How to increase the light in your home with a paint that reflects up to twice the light
Comments(17)
Photo: Dulux Light and Space matt paint
One of the depressing things about being a decorator is making other peoples’ houses look beautiful and not having time to decorate our cottage.
As a decorator, my eye is instinctively drawn to the necessary repairs and the state of the paintwork as this can contribute significantly to the labour costs and could spell disaster if I don’t spot them on the assessment visit.
I can’t switch this off when I walk through the cottage door and have been longing to decorate our kitchen for over a year. It’s quite a big job because we have painted kitchen cupboards (as opposed to wood effect) and I also want to change the wall tiles over the cooker. I wouldn’t dream of using another decorator as I know exactly the quality of work and attention to detail that would make me happy.
So a couple of weeks ago we decided that I would take a week off and decorate the kitchen and bathroom. I was so excited this morning that I sprang out of bed early and started work well before breakfast.
Our seventeenth century cottage is one room deep and has windows at the front and back of each room, facing south west in the front (afternoon sun) and north east at the back (morning sun). But the windows are very small and the ceilings are low so the cottage is fairly dark even on the brightest day. As yet we have not resorted to miners’ lamps to relieve the gloom in the winter.
Years ago people used to use glossy paint to reflect more light in dark rooms. I hate this as every bump and bobble on the surface of the walls and ceilings are highlighted. On the uneven walls of a very old house it looks even worse, it’s like looking at a choppy sea.
In the past we have just resorted to pale colours but this time I decided to use a new paint that has been developed by Dulux. It’s called Light and Space and reflects up to twice as much light as normal paint. It also has a flat matt finish. This is not glow in the dark florescent paint. It just reflects more light – daylight or artificial light. Initially I was a bit dubious about it.
But then I heard about the progress of paint development on the radio a few months ago and immediately ordered 5 litres of white for our downstairs ceilings back in the autumn. The substantial pot has sat patiently on the floor for a good four months.
With just one coat on the ceiling I could see how effective it was. So I rushed down to Homebase to have the paint mixed for the walls (Ridgeons, my trade paint supplier don’t stock it yet). The range of colours is small and all are light shades but the choice is a bit bigger if you have the paint mixed for you. This paint is a great investment if you live in a dark place. It’s about 30% more expensive that ordinary Dulux matt but the saving on electric light will be significant for us and we will soon be recouping the difference and feeling the benefit.
I’m not sponsored or working for Dulux. I have just discovered that their range of paint is really good and better than everything else that clients might ask me to use. I do use a whole range of expensive ‘boutique’ brands in other people’s houses but would always use Dulux at home.
It’s so good to be working at home for a change although the Min Pins are up in arms and hating the disturbance to their well ordered daily routine. And there isn’t much time for games. It’s the same when major cottage spring cleaning is taking place. They would prefer everything to have been done before they come down for breakfast in the morning. And I can see their point on the cleaning front.
Thank you for your comments. And a bit of silly bath time fun with the Frothing Sea Monster trick!
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HG
How exciting for you… when you are done do you to come to Oz & do mine? Kidding… (sort of)
You didnt give us a hint of what colour you ordered for your walls?
Im umming & arring on wall colours as we painted right through with Wattyl ID “Orchid” (white) just 2.5 years back when we first moved here, but Im just about over it. Especially in the kitchen & dining rooms.
The house hasnt beebn completely finished ( I want to paint the trims as they are timber but havent been loved)maybe I will love the white again once the trims are done?
You can see Im a very decisive person!
Hi again, sorry about the double posting but I just received an email with your reply from the Golden Sun post the other day & wanted to say Im not anywhere near those fires, nor is any of my family but it is still so heartbreaking to watch the news updates right now. Thanks for wishing us a lucky windfall too.
ohhh could you do before and after pictures? After the bathroom was done, we had new doors put down stairs and reversed the one into the kitchen, so we can actually move in the hall and open the understairs cupboard. Numptys lived in my house before. everything is backwards. You have to go into the room shut the door in the dark and then thumble for the light switch.
Anyways I am waffling.
