Crown Paints

Having recently moved into a new house Scampi is having a bit of a decorating frenzy at the moment, under the watchful eye of Mrs Scampi. First on the agenda was the living room which was still it's original magnolia colour as painted by Wimpey some 4 years ago when the house was first built. (the previous owner had declined the decorating option).

Now some of you may think reading a paint review is as exciting as watching the stuff ...
...bright side though, it could help any of you Ciaoers who suffer from insomnia. Anyway enough of the pre-amble and on with the op.

THE PRODUCT I USED

Being a decorator who wants maximum effect in minimum time from minimum effort I opted for Crown's 'Solo' One Coat Matt Emulsion, and the colour Mrs Scampi chose was 'cream silk', which is a kind of rich dark creamy colour (that's the best way I can think of describing it).
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Having recently moved into a new house Scampi is having a bit of a decorating frenzy at the moment, under the watchful eye of Mrs Scampi. First on the agenda was the living room which was still it's original magnolia colour as painted by Wimpey some 4 years ago when the house was first built. (the previous owner had declined the decorating option).

Now some of you may think reading a paint review is as exciting as watching the stuff dry, and you'd probably be correct. Look on the bright side though, it could help any of you Ciaoers who suffer from insomnia. Anyway enough of the pre-amble and on with the op.

THE PRODUCT I USED

Being a decorator who wants maximum effect in minimum time from minimum effort I opted for Crown's 'Solo' One Coat Matt Emulsion, and the colour Mrs Scampi chose was 'cream silk', which is a kind of rich dark creamy colour (that's the best way I can think of describing it).

This product claims to be a 'one coat ' product that should negate the need to paint walls or ceilings twice as is usually the case with emulsion paints. It also claims to be virtually odour free as it contains Crown's patented 'Breatheasy' formulation. So on using this product I decided to pay particular attention to these two claims.

BUT BEFORE YOU PAINT YOU HAVE TO BUY THE PAINT FIRST, RIGHT

Unless you intend nicking it (which I in no way condone) that's correct. Before splashing out on a whole tin we decided to see which colour we liked first. Paint charts are all well and good but they still never truly reflect the final colour of the paint on the wall, so firstly we opted to purchase a few test pots. These cost 98p from B&Q, which may seem a lot for a little bit of paint, but are a worthwhile investment when you consider bigger tins start from around £17 which could be a costly mistake if you don't like the colour. We tried about 6-7 shades before deciding on the one we liked by which time a small section of of our living room wall would have put Josephs Technicolour Dreamcoat to shame.

Anyway I digress, we bought a 2.5ltr tin of matt emulsion from B&Q for £16.98, although bigger 5ltr tins are available for £31.98. Not all the colours in the 'Solo' range are available in the 5ltr tin though. This paint is also available in Focus, Homebase, Leveys and I've also spotted it in a few local DIY / paint shops, so it is quite easy to obtain.

PREPARATION, PREPARATION, PREPARATION

Once you get the paint home you normally want to whip your paint brush out and start slapping it on the walls immediately, however that's not a good idea. As much as we hate it preparation is important if you want a good end result.

The tin recommends making sure all surfaces to be painted are "clean, dry and free from dirt, grease or surface contamination". The removal of loose and flaky material with a fine sandpaper is recommended too, although be careful not to inhale too much dust if this course of action is required. Obviously any cracks or holes should be filled prior to painting using a good quality surface filler. OK thats enough prep, other than to say get your dustsheets out, lets get painting.

EAT YOUR HEART OUT VAN GOGH

Although this paint sells itself strongly on it's one coat claims the instructions on the back of the tin do contain a couple of 'get outs'. First of all if you are painting an absorbant surface such as a bare plaster wall it recommends painting a first coat diluted with up to 20% water. Secondly, when painting over a really dark colour or heavily textured surface it suggests a second coat may be necessary. However, I had neither of these problems to deal with, so on with the painting.

