The kitchen painter cometh

Jason Walker certainly knows how to make an entrance across Cheshire and Lancashire. 



The kitchens he leaves behind aren't too shabby either. This one will be seen all round the country.



And his clients tend to leave reviews that speak volumes of the standards that are delivered right across the Traditional Painter group.


 

Cheery cherry kitchen

Richard Willott, Traditional Painter in E Anglia was presented with a very dark cherry / magohany hardwood kitchen which seemed to suck any natural light out of the room.



This is the same kitchen having been tweaked, prepared, primed, and 3 top coats of Alcro's Servlac Aqua10, using a combination of Purdy and Fox brushes. 



That's a transformation.

Marston and Langinger neat touches

Tony Pearson-Young was the first Traditional Painter to show off his sample pack of interior eggshell for furniture painters, from Marston and Langinger.



Like all paint samples, we can't just look and enjoy, it implies some work too, putting the packaging to one side and using the contents, working out the good and the areas for improvements. The start of a long road and a lot of questions.

If they use this eggshell on the internals of their orangeries, this paint can certainly tell a few stories.


Blackfriars Problem Solving Primer, not what it used to be.

I have long touted Blackfriars Problem Solving Primer, but all bets are currently off, as it is no longer the rebranded tried, tested and uber-proven Classidur Universal Primer. 

What is clear

Towards the end of 2013, CLASSIDUR bought out a "new" primer under their own name - Classidur Universal Primer Extrem. I reported the changes in this article

What has since been confirmed from on high, is that Classidur didn't mess with the reliable stain blocking and adhesion properties of Universal Primer. The new Extrem applies and performs  as well as the old rebranded Blackfriars Primer ever did. But what is new, are the additions to the old formula, giving the Extrem primer better properties for outside use.

So this flagship primer is now being sold far and wide under its own trade name, Classidur Extrem, and the UK market is all the richer for more Classidur.

And fair play to Magic Bullet for not overplaying the qualities of the "new product". The same as before but suitable for exteriors. 

What about Blackfriars Problem Solving Primer?

What I wasn't aware of, til very recently, was the affect that this new product launch has had on Blackfriars Problem Solving Primer. What is inside those tins now? Because since the Extrem has been out,  the company behind Blackfriars haven't had a contract to use Classidur products in their tins.

So I don't know what the BFPS primer is now, and so far, they won't say. With no known track record, I can't recommend it, and will update the site accordingly.

If it is a Heritage Elite product, which is the only comparable Classidur type product I am aware of on the market, the Blackfriars primer would be fine as a recommendation, but til something is confirmed, BFPS Primer is at square one til it can prove it is an all-singing all-dancing water-borne primer. 

Clear cut recommendations New products to the market are a difficult one to get behind in a hurry, but new names to the UK and well proven in overseas markets, that is different.

  
Hits, lies and statistics affecting online advertising

When we say we get 36,000 visitors a month and 60,000 page views, that is a conservative number taken from Google analytics. (Google do a pretty ruthless task of removing noise from the statistics.)

But if you pay to advertise, media companies will quote "hits" and charge advertisers per hit. Ding ding ding.

A hit is defined as the incidence of a file logged on a server. That means a lot of hits are never seen by humans. In our own case, the blue page views are what humans saw, v the green hits the server saw.



If I were advertising, I wouldn't want to be paying for the hits!


Getting rid of artex and distemper

It is an old story on the site, but the basic idea is that artex was your friend! 

We would brush a layer of stiff artex over old chalky distemper / lime wash coatings; leave to soak. Lay cheap plastic sheets on the floor, and before it dried, scrape off the artex, which took everything else with it, back to the bare plasterwork. Wrap up your plastic sheets, take shoes off at door, swap for another pair and dispose of the debris. 

And you would use artex to skim over and get rid of old artex, turning this sort of divine and badly done ripple stipple back to a smooth flat finish. (Artex photo from this forum thread )




Until I googled, I had no idea where you would even get bags of artex powder from these days. I think this is the equivalent of what I remember was Artex AX asbestos-free powder? 

Exteriors and 2-pack fillers

If you are working on oak cills, best check out this thread before you get too close to Halfords.





SOS Makeover on Wimbledon, Surrey and Sussex

Contact Kim Teasdale if you would like to get involved. £125 / day plus food and accommodation bought and paid for.

We have 3 other makeovers from now til Sept 13th that require additional help. 

