Changing the colour from dark blue to white helps to make these classrooms appear more welcoming, spacious and orderly. White is the perfect colour to achieve this – as seen on our colour psychology post here.
How do we do it?
The Preparation:
The project is split into 4 main phases: preparation, initial first coat (cutting in and undercoat), top coat & finishing touches and cleaning.
Stage one involves the preparation of surfaces as well as the removal of posters, tv’s, boards etc. from walls so that they are ready for painting. Painting around objects is simply poor workmanship and should be avoided unless it is absolutely impossible to remove an item. It is good to prepare walls for paint by filling unneeded holes, sanding and washing with sugar soap to ensure all surfaces are free from dirt and residues that could prevent the paint from adhering to the wall. Giving glossed surfaces such as skirting boards and window sills a light sand is also essential to help paint adhesion.
The Painting:
Next comes the initial painting stage, the undercoat and high helps to cover over the original colour. A good quality undercoat is important especially when making such drastic colour changes to ensure no old colour shows through. To conclude this stage, we ‘touch up’ areas such as corners, edges and areas around pipes and windows.
The top coat is then applied. This can be one or two coats of the desired paint. For this particular job we used eggshell. This type of paint is excellent for this application because it provides a low shine surface that is durable and wipeable. Once the top coat is dry, the finishing touches can be applied to skirtings and window sills. This stage requires keen attention to detail and a neat brush stroke to obtain a perfect line. Applying solvent based gloss can be a difficult and messy task, so always wear gloves and keep some white spirit handy to wipe up drips or spills immediately. Ensure adequate ventilation as well as fumes can be overpowering. Try to keep your brush handle clean as this will help to avoid unnecessary clean up along the way.
To round off your painting job, always do a thorough clean and replace boards, tv’s blinds and wall clocks etc. This stage is really important so that the space is clean, safe and organised, ready for occupation by teachers and pupils.