I applied this paint using a combination of both paintbrush and paintpad. I used a 1/2 inch (12mm) paint brush to do all my cutting in (ie around light switches, plug sockets and against the ceiling, skirting board and around door and window frames) and a paintpad to fill in the gaps. You could quite easily use a roller though if that's your weapon of choice.

The paint has a quite thick and gooey consistency to it, a lot thicker than traditional emulsions. This meant I got surprisingly few drips, compared to normal. The paint spread over the walls very easily and covered the walls very evenly, and so far so good there were no visible traces of the old colour showing through. At one point during the painting Mrs Scampi asked if she could have a go which delighted me, until after a few swishes of the paintpad she did a really bad Rolf Harris impression, cracking out the immortal line "Do you know what it is yet?". Then she decided she'd had enough and thrust the paint pad back into my hands. So job done it was time to stand back and admire our handiwork ( I'd better say our, rather than my , seeing as her ladyship contributed ).

DID IT DO WHAT IT SAID ON THE TIN ?

Overall yes.

Peep show :-

After just the one coat the walls were completely covered, without any visible signs of the old colour showing through. Bear in mind though that we were painting over magnolia, with a shade that wasn't too dissimilar. I wouldn't like to say how well this would have covered a much darker colour.

Spread em :-

The tin claims this paint should cover 8 sq. metres per litre of paint, therefore, giving a 2.5 ltr tin an approximate coverage of 20 sq metres. The area of the walls we had to paint was approximately 19 sq metres. Thankfully upon completion of the job there was a about 1/2 inch (12mm) of paint left in the bottom of the tin. I had horrible visions of running out of paint near the end of the job and having to fork out £17 for another tin. As I've already stated we were painting a smooth surface, a rough or textured surface, although seemingly measuring 18 sq. metres, for example, would actually require much more paint, so bear this in mind when guesstimating how much you'd need.

"Drying Tonight" (just imagine Kenneth Williams saying it) :-

The can states 2-4 hours and this paint was touch dry in a little over two hours. This was without the central heating being on, and with a few windows open.

Wake up and smell the paint :-

Not bad at all. Although the paint still had a faint ammoniac whiff to it when being applied, it was nowhere near as bad as normal emulsions. To be honest within a couple of hours all traces of the smell had disappeared. Most surprisingly on walking into the room the following morning there was no 'new paint smell' that's so commonly associated with freshly decorated rooms

Come over here if you think you're hard enough:-

Well it's only been on the walls for just over a week now so I can't give a long term assessment of its durability yet, however, I do have a couple of initial observations. It does offer a wipe clean surface, as the following equation will tell you -

7 year old son + grubby hands + freshly painted walls = grubby handprint on the wall.

It therefore transpires that -

Damp lightly soaped cloth + light rub with cloth + ticked off little boy = clean wall + no more recurrences of grubby handprints (for a short while at least anyway).

The paint finish is not so resistant to having a TV cabinet sraped against it though, although what paint is ? This was nothing a quick touch up didn't fix though (just as well I had some paint left).

Get cleaned up:

The paint brush and paint pad were easily cleaned in water with no real problems. Although we didn't spill any paint, I normally find that unless the spill is of Atlantic Ocean proportions, it's best to let it dry and then it should just peel or flake off whatever it's been spilt on.

SOME HEALTH AND SAFETY STUFF

Most of this is on the back of the tin but it's worth noting anyway.

- Keep out of the reach of children.

- Ensure good ventilation during application and drying.

- Avoid contact with the skin and eyes. In case of contact with the eyes, rinse with plenty of water immediately and seek medical advice. Wash off the skin with soap and water.

Remove as much paint from brushes etc... prior to cleaning.

- Do not empty into drains or watercourses. I always keep a spare can of paint for all the colours currently in the house anyway, as you never know when a quick bit of touching up work could be required.

- Should you need to dispose of paint, most local authorities have a disposal facility at your local civic tip.

RIGHT THAT'S ME DONE I'M OFF NOW

Although a fairly pricey paint, we found it was easy to use and most importantly it did what it said on the tin. What more can you ask of a paint ?
 

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