Crown Emulsion - a chameleon? (Crown Paint)

Member Name: goclimbing

Product:	Crown Paint
Date:	13/08/01 (1094 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: reasonable price

Disadvantages: poor coverage , emulsion paint too thick in consistency

My house is a Crown house. All the walls and ceilings are (were) painted with Crown paint.

My reasons for buying Crown have been:

- a medium quality at reasonable price
- durable finish
- good coverage when using both a paintbrush and roller

However after several painting sessions in various rooms I am beginning to change my mind.

My bathroom was painted 18 months ago in Crown Silk Emulsion, the colour was Soleil (bright yellow). After a flood from the flat above it was necessary to repaper and paint one wall. I purchased the paint which I noticed had been repackaged and began painting. Once the paint had dried it was immediately noticeable that Crown had changed the shade of yellow. The original colour was a bright colourful but slightly cool yellow, the new paint appeared slightly orange and warm. I did not really mind the change but it meant repainting the bathroom thereby purchasing more paint. I did mention this to the people in Great Mills where I purchased the paint who said that the range had been redesigned (aka new formula I assume) and a slight difference in colour could be expected. I found the coverage of the new paint not as good as the older one. The new one seems much thicker in consistency and requires more paint to acheive an even application.

I have also recently painted my bedroom. Essentially just painting over textured wallpaper. The original colour was white and the new colour pale blue Crown matt Emulsion (colour name chinoisie). I used a roller (for textured surfaces) and tray to begin, after 5 minutes I realised that the paint was not covering as well as it should be mainy due to its very thick consistency. I changed to a paint brush and it took lots of effort and more paint than it should have to acheive an acceptable finish.

Most paints are known as thixotropic, which means that they are thick until a shear force is applied eg stirring or painting with a brush
and they then become thinner and easily spread. It would seem that the new Crown paint does not exhibit the correct rheological (ie flow) properties for emulsion paint.

Generally over the years I have been impressed with Crown paint however these recent experiences have made me think again

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