RX13 School Conversions Wimbledon
4/8/14, 5/8/14

RX14 Surrey
12/8/14, 13/8/14

RX16 TBC ( East Sussex or Surrey)
9/9/14, 10/9/14, 11/9/14

Studio Lambert require copies of qualification certificates if you have these, your public liability insurance and references from recent employers please. It is paramount that tradesmen and woman who work with us have public liability insurance, or obtain it for this project, which I understand is pretty straight forward and reasonably priced.

Follow up on the Walter Riley graining story 
 

Jason was telling me he had a surprise visit one day in Preston, from a gentleman bearing gifts.

 The guy who brought me the book was Terry Taylor. The book is called The life & Times of Ernest Dobson. Grainer. Marbler. Decorative Painter.

Lancashire would appear to be a grainer's haven!

Heritage Wallcoverings Ltd, the new accelerator pedal for Lincrusta

Good news for Lincrusta and their customers, as a new company steps in to make sure that all the good work continues apace, worldwide. 
 

FaceBook will be listening as you whistle while you work

Did you know about the FaceBook app, called Microphone... 



The mobile app will soon be able to activate your smartphone microphone so it can hear your environment and determine what you’re doing – if you choose to have the feature turned on.

There are some FaceBook privacy tips in this article too

Read more: 

See you there, albeit without the creepy audio listening devices.

If you have any friends who you think would be interested in what we get up to here, send them to the sidebar on our FaceBook page.

Thanks.

It links through to this page. 


 

Annie Sloan new chalk paint brushes

Anyone tried the new Italian-made paint brushes from Annie Sloan? 

According to the article, the handles appear to have been designed for users who hold a brush the same way that Annie does. They may well be marmite then, based on how important the feedback we have had on handle shapes and sizes for different hands, different strokes.

MyPaintbrush have a selection of brushes for chalk paint, available here.

A conventional style brush that offers 9/10 performance * applying chalk paint is here.

Wooster FTP is also a beast in chalk paint.

With brushes for waxing, I am sure a dual purpose approach does work, but not sure I would stamp wax onto uneven surfaces using the same bristle brush I would use for lovingly painting the chalk paint onto the surface.  Something has to give eventually? Buy one of each?

 

UK Painting and Decorating Trade Show coming soon-ish

The annual Coventry show in November has become the venue for our AGM and it seems to come around very quickly. We are a bit more organised this year, thanks to WHOOZIN, still, it was not a bad TP turnout last year, seeing as all we had to communicate with were smoke signals and pigeon post. Or was that just me.




The P&D Show is a big do, by UK standards, so lots of good kit to see, and smart businesses to talk to. Luckily for laggards and last minute decision-makers, getting to Coventry is not that hard, so you can always get in to the show, last minute. Maybe post this clock on your wall and time your fashionably late arrival to the nearest second. 



This year's show in Coventry will be hosting all the usual suspects and a few more besides. Here is the list of exhibitors including most of our Trade Corner associates.

Ahead of the curve

It is always interesting to see new lines, although "new" invariably means "new to the UK and been around forever everywhere else!"  If you like to plan ahead, and want a preview of the really hot kit, book up for Farbe 2016.

  

DIY Decorator of the Month

There will be a blog going out in the week clarifying the arrangements, and an announcement in next week's newsletter of the July winner. (I never realised how long July was!)


Paint Magic Winners

The draw for the 3 winners, each receiving a copy of the paint magic book, will also be made in the week and announced in the newsletter on Sunday. 


Does this info graphic work?
 
I received this link for an infographic on engineered wooden flooring. What do you think?


Linseed paint indoors?

Matt Evans has some lovely examples of exterior windows fully restored and painted with linseed paint,



but what about for interiors? He advises:

Only really used the linseed paint on exterior woodwork as it can be very slow drying inside and lighter colours do darken if they don't have enough natural light, but it does have a nice soft finish to it.

The Lacq Energol linseed based tintable stain may be a good one to watch out for. Ben at Paints and Interiors reports

a really nice product to use, dries really quickly for an oil and you can get some really strong colours with it.


Axus shears, Axus scissors, sharp to the end.

I started with Jason, so I will finish. I asked if these scissors are really any good!  and this was his answer.

refer to the Philip Jeffries' blog,  there is no better pair of shears. Solid in construction sharp as knives, comfortable to use. Even sharp at the needle point.



Had mine 3 or 4 years at least, the best scissors for paper cutting, wet or dry. Having tried a lot of scissors when I had the shop, namely Harris, Beeline even Zinsser, for me Axus shine through all the time every time in my book - not that mine get used much these days, being a kitchen painter.

* You can buy the Axus scissors here

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Have a good holiday, have a good week.

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Short answer 

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