A review of Brookes workwear

Dressed for the cold weather

In this cold weather a good jacket is essential, I recently had a Result jacket from Brookes delivered. The jacket and a pair of work trousers arrived next day which was good, as reliable delivery for any work equipment is a must. With all the snow that’s on the ground at the moment it’s nice to have a warm jacket and that’s certainly what you get with this 3 in 1 Result R68 jacket. The waterproof and windproof jacket has well made both outer and inner parts, the outer jacket incorporates Scotchlite reflective material.

Work Wear

As a decorator I wear overalls most of the time, the trousers or shorts (in the summer) I wear under these need to be well fitting and sturdy. It is also important to be smart and presentable, when doing estimates onsite it is always good to remember you are entering someone’s home or office.

The Dickies Redhawk knee pad trousers from brookes workwear that I have in Black are a good fit and true to the sizing given online. They have all the pockets you would expect and need from this style of cargo pant trouser, plus they have knee pad pouches for if you require padding. They are a reasonable price work trouser and look smart enough to wear for all aspects of my working day, from hands on painting and decorating to meeting with clients and suppliers.

Interior Decorating and Home Décor

When decorating your home or office there are lots of things to consider, and not just the colours, paints, wallpaper and other wall coverings, but also the style and the décor (decorations) you want for the overall finish.

You may want to use the decorating to bring the colour to a room, with use of complimentary colour painting schemes or feature walls. And using wallpapers and wall coverings to bring contrast and keeping the rooms accessories in a neutral style. Alternatively walls and paint work could be decorated in neutral tones and the ascent focused on the styling of a room using furniture, lighting, soft furnishings, art and accessories.

As an encaustic artist I personally like to have our home decorated in subtle tones and use art to decorator the walls, this gives us the option to change the style of a room with the re-arrangement of our Art and accessories without having to fully change wall colours and so on.

Kitchen Decoration

As an example, at the end of the summer last year we re-decorated our kitchen. We are working with some green coloured (inherited) units and decided to change from a mushroom colour to a complementing green and opted for “English Mist”. This colour on the walls, which are plain lined, works well with White ceiling and woodwork and makes the kitchen a light and clean looking environment.

To compliment the plain walls we have three paintings of herbs framed and hung on the wall over the dinning table, the frames are a simple wood effect and make a great surround for the paintings which depict a rustic style terracotta pots of Thyme, Chives and Sage.

Encaustic Art

Paintings created in encaustic wax have a wonderful sheen and texture. Encaustic Artist Hazel Rayfield using hot wax to paint her unique art work, paintings are created using coloured encaustic wax and heat tools, the Art In Wax website blog has a lot of information about this art form, including videos of Hazel demonstrating how she paints using molten wax.

Decorating your home with Encaustic Art

The Art In Wax gallery has many paintings, ranging from flowers and landscapes to funky fish and fashion style artwork, suitable for many different types and styles of room. Encaustic art can be mounted and framed to great effect or display using a stand or display easel which look great as accessories on table tops or shelves.

So if you would like some Original Art for your newly decorated room, or to add a change to existing décor in your home or office, why not visit www.artinwax.co.uk. All art is original, NOT prints and are unique and individual: Shop online now for Art In Wax.

A review of Dulux Trade Ecosure Undercoat and Gloss

Following on from my last review for TradeXpress, I am doing one this time for Dulux’s Ecosure range. Specifically I am reviewing the Ecosure water-based undercoat and water-based Gloss. Ecosure is Dulux Trade paint that reduces the impact on the environment even further than their standard paints by 30%. This means even lower VOC‘s.

I have never been a big fan of water-based topcoats and have not got on well with them in the past, so was interested to see how things have changed and improved.

Dulux Ecosure Water-Based Undercoat

I have been using water-based undercoat for many years now and I love it and I use it all the time so wasn’t too surprised to see this in the Ecosure range. Preparation is the same as for any other undercoat, i.e. abrade the surface, make sure the surface is sound, clean and dry. I applied the undercoat using a synthetic brush as recommended for this type of paint, and I was pleased with the results, I was using white undercoat and going over a cream colour. Coverage was good, with good opacity, for a strong colour change a second coat is advised.

I was slightly disappointed with the drying time of 6 hours, this obviously depends on the situation you are working in but the undercoat I am use to using only takes 1-2 hours to dry, so I had to leave the undercoat to dry fully overnight. Coming back in the morning the undercoat had dried leaving a good surface to apply the Gloss too.

The coverage is around 16m² which is only slightly under the standard undercoat coverage. The smell, well being a low VOC and water-based paint the smell was low. I know a lot of people hate the smell of oil-based undercoats and Gloss so will be pleasantly surprised by this paint.

Ecosure Water-Based undercoat comes in pure brilliant white but can be colour mixed, it comes in 2.5L and 5L tins, prices are around £27 and £47 respectively and a colour mixing starts at around £30.
The datasheet for Ecosure Undercoat is 528.

Dulux Ecosure Water-Based Gloss

Like I said in my introduction, I’ve never been a big fan of water-based topcoats so was a little dubious about what this Gloss could do. I applied the Gloss over my previously prepared and Ecosure water-based undercoated surface that I had left to dry overnight.

Continue reading Dulux Trade Ecosure