An Easter Weekend in the Life of delawney (Dulux)

Name: delawney

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Product:	Dulux
Date:	21/04/03 (2219 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Top results

Disadvantages: More expensive

Having finally completed decorating our living room (at one o clock this morning) I figured, why should I suffer alone? Why not share the horrors of my Easter weekend (supposedly a holiday?) with all my chums at dooyoo? Perhaps I might be able to impart some useful knowledge along the way...

I'm exaggerating, it wasn't that bad really. It's just after hours and hours of kneeling on the floor painting skirting boards and breathing in the fumes I've lost a little perspective.


*** A WORD OF WARNING ***

As I felt talking about paint was a little boring, I have thrown in a few other tips along the way. If all you're really interested in is the paint, just skip to the two sections headed "Emulsion" and "Gloss" and the summary ;)


*** A LITTLE SCENE SETTING ***

This won't take long, honest. I promise I'll talk about the paint soon!

Mr delawney and I are now in our third house in four years. Being the individual I am, I have never been happy with the decor in these properties, and have been keen to stamp my mark on them as soon as possible. Mr delawney is fed up to the back teeth of decorsting. I've had to promise that if we ever move again, we have to live with the decor that is already there, at least for the time being. Good job I've absolutely no intention of moving anytime soon.

The house we live in now had previously been lovingly cared for by a delightful couple who had lived there the full 35 years of its life. Whilst most of the decor was not to our taste, it has been reasonably "livable with". Unfortunately, they seemed to have an enexplained affection for brown gloss - brown doors, brown windowsills, you get the picture. Great fun for painting over in lighter colours.

Another hurdle in our lounge was the one wall papered in anaglypta (delawney hopes she's spelt that correctly!). Having had to strip wal
lpaper in our entire first flat, Mr delawney declared he was not prepared to strip again (but that's a whole other story). We decided to risk it for a biscuit and just try to paint over the anaglpta.

Having scoured my eyes over paint charts for months on end (they make great toilet reading too - sorry was that too much information?) I had decided to paint the majority of the house using the Dulux "Discovery" range. There are three such ranges - "African", "Urban" and "Oriental". Each range gives you a selection of colours in both emulsion and gloss, all of which you are supposed to be able to use in any combination and everything should match. I like this idea immensely, as whilst I like each room to have a different feel, I like the notion of the whole house blending together into a seemless whole. (With the exception of the toilet, which is bright turquoise. Mr delawney chose that one!).

We've gone for the "Oriental" range - a selection of creams, greens and the magic deciding colour - purple. These are quite warm colours and seem very homely.

Anyway, in my ultimate wisdom, I had decided we should use two colours in the lounge, just to make life a little more complicated and exciting. These would be the subtle cream of "rice paper" (not quite as pinky a cream as magnolia) and the deep aubergine of "siamese orchid". Of course, this left us with the interesting question of how you get a nice clean line on the adjoining walls, but more of that later...


*** THE EMULSIONS ***

So, after Mr delawney had spent most of Thursday prepping the lounge whilst I had been at work, Thursday night ended up with the first coat of the light coloured emulsion going up. This included the anaglypta wall...

The general rule is that I do the cutting in (fiddly, takes ages) and Mr delawney follows up later with the roller (quick, looks like you&
#39;ve done an awful lot more in a lot less time!).

The Dulux Discovery emulsions are all wipeable matt finishes. The paint looks to have a really good consistency - it's thick but it's not so thick as to be almost unworkable (as I have found with some one-coat paints).

The answer is that you can paint over anaglypta but be warned - it will take bucketloads of paint! It seems to soak up masses of it. Thus, the anaglypta wall doesn't help me give you an accurate description of coverage. Still, given that the surface was very textured and uneven, I found the paint very easy to use and managed to get it into all the nooks and crannies without too much difficulty.

Mr delawney had to employ a thick piled roller on the anaglypta wall, but also found it covered without too much difficulty - other than the massive paint use.

After the anaglypta wall, the other walls were a breeze. The paint glided on, coverage was good and economical, and the finished effect marvellous. Note though that with the Discovery range you will require at least two coats, and they do not seem to offer the range in a "Once" finish. Having said that, as the anaglypta wall had much brown showing through after it's first coat (with a cream colour don't forget) we feared that it might need three coats. It didn't. The second coat finished the job off beautifully.

Having used this range of paint already in other rooms in my house, I feel confident about its durability. The wipe clean matt is indeed that - our cats have a habit of rubbing themselves against corners and leaving lots of greasy marks. These all wipe off with no bother, no damage to the painted surface and look as good as new.


*** THE GLOSS ***

Mr delawney hates glossing. The smell makes him feel ill, and he hasn't got the patience to work carefully with it for all the time required. Thus, the majority of the glossing falls to
me, so I'm starting to think of myself as rather an amatuer expert.

