charge of a loaded brush will repay. Approaching the work, dispose of some of the colour by two preliminary dabs, before arriving at your commencing point, to the left, where you are continuing from the last “panel.” These clots form a reservoir of colour, recharging your brush as you spread the paint to the right. No harm is done if your brush, becoming exhausted near the righthand edge of the panel, is dragged out into a dry, crumbly tint, as this softens the edge for linking up later. What colours are wc to choose. A thorny subject, cause of much debate in many houses; so personal a matter that it is deemed better to offer here only a few guiding principles. “(i) Decide which clement comes first in your ease, for whilst all the elements — walls, doors, furniture, upholstery, hangings—contribute towards that harmonious interior that we desire, their shares are not equal. If you feel the separate pieces of you furniture compose a happy family, linked up by community of shape, colour, and style, you have a good basis for numbering furniture as a tirst element in the scheme. If, on the. other hand, there are obvious diversities in colour of wood or upholstery—shape is in this respect less important—then the walls aud doors can set the keynote. “|ii) Having settled approximately where you stand on the above alternatives, an'other practical consideration to remember is that large rooms or spaces can stand brighter colour than smaller rooms. One should avoid the not uncommon sight* of a small room, fairly full of furniture, presenting to the eye an assortment of scarlet or blue-green parallelograms and odd shapes as the ground colour of the wall protrudes itself from amongst the furniture and pictures. “(iii) The difficulty just mentioned is partly solved by a two-colour scheme for the walls, the lower part of which is given a more sober liue. “(iv) Schemes employing one or more colours can be sorted out thus: (a) a one-colour scheme throughout the house, a growing tendency: (b) one colour for each room, paint for woodwork and distemper for walls being of approximately the same colour, their contrasting texture giving life to the room; (c) two colours for each room, using the second, usually darker, for woodwork; (d) three colours for selected rooms, giving two to the walls as under (iii) above and the third for doors, etc.”