Little Greene & co

[blightymam]

Because of the do-gooders and VOC's am having trouble with oil-based paints. Found out that Little Greene and Sanderson both do oil based eggshell paints. I want to repaint an old wardrobe, and wondered if anyone had a view on these paints? I want it to be hard wearing as the wardrobe will obviously get a fair bit of use.

Any experience/views be gratefully received before I made a pricey mistake! £25 a ltr!!

 

[dcdec]

All the manufacturers OB paints have changed to obey new legislation, but as far as application is concerned i haven't noticed much difference. Gloss levels are good, flow and levelling are fine its just the yellowing. LG emulsions are excellent but never used the OB paint, pigmentation will be better and perhaps a true eggshell finish compared to some manufacturers but £25 a litre is steep. You might want to have a look at Tikkurela (spelling) furniture paints.

 

[blightymam]

Thanks for your advice, appreciated! Looked into Tikkurela paint, and it's all water based as far as I can tell, and I do not like water based at all - rubbish finish and brush marks etc. Personal preference I guess. Thankyou tho! Will give little greene a try I think, as I've just done a ton of research and it's still giving reasonable finishes, despite being lower in voc's than it once was.

 

[stevewestern]

If you are suffering from brush marks then maybe you need to try adding some xim or floetrol and a splash of water - different brushes may also be worth a go too !
It does take a little practice to get used to WB paints - they may not give the high sheen of an OB gloss but I find that WB paint is at least as hard wearing, easier to use in as much as quick drying and as they hardly smell at all much nicer to work with.
I can't comment on any recent OB paints as the only non WB I have used for a long time is zinsser cover stain or BIN.
Good luck with the wardrobe !

 

[emilybronte]

Don't be too harsh on the 'do-gooders'. They were simply making paints safer. Decorators suffered a high incidence of throat cancer before VOCs were reduced.

Little Greene paints are excellent and worth the extra money, in my book.

Waterbased paints will not have the same appearance as oil based, but for indoor work the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, and you can get a good finish with practice and the right brush.

 

[blightymam]

Well, I wouldn't want decorators to get ill.. and thanks for the tips too.

I do understand why they are doing this, but I just don't think the paints are up to it yet. I've not used WB paint since I painted something 2 years ago and it peeled right off. Probably down to bad prep tho I always key really well, but I then painted it with oil based, no extra prep and it's still perfect today. I guess I just have a problem with paying out a lot of money on paint and it not doing the job it's intended for.

Just the other day I used a WB varnish, coloured on something and it dries so flipping quick that I ended up with uneven colour. It dried in seconds leaving very little room to sort out any problems and it also showed every brush mark. I'd also varnished a chair which lives in the bathroom and it shows every spot of water that lands on it, goes milky for a while. Old varnish, like OB paint was very forgiving, hard wearing and looked amazing when finished.

I just think that this WB lark has a long way to go before it's any good and going by many many reviews by folk out there, including decorators, I am not alone.