Choosing Paint
As a Colour Consultant, I am often choosing paint colours and paint types for my clients. There are so many different paints on the market so when it came time to choose them for my own house, I thought I’d mix it up.
The best paint for the internal walls of your home is Low Sheen paint as it is easy to wipe down. All the different paint companies have this type of paint.
To mix it up a bit, I chose Resene paint for the majority of the interior of the home but Dulux for my studio and my daughter’s bedroom and Taubman’s for the feature wall in the master bedroom.
I always recommend a Kitchen and Bathroom paint for steamy rooms or where there is little ventilation as it has a mould inhibitor in the paint recipe.
I considered using blackboard paint for my office and my daughter’s bedroom but I was worried about the chalk dust, especially on the carpet. So I decided to use Resene’s Whiteboard Paint. This paint is really just a top coat and can be painted over any colour. I used it over Resene paint in my office and Dulux paint in my daughter’s bedroom and they have both been extremely successful. I would recommend putting a frame around the area that is painted with the Whiteboard paint or use in on an area that is separate from the other walls just in case there’s a momentary lapse of memory as to where the whiteboard paint has been used.
As our fridge will not take magnets, I was looking for somewhere to put the school notes, invitations and raffle tickets. Previously I had an Officeworks magnetic board hanging in the old kitchen but I didn’t really have a spot for it in my new kitchen. There was one wall on the entry to the pantry but as a door would shut onto that wall, it was impossible to hang something thick there which would result in the door not closing.
The paint is actually grey and is very thick so I wouldn’t recommend it for a wall in a prominent position or with a white topcoat.
I’ve also found that you need to use really strong magnets and probably quite a few of them.
It’s great for my application, just to hold a few school notes from time to time but I’m not sure it would be ideal for kids artwork and other more weighty papers you may like to keep handy.
Your painter will tell you that it doesn’t really matter which paint colour you choose as all the companies can mix each other’s colours. I disagree. Being a purist, I would much prefer to use the colour from the particular company so there is no room for error. In most instances, your painter will prefer one paint company over another. As I am an independent Colour Consultant, it doesn’t matter to me. As long as the colour is right for your home and the type of paint is right, I leave the paint company decision to the homeowner and painter and select colours from that brand.