Painting, decorating and home improvement tips blog
Some recent Painting and Decorating work
Posted by Adrian
December 21st, 2020
Below are some photos of recently completed work. They include a home office, and two lounges.
A Bedroom/office
This Home office is in a listed building, hence the exposed beams. It was a challenge to wallpaper as there are no straight walls or corners. The ceiling was painted in brilliant white emulsion,the window, sill and door frame was painted in white satinwood. I was very pleased with the end result, as was the client.
Lounge
In this lounge the client wanted to change the appearance of two plain walls, this brick effect wallpaper was chosen and is very effective and lifelike. Only the wallpapering was done for this client. An effective way to dramatically change plain walls.
Lounge
In this lounge I wallpapered two walls, either side of a firebreast in the alcoves, and also the opposite wall. Both above a dado rail. A good way to give the room a new look without the expense of major decorating.
Tags: bedroom, beroom office, brick, brick effect, Feature, Feature Wall, home office, Listed Building, lounge, office, Wallpaper
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Lining paper, what is it?
Posted by Adrian
April 30th, 2019
Lining paper, what is it?
Lining paper has been traditionally used to produce a good, sound, smooth surface for wallpapering over, however it is now more popular to hang lining paper and emulsion over it.
Lining paper is used to remove any small imperfections on a wall or ceiling, it is not however a miracle cure, so preparation should always be done before hanging lining paper. It isn’t a substitute for plastering either.
Once all the holes and cracks have been filled, the walls or ceiling should be properly rubbed down and any filler should be sanded smooth and level. One this is done dust down the walls to remove any loose debris. You can seal any filler by either using a ‘size’ such as watered down wallpaper paste, or you can emulsion over the filler to help seal it off.
What thickness lining paper
Lining paper comes in different thicknesses, guages or grades, this refers to their weight. they start at 800 guage and go up to 2000 guage, it all depends on how thick you want it to be. Lining paper does offer some insulation qualities but there are also specialist papers for this.
A good mid-range lining paper to go for is 1200 or 1400 gauge, they aren’t too thin and not to thick to be hard to work with.
Can I paint lining paper
As mentioned above, lining paper is meant to produce a smooth background for wallpapering over, but yes you can paint over the lining paper once it is fully dried.
Cross lining, what’s that?
Cross-lining is where the lining paper is hung horizontally rather the vertically like traditional wallpapers, normally if you are going to be emulsioning over the lining paper you could hang it as you would wallpaper, vertically.
Once you have hung the lining paper you need to allow it to fully dry before you emulsion over it, this will take normally between 12 – 24 hours depending on drying conditions.
How to measure for lining paper
Before you buy lining paper or order wallpaper you need to know how much to buy, I have written an article on how to measure a room for wallpaper that explains how you need to do it. I have also written a wallpaper calculator so you can work out how many rolls of wallpaper you need to buy.
Cost of lining paper
With everyone having to tighten their belts these days, cost is a real factor when it comes to decorating, wallpaper can be very expensive if you plan to wallpaper the entire room, a way around this is to only do one wall, or a feature wall as it is known.
If however you wish to change the look of a room every couple of years, or you have pets or children that makes wallpaper not a viable option, lining paper and emulsion maybe the answer.
Once lining paper has been put up it can painted over and over again, saving costs in the long run as all that is required is a fresh new coat of emulsion. Also, if you then decide to wallpaper at a later date, you can do so over the emulsioned lining paper.
Tags: Cross lining, Emulsion, Feature Wall, Lining Paper, Paint, Wallpaper
Posted in Decorating Tips, Home Improvements, Resources | 3 Comments »
Feature Walls : How To paint a feature wall
Posted by Adrian
January 14th, 2014
Feature Walls : How To paint a feature wall
Feature walls have become very popular in recent years, they are a great way of giving a room a new look without the expense of changing everything in a room or completely redecorating. Simply by re-painting the feature wall can transform the look of a room. You can also follow the latest trends simply by re-decorating the feature wall.
Feature walls can be painted or wallpapered, it is personal choice and it will depend on the type of look you are going for.
Sometimes a feature all is called an accent wall, but they are both the same thing.
Deciding on paint for a feature wall
Deciding on what colour paint to buy for a feature wall will be determined by how the remaining walls have been decorated, typically a contrasting colour is used. But if the other walls have been wallpapered you can pick a colour from the paper to use as the feature wall colour.
Once you have decided on the colour for your feature wall you can buy the paint, you can buy ‘Feature Wall’ paint, this is just over a litre in size and should be enough to paint one wall. You don’t have to go this route, you can buy any colour in any sized can of paint. You could even use leftover paint if it suits your needs.
If you are unsure how much paint you will require for your feature wall, give our paint calculator a go, simply fill in the required figures and hit the calculate button and you will be told how many litres you need to by for your given area.
Painting a feature wall
To paint your feature wall, you can either mask the adjoining walls, skirting and ceiling with low tack masking tape, then cut in with a brush around the edge of the feature wall, just overlapping the masking tape but being careful not to paint any other surface. The use a roller to fill in the main wall area. By using masking tape you should achieve a straight line.
If you are confident in cutting in you can cut in without masking up. Cutting in is the term used whereby you use a paintbrush to go up to an adjoining surface, be it a wall, ceiling or skirting boards.
Once you have cut in or painted up to the masking tape and painted the first coat onto your feature wall, allow the paint to fully dry before applying a second coat. When you have painted the second coat you can remove the masking tape, if you used any.
Making a statement
By painting a feature wall you are making a statement, and making this one wall the focal point of a room. You may want to do this to highlight some pictures that are hanging on the wall, you maybe make a fireplace the focus of the room or simply it can give orientation to a room.
Whatever the reason for painting a feature wall, it can quickly and easily transform any room and give a focal point to an area of a room.
Tags: Decorating, Emulsion, Feature, Feature Wall, Paint, Paint Calculator, Painting, Statement, Wall
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