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Painting, decorating and home improvement tips blog

Loft conversion project

Posted by Adrian
August 4th, 2023

Loft conversion project

I am currently working on a loft conversion project, I have completed a bathroom, and a bedroom. Below are pictures and a video of the completed bedroom. The walls are painted in a Farrow and Ball colour but colour matched in Dulux Diamond Hard matt emulsion. The ceiling and dwarf wall are painted in Dulux Pure Brilliant White matt emulsion, with the woodwork finished in Dulux Pure Brilliant White Satinwood.

Completed loft conversion bedroom

Competed loft conversion bedroom

Competed loft conversion bedroom

Competed loft conversion bedroom

Competed loft conversion bedroom

And here is a 360 degree video

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Types of wallpaper paste

Posted by Adrian
January 23rd, 2019

Types of wallpaper paste

There are many types of wallpaper paste and choosing the correct one can be confusing. Hopefully this post will help you decide the appropriate paste for the paper you are hanging.

The first place to look is on the hanging instructions themselves, this may come as a leaflet that came with the paper of a leaflet in the roll itself. If you are at all unsure ask your supplier or the wallpaper manufacturer directly.

Cold water paste

This is the type of paste that you mix yourself, you mix it with cold water. The amount of water depends on the type of paper being hung, you can find out how many litres of water to use on the paste sachet or box it comes in.

Getting it mixed correctly is the important part so it is strong enough to hold the paper. It is the easiest paste to remove as it is water soluble. This type of paste is starch based.

Here is a short video of how to mix the perfect wallpaper paste up:

All purpose

This paste is made for the majority of wallpapers from lining papers, to embossed and vinyl papers, but you should always check before using paste, especially on specialised papers.

Heavy duty

As the name suggests, this paste is for heavy duty or heavy weight papers, giving stronger adhesion than standard adhesives. It is however harder to remove when redecorating and if you get paste on the front of the paper, so care should be taken not to mark or damage the front of the paper and remove any excess paste as soon as possible.

Extra strong

This type of paste can be in the form of a powder paste or ready mixed, it is ideal for medium weight papers such as lining paper, embossed and anaglypta papers.

Paste the wall

As the name suggest, paste the wall adhesives mean you apply the paste direct to wall and not the back of the paper. This paste is only used for paste the wall papers as the paper has been designed that way and pasting the paper isn’t required.

Ready mixed

Ready mixed pastes come in tubs and are formulated and are vinyl based and do not dry out until they are exposed to air, such as when applied hung wallpaper. Some wallpapers recommend using a ready mixed paste whereas some wallpaper manufacturers may recommend their own ready mixed paste to ensure good adhesion to the surface the paper is being applied to.
The ready mixed pastes do tend to be more expensive than say cold water mixed pastes.

Wallpaper Calculator

Apart from your paste, you will need how many rolls of wallpaper, or ceiling paper to buy. We have a handy calculator for you do work out how many rolls you need to buy. Simply go to our Wallpaper calculator or Ceiling paper calculator, enter the measurements and hit the submit button, the amount of rolls you require will then be returned.

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My review of the Paint Soap brush cleaner

Posted by Adrian
June 28th, 2017

Cleaned paint brush

My review of the Paint Soap brush cleaner

I recently followed a company on Twitter (@PaintSoap) and I was asked if I wanted to try some of their product. Me, not being one to turn down the opportunity of trying out products I said yes. Paint Soap is based in the USA but were happy to send me some samples to the UK. They currently do not sell in the UK but they are hoping to start selling in the UK by the end of 2017.

About a week later a package arrived with the samples of Paint Soap for me to try. I was keen to give it a go and used it a couple of times on my next job. I liked the idea of being able to leave the brush to ‘clean itself’ as it soaked in the product, leaving me time to carry on with what I needed too.

After a few minutes of soaking I returned with anticipation to see how well the paint soap did, I removed the brush from the Paint Soap and rinsed it out, it was clean, and used a lot less water than I normally would have.

So what do I think of Paint Soap?

Paint Soap worked well and I like the idea of what is stands for, it saves time, saves money and your brushes, it is also eco friendly and the residue that is left can be disposed of safely as it is non toxic.

This product will only work on water based paints, such as emulsions, so no oil based products, and will not clean out dried paint as it reacts with the wet paint. So you can’t leave your brushes to dry out before cleaning them, but that goes with all paint tools.

So this product can save you, and your client water if you wash brushes out on the job. It can save you time as you can leave brushes to soak whilst carrying on with your work. And it cleans out the paint from your brushes easily and effortlessly.

My video review of me using Paint Soap


To see the rest of my videos, visit my channel on YouTube.

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