Category Archives: VOCs

Bedroom 3, building, painting, VOCs

Paint Saga finally sorted

The saga of the “off white” paint continued.  After ecolour replaced the paint, and the top section of the bedroom walls was painted, hubby went back out to the house and it was still wrong.  It looked close to the paint chip, but not the sample board we had painted.

After much to-ing and fro-ing we discovered that the paint sample of “off white” that Bunnings had mixed for us was tinted wrong.  Hubby went to a Dulux Inspirations store to get a proper tint and discovered that the “off white” can’t be mixed in a sample pot; the minimum is 500ml.  Bunnings had given us a 250ml sample, which caused it to be mis-tinted.  He was also told that getting paint mixed at Bunnings was a gamble, there was a good chance they would get it wrong.

Ecolour couldn’t mix the colour of the mis-tint so we went back to all those “white” paint samples!  I stopped by the house to compare the new selections with what was on the walls and the walls looked pretty good.  Hubby wasn’t convinced but decide to go with my judgement (hope it looks as good once we’re in!).  So our Master Bedroom, Ensuite and Bathroom are still “off white”.

Michael from ecolour was extremely helpful in sorting it all out.

If your wondering, we chose to use ecolour paints to avoid volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

Master Bedroom Painted
Master Bedroom Painted

The rest of the painting is also coming along and is almost complete, including Oscar’s feature wall and the chimneys.

Kitchen Mantel Painted
Kitchen Mantel Painted
Hallway painted
Hallway painted
Chimneys
Chimneys
Bed 3 Feature Wall (colour: Zuni)
Bed 3 Feature Wall (colour: Zuni)

 

 

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bathroom, ensuite, Flooring, laundry, VOCs

Floor Tiles

We have spent most of this week looking at tiles.  We don’t have a lot of tiles, but we have somehow managed to avoid thinking about them, and now it’s decision time.  We went to National Tiles last weekend and left there totally uninspired.  Given the natural materials we have in the house (bamboo, red gum and marble) we thought we’d have a look for natural tiles.  Our best friend Google led us to Edwards Tiles where we found Black Velvet limestone tiles for the laundry and bathroom floors.  The tiles can be sealed with Aqua-Seal Bronze+, a water-based no VOC natural look sealant.

Black Velvet Limestone Tile
Black Velvet Limestone Tile (image from Edwards Tiles)

Having chosen these we just had to find tiles for the bathroom shower and the ensuite floor.  We went to Metric Tile, where they had a great range of tiles, with lots of them in patterned displays to make it easy to picture how to use them.  Even so, we struggled to make a decision on the bathroom, but when we asked for a period style floor for the ensuite we made a great find.  Out the back they had the perfect tile.  It was a clearance lot and pre-dated the implementation of their computer system (almost authentic period!).

Cream Octagonal with Green Dots
Vanilla Octagonal with Green Dots

 

 

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building, colours, Fit out, painting, VOCs

Interior Paint Colours and Tiles

It has taken a while, but we have finally decided on paint colours for inside the house.

Hog Bristle Quarter W (A180) for all walls except the Master Bedroom, Ensuite and Bathroom.

Off White W (B13) for the walls in the Master Bedroom, Ensuite and Bathroom.

Peplum Quarter W (B28) in gloss for the trim.

Ceiling white for the ceilings and cornices.

Oscar has chosen red for his Star Wars room (a feature wall only!).

The kitchen cabinets will be in Antique White USA, in a low gloss. The cabinet maker thinks he has found some low VOC paints and sealants for the kitchen.

We also started looking at tiles today.  We haven’t looked at any tiles previously, but we need to select floor tiles for the laundry, bathroom and ensuite.   I would love to have natural stone tiles, to match our other natural materials, but we may have to search a bit to find something in our budget.

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