Eco Decorating

Part 1

The key to eco decorating & eco interior design is to achieve the maximum aesthetic, functional and practical enhancement with the minimum amount of materials, resources, energy, hazards to your health and negative effects on the environment.

This means following a few simple steps before you open the paint tin or even worse the paint stripper tin.

Step 1 – Question your motives

• Are you being led by fashion and trend from attractive advertising and glossy interiors magazines?
• How long ago did you redecorate?
• Why are you redecorating now?
• Are you redecorating to overcome an issue e.g. moving home?
• Are you redecorating for need or want?

e.g. I need to paint the lounge because the paintwork is 20 years old versus I want to redecorate because I was inspired by autumnal colour trends from an interiors magazine.

Caution - Also be mindful of the home improvement project you are going to undertake in regards to the waste that you will create, all heading into your local landfill.

Step 2 - Clean

Step 3 - Evaluate

• What actually needs painting; every single wall, the ceiling, the coving or just below the dado rail?
• Can any areas of woodwork damage be repaired or filled?
• Can any woodwork chips be touched up?

The woodwork finish is usually the same all over your house and covers areas such as the skirting, architrave, doors, window sills, window frames and radiator covers. Once you begin to redecorate the woodwork, you may find that this means re-doing the woodwork for every room. Suddenly it is a much larger job than you had planned as most of the woodwork is jointed together. So you can see how important it is not to start a redecorating job unless you really have to. Think of all the paint you would use to do the whole house and money you would spend unnecessarily, rather than thinking through each eco decorating job before you start.

Step 4 - Repair

Simply repair what you can rather than replacing it e.g. removing and replacing a small section of damaged skirting board rather than replacing the entire length along one wall.

Step 5 - Re-plaster

Uneven, bumpy and irregular wall surfaces can look awful as any imperfections are caught by light. There are ways to avoid re-plastering whole rooms, which stops the unnecessary use of resources, materials and energy. Only re-plaster if it is absolutely necessary.

• Before you paint, dig out an old light coloured matt water based paint pot and mix half paint with half water. Paint onto the walls (known in the trade as a mist coat). This will highlight the worst areas which can then be sanded or filled.
• Avoid painting with a sheen, silk or gloss finish. Instead use a flat or matt eco paint.
• Go rustic and add sand to eco paint. This creates a naturally rough surface and is great for disguising less than perfect walls.
• Hang lining paper between 800 and 1000 grade on the walls & ceiling with eco wallpaper paste to even out surfaces before painting over with eco paint (personally this is one of the most effective and cheapest options with the added value of a little more insulation).
• Hang embossed, textured or patterned wallpaper onto the walls with eco wallpaper pasted. If the walls are quite irregular, use lining paper in a horizontal direction around the room before hanging the wallpaper. This creates 2 layers of paper and will smooth out most walls.

For more detailed information please read my articles on Lime Plaster and Clay Plaster in the Eco Materials resources are of my website.

Part 2 of my eco decorating guide continues here..........