Colour, before the first coat
A working chart for people decorating their own homes: paint types, choosing colour, preparing surfaces and small rooms. Each article carries a chip of our own invention.
Matt, eggshell, satin or gloss?
Paint types
Does light paint make a small room bigger?
Small rooms
Colours for a north-facing room
Choosing colour
How to prepare a wall for painting
Preparing surfaces
What does low-VOC paint mean?
Paint types
Lead paint in an old house
Preparing surfaces
One room, three chips
The same room with only the wall colour changed. It shows why we draw rooms rather than print long lists of shades: a colour is a relationship with its window, floor and woodwork, more than a thing in itself.
Paint types
What is in the tin, what the shine does and what the label means.
Choosing colour
Colour depends on light first, and on taste second.
Preparing surfaces
The dull part of the job that decides how the rest looks.
Small rooms
Box rooms, cloakrooms, and what really makes them feel bigger.
Why ochre
Ochre is among the earliest pigments people used: a natural clay earth, coloured mainly by iron oxide. It seemed a fair thing to name a small publication after, since most of what we write about comes down to earth, water, patience and a good brush. We have no paint to sell and no brand to promote.
