Hi folks. I'm brand new on here hi everyone.
In my classroom (i'm a teacher) i have two large south-facing windows, both about 2m x 3m. The windows are covered with black vinyl blinds, which have to be kept permanent rolled down because of the glare on whiteboard.
When it's sunny the black blinds become the ultimate solar radiators! I only started teaching at the school in September, but the problem was so bad in May/June/July last year that the then teacher resorted to covering the windows with aluminium foil (glued onto the glass) to help stop the room becoming a complete sauna when the sun was out. The first thing i did when i took over the classroom was to rip the foil down because it was peeling off and looked absolutely crap, not to mention the fact when the windows were open all you hear was the sound of foil crinkling in the breeze.
Now that the sun is getting stronger again i'm looking for a better solution for preventing the sun from heating the room up severely. I've looked into getting reflective film to cover the glass, but it's pretty darn costly to get 12 metres squared of it. Replacing the blinds with white and instead of black ones would make a lot of difference, but the school has been dragging its heels over the idea, plus that would be just as expensive if not more than the reflective film idea.
So much pondering led me to the idea of simply painting the outward facing side of the blinds white. I could do this easily over the Easter holidays in just an hour or two. This leads me (sorry this has been a really long post!!!) to my question: what paint should i use to do this?
The blinds are made from that sort of fake leather vinyl plastic material. It's been quite difficult for me to get an idea using Google because as soon as you put 'vinyl' and 'paint' together in the search bar you get lots of hits for vinyl paint which is NOT what i'm looking for!
I'd prefer to apply from a tin using a brush or roller, as opposed to spraying. If anyone can recommend a brilliant white paint which is up to the job - i will probably need a couple of litres - then that would be cool, literally.
Thanks!
In my classroom (i'm a teacher) i have two large south-facing windows, both about 2m x 3m. The windows are covered with black vinyl blinds, which have to be kept permanent rolled down because of the glare on whiteboard.
When it's sunny the black blinds become the ultimate solar radiators! I only started teaching at the school in September, but the problem was so bad in May/June/July last year that the then teacher resorted to covering the windows with aluminium foil (glued onto the glass) to help stop the room becoming a complete sauna when the sun was out. The first thing i did when i took over the classroom was to rip the foil down because it was peeling off and looked absolutely crap, not to mention the fact when the windows were open all you hear was the sound of foil crinkling in the breeze.
Now that the sun is getting stronger again i'm looking for a better solution for preventing the sun from heating the room up severely. I've looked into getting reflective film to cover the glass, but it's pretty darn costly to get 12 metres squared of it. Replacing the blinds with white and instead of black ones would make a lot of difference, but the school has been dragging its heels over the idea, plus that would be just as expensive if not more than the reflective film idea.
So much pondering led me to the idea of simply painting the outward facing side of the blinds white. I could do this easily over the Easter holidays in just an hour or two. This leads me (sorry this has been a really long post!!!) to my question: what paint should i use to do this?
The blinds are made from that sort of fake leather vinyl plastic material. It's been quite difficult for me to get an idea using Google because as soon as you put 'vinyl' and 'paint' together in the search bar you get lots of hits for vinyl paint which is NOT what i'm looking for!
I'd prefer to apply from a tin using a brush or roller, as opposed to spraying. If anyone can recommend a brilliant white paint which is up to the job - i will probably need a couple of litres - then that would be cool, literally.
Thanks!