PAINT: not as easy as it sounds

Over the last decade paint has become the finish of choice for most designers. "Off-white" has become the password when it comes to decorating. The market has moulded itself around the increase in demand and every manufacturer has created extensive ranges of lightly saturated colours. As the collective preference for lighter colours developed so did the "designer paint" market. A three tier market seems to be the result. Purely based on price, paints seem to fall into three broad categories: standard, designer and specialist. Nothing strange there. What might be surprising is how difficult it can be to select an off-white, even an extremely white off white! That's where I find quality pays off. You can spend a fortune, both in money and time, going backwards and forwards collecting samples and applying them to the wall. You can spend even more time finding out that the colour may be exactly what you wanted but the texture and lasting qualities of the paint you purchased are not up to scratch. That's when you might discover that there is a place and price worth paying for good paint and, above all, expert advice. After searching high and low for an off-white which wouldn't err on the side of pink or yellow, I discovered the expert advice of Papers & Paints. If you live outside London I am sure there must be an "old-fashioned" advice based paint specialist near you. In shops such as these you may be paying extra per gallon but if you ask the right questions you’ll be given the answers you need. I am not sure what it is in the actual makeup of paint but the best manufacturers certainly seem to succeed in avoiding crude and cheap-looking colours. Even where the more vivid hues are concerned a certain elegance is present in most colours of most top-end of the market paint collections. Is it the raw materials? Is it the research behind the formulas? While many paint shops maintain they can "scan and mix" any colour by any manufacturer in their own paint (i.e. using the paint they sell) I wouldn't bank on it looking like the “original”. There will be exceptions but think of how the same concept works in the world of fashion… There is a place for the imitation and one for the original. My standard recommendations from Papers & Paints never disappoint (see samples and application - above).