I have tried all sorts of glosses, water based, one coat, gloss finish, satin finish, etc. etc. Dulux's water based gloss isn't bad - it certainly smells better and cleaning the brushes afterwards are a lot less effort. However, I don't find it quite so easy to work with, and it has one major disadvantage - it only comes in white. No good for this room!

Not that I like to make my life difficult or anything, but we also planned to use two colours of gloss. "Bamboo screen" (another cream) on all the skirting boards and the door frames and "plum satin" (a plum colour, not surprisingly) on the windowsill, doors and the radiator.

Just to confuse the issue - we had run out of "bamboo screen" in another room, and when Mr delawney purchased some more, he discovered Dulux had altered the range slightly and the gloss was no longer non-drip. (At least not the one he picked up). So, the cream gloss - professional, and the plum gloss - non-drip.

I loved using the "bamboo screen" professional gloss. I actually found it much easier to use than the non-drip. It just glided on and covered well. I certainly didn't find drips a problem - I solve this by just doing a little at a time! I found it's slightly thinner consistency made it much easier to get a clean line at the top of the skirting boards. The finished look is impressive - the brush marks seem to vanish as the paint dries, giving a lovely smooth sheen.

The non-drip plum gloss was a slightly more gloopy affair. Fortunately most of the surfaces we were painting in the plum had a large flat surface area, which can mean only one thing - gloss rollers. These are truly the best invention known to man. Rather than spending hours painting a door trying to get a smooth finish and not leave brush marks, you can just whack it on with a roller in j
ust ten minutes and get a much smoother, more professional effect. And yes, the roller will work with the thicker non-drip gloss, just ignore the instructions on the can and give it a good shake first!

Once more, the finished result is excellent. The finish is once more smooth, and where a brush was used the brush marks have virtually disappeared.

Both the gloss paints I have used give a "satin sheen" finish - that's a "matt" version of gloss to you and me - it has less shine.

Again, having used these paints elsewhere in the house, I can once more vouch for their practicality and durability. They are easy to clean with no damage to the paint surface.


*** HEROES AND VILLAINS ***

To sum up my account of our decorating experience, I thought I'd quickly introduce you to some heroes and villains of the piece...

* Heroes *

- Low Tack Masking Tape -
Aha! The solution to a smooth line on adjoining walls of different colours! Make sure it is low tack though, and remove it as swiftly as possible after painting (preferably while the paint's still wet) else you risk peeling of paint from the surface underneath.

- Plastic Dust Sheets -
Mr delawney tripped and spilt some washing-down water. Good job it wasn't on the carpet... thanks to the dust sheets!

- Harris "No Loss" Brushes -
I won't use real bristle brushes for obvious reasons, but these ones are totally man made. And you won't lose any bristles into your skirting board (how annoying is that?).

- Gloss Rollers -
Just how did I ever survive without these? Painting doors is now a joy, not a chore.

- Tack Rags -
To remove any bits of fluff before you paint.

- Kerrang! TV -
For a bouncy musical experience while you paint.

- Mr delawney -
For doing the majority of the rubbing down (I hate that!) and cooking whi
le I painted!


* Villains *

- Cats -
Having got over the trauma of seeing their lounge emptied and wondering why we were sat in the lounge, curiosity took over. Pavlov - care to explain why I found some of your fur stuck to the door? Shrodinger - how come there was a large paw print and bits of fluff on my windowsill, hmmm?

- Fumes -
My house stinks. So I have the windows open and now I feel cold. Won't last forever though.

- Anaglypta -
Just how much paint do you need?


*** COST ***

I'm having to do this from memory as Homebase's website is down, and it's about a year since we originally purchased the paint. However, I think this is a reasonable approximation. I will update once I get more accurate information!

A standard can of gloss will set you back around eight or nine pounds. A standard can of emusion I think was about thirteen or fourteen pounds. I recommend 10% discount days at Homebase for purchasing!


*** SUMMARY ***

Overall, I have no complaints about Dulux's paints at all. I have used other brands in the past, but have never been as happy with them as I am with Dulux. Both the gloss and the emulsion paints give good coverage (anaglypta excepted) that matches the coverage stated on the tin. With standard paint, two coats is generally sufficient, depending on the surface you are covering. Even when you are covering dark brown doors with a cream gloss.

Obviously, you do pay a little bit more for Dulux, and you pay an additional premium for the "Discovery" range, presumably because it's supposed to be all posh and designery. However, not being a professional interior designer, I like having the colours grouped together in such a way that I know I can mix and match the colours without clashing. I have no hesitation in recommending Dulux - indeed, I now wouldn't use anything else.

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