How to apply Earthborn Claypaint

In a scrumptious palette of modern and traditional shades, Earthborn Claypaint is a dream to use. With a thick creamy consistency it covers exceptionally well, often requiring just one coat. Plus it's highly breathable, making it ideal for lime and heritage projects, with no nasty smells or emissions. So it's kind to you, your home and the planet too. Here, we tackle how to apply it with handy tips and a how-to YouTube clip.

Top painting tips to follow when painting a room

First establish what paint you will need for the job in hand. When decorating, you want your efforts to achieve the best possible finish (As well as longevity!).

Ensure you have chosen the appropriate product

Claypaint for interior walls, ceilings and furniture, an ultra matt finish that is fully breathable for lime, stone, brick and plaster.

Lifestyle interior emulsion for walls and ceilings, the choice for busy homes. A washable and durable emulsion that comes in all the same beautiful colours as the Claypaint. The Lifestyle range is a water based paint that isn’t suitable for lime and stone as it isn’t as breathable and suitable as the Claypaint would be.

Ecopro Silicate Masonry paint for exterior mineral surfaces such as stone, masonry, concrete, pebble dash and plaster, also other surfaces that have been painted in a silicate-based paint. Gives a matt finish and is highly breathable.

For furniture you can also use the Claypaint ‘Eco Chic’ range finished with Furniture Wax. For Woodwork such as skirting boards and doors choose Eggshell No.17 in partnership multi-purpose primer.

Once you have established the correct paint to use, it’s on to choosing the right colour (The fun bit!). Colours can vary substantially when viewing on computer screens, and even colour cards (the colour may look different on a bigger scale) which is why we always recommend using a sample pot to determine the colour.

Top Tip: Paint on to a piece of card and move it around the room to see how the light and shade will affect the colour. If your painting straight onto the wall, make sure you don’t paint it on too thick as it will affect the final finish.

Before you set off to the shop to buy paint, work out exactly how much you will need for the job, it can stop any delays in the work if you run out of paint half way through, or having way too much left over!

• Earthborn Claypaint gives coverage of approximately 10m2 a litre

• Earthborn Eggshell No.17 paint covers 14m2 a litre

Before you commence painting, prepare the walls to ensure you have a smooth even surface to begin with. Filling any gabs or cracks and remove any flacking paint. Make sure the walls are clean and dry at least 24 hours before starting to paint. Our Harris taskmasters paint scrapers work wonders for getting rid of flacking paint! If your painting skirting boards and doors, but need to remove varnish or gloss paints first, use Homestrip paint and varnish remover – it makes light work of having to sand the whole lot off.

Top Tip: Protect your brushes and rollers in between coats by wrapping them in cling film so they remain air tight. Once finished they can be washed out easily with hot soapy water.  

How to paint bare plaster

Claypaint can be applied directly onto fresh plaster, but lifestyle should be applied only after the plaster has had time to fully cure (couple of weeks) for best results dilute the first coat of paint with no more than 20% water. If you have used lime plaster, then only Claypaint should be used.

For optimum coverage consider using a breathable natural primer like the Auro Plaster Primer.

Alternatively, if you have powdery lime then you can stabilize the walls with the Earthborn Wall Glaze. Diluting the wall glaze with three parts water 1 part wall glaze and apply it straight to the lime plaster before over coating with Claypaint. Lime plaster requires a longer drying and curing time before painting – around 4 weeks per 5mm thickness of plaster. Paint we’d recommend for painting onto lime plaster is Claypaint because it has a much higher breathability level than other paints in the Earthborn range, making it fully compatible with lime.

Remember Claypaint starts to dry immediately once it has been applied to walls, to avoid a patchy finish; paint a square meter and then move on, it can be tempting to go back over missed spots – but that’s how you get a patchy finish (especially on dark colours) rectify any problems with the second coat.

Top Tip: Before painting onto bare plaster, slightly dampen the walls with water, we find that a water spray bottle works best. Use a short pile roller for the most consistent finish. The second coat of paint should be applied without any dilution.

Painting a nursery? Below are our painting tips:

Painting a nursery is a very exciting time, especially with loads of inspiration from Pinterest with ideas for wall murals! It’s a time to create and be imaginative creating a personal space for your little one. And with Earthborn eggshell range, you can safely apply paint to furniture, cots and toys to help pull the colour scheme together (without any nasty chemicals involved). You can easily paint the furniture to match one another or paint new furniture to give it that personal touch.

What about baby cots and toys? 

It’s absolutely fine to paint children’s toys and furniture in Earthborn Eggshell; it proudly carries the EU Ecolabel and has a safety toy standard of (EN7-3:1995). It also has a VOC content of less than 0.5g/l – Very low!

Toys are designed to be played with and are subject to a lot of wear and tear, we’d recommend using the Eggshell No.17 because it has a hardwearing soft sheen finish which can easily be wiped clean. Most modern eggshells contain high levels of acrylics and vinyl, which do help the overall durability of the paint but are also really not good for the environment or for your little one. Earthborn paints are free from oil, acrylic and importantly don’t give off any nasty smells or emissions being virtually VOC free too!

It’s all in the preparation! Remember the key to successfully decorating furniture is all in the preparation. Take the furniture out of the room, outside if possible and wear a protective face mask whilst sanding back any shiny varnish or gloss that’s already on the furniture. We’d recommend using Earthborn Multi-Purpose Primer before two final coats of eggshell.

Top Tip: Eggshell No.17 likes to be applied with a synthetic brush, or a mixed bristle brush.

Top Tip : De fuzz your new rollers! New rollers have excess ‘fuzz’ that could impact the finish of your paint work. Prior to using them give them a good ol’ rub down and wash.

What about painting on to MDF, Melamine and laminated kitchen cabinets and furniture? 

Sometimes all it needs is a new coat of paint to make something look fresh and new again! It’s worth bearing in mind that many kitchen units are now made from composite materials like MDF or particleboard and are coated with a laminated wood, plastic of melamine finish. If you’re thinking of refurbishing kitchen cupboards, melamine surfaces or particleboard furniture and want to create a long lasting finish bare this in mind;

1. Melamine surfaces aren’t as absorbent like wood or plaster, so it’s important to sand it really well, to a matt finish in order to create and adequate bond for the paint to adhere too. It’s all in the preparation as they say!
2. Wipe away any dust, any grease should be thoroughly cleaned off.
3. Prime prime prime! Earthborns Multi-Purpose Primer is ideal because it is water based and compatible with the eco pro eggshell and the No.17 Eggshell.
4. Apply 1-2 coats of the topcoat eggshell (either Eggshell No.17, EcoPro or even Eco Chic) Remember to sand back the 1^st coat to a matt finish to help the second coat adhere to the surface).

Top Tip: Scrape your roller before washing! So much paint is wasted if you simply wash your paint rollers. Scrape any excess paint from the roller back into the tin prior to washing; you’ll be surprised at how much paint can be saved for next time! Another great hack is to use our recycled pulp painting tray and kettle. No washing is needed, just cloth out excess paint, let the rest dry in the tray and re-use next time you are painting.

Remember to protect your edging and windows by using masking tape for the best finish. But also, if you get Claypaint anywhere you’re not supposed to, a simple wipe away with cloth will remove any accidental marks.

Have you got any other painting tips for using Earthborn Paints? Share them with us by tagging @celticsus – Happy Decorating!