Getting to the point. The hall wall, now we can look at it, has the plaster falling away from the wall. So seeing as business is HUGELY slow in the new build house front around here. We have managed to find and secure a good plasterer. You wouldnt believe the hassle we have had trying to find one. Why arent I using the one who did the bathroom? Put it this way, we shouldnt of paid him till we saw the walls in the day light. a cautionery tale for all there. And we were ripped off. never mind…
So we are having everywhere replastered, except the bathroom. Walls and ceilings. Then the lovely new floor can go down in the hall and kitchen and I am done. ahhhh the light is at the end of the tunnel
Sorry huge comment there. So the reason for the post is I would love to see the results of a before and after. As it would make a massive difference to our hall and lounge if we had light reflective paint. Great. Lovely, thanks
2.5 years ago we moved into a new build house and it was painted out in Dulux “Natural Light” flat matt and we love it. I don’t think it is quite the same as the paint you are describing. Natural Light has a faintest faintest pink tinge but unless you were informed of this you would never know. We love it. The paint has a very clean light look.
Too late! We have just painted 500 square metres of wall in a rather dark house brilliant white. This has certainly brightened it up! The paint we used wasn’t Dulux, but it was excellent (professional) quality, and thanks to contacts we managed to get trade prices for it. Paint is extortionately expensive in France — I don’t know why
This sounds like a good paint for my brother’s house. He, too, lives in a little cottage which is very dark on the North side (which also faces into the yard and the tall trees)but very bright and sunny on the south side. Fortunately the south facing rooms are the ones he uses as offices during the day but it does mean that the lights are on all day in the kitchen and north facing room as everything is interlinked. He is looking to get some decorating done so I will mention this paint to him.
So exciting. Looking forward to the photographs … and to hearing whether you think it really does make such a difference. If so, I might finally get round to painting our kitchen ceiling
Best wishes,
Joanna
I used this paint on the ceiling ( white) and walls (the lightest blue/green)in my new North-facing studio and it is fabulous, really does reflect more light and has a lovely chalky surface finish, especially when rollered. Several thin rollered coats build up to a very subtle soft surface that has real depth.I only need the anglepoise on my desk alight in the evenings for the whole room to feel cosy and bright- and for me to see what I’m doing…when I re-do my other ceilings I shall use it again.
Bother!!! Have already bought paint for our gloomy kitchen but will remember this for later as the living room could do with a bit of a spruce up too. Older houses are notorious for dark rooms but I have noticed that new builds often have very small windows too.
Love your decorating tips! We need to paint our kitchen/diner ceiling and it’s not a light room so will have to seek some of this out.
Sounds brill. I always use Dulux too as I just like working with it. We have already bought Dulux (‘Timeless’) for our hall – drat! But our office does need a new coat of paint – it’s terracotta at the mo from back in the days when bolder colours were in favour. If I can use up all the ‘Timeless’ in the office I’ll look out for this other for the hall. When we 1st moved in 20 yrs ago we had a corrugated perspex roofed car port outside but with a few storms blowing chunks of it away & a rotten garage roof we redid the whole lot as a flat roof & it has darkened the hall considerably. Keep us up to date with how you get on. Like the idea of before & after pictures too. Enjoy your week!
Carol if you have the receipt for the paint and it is untouched take it back and ask for a refund. Or to exchange it. homebase and B&Q are good with this. I havent ever had to take anything back to Wickes before so I dont know what their policy is
It sounds like it will be lovely when it’s finished. I’ve never been sold on white paint before but my living room never gets to see the sun until late afternoon in the summer…winter never at all. My room is painted lilac and green but I think I finally realise that the room should be painted the way it needs, not the colours I like. Please let us know the end result.
Ive always used brilliant matt white mixed with usually a sample pot size of the colour I want.Mix it at home to the shade i want,just make sure ive mixed enough for needs as wont get exact shade again.
I love this in pale yellow as it brightens any room and does make the room glow with a richness and depth not seen in normal emulsions.
Great post, thanks,for sharing this.I have quite a dark hall, so this would be excellent.
We have done two rooms in our house, the least expensive ones…!!Now have to replace bathroom, completely gut the front room, and the kitchen, so I don’t think a few pots of paint, are going break the bank..
At the moment it is like living in a tin of mushroom soup, the people before definetely did not like anything else other than beige ha ha and like S.O.L….Numptys lived in my house before. everything is backwards. You have to go into the room shut the door in the dark and then thumble for the light switch.
Whoa, our bedroom lights are on pull-cords in the middle of the room – less of a thumble, more of a wild-arms flail. And being in an err, secluded spot when it is dark here, it is PROFOUNDLY dark.
Being a traditional Welsh farmhouse there’s lots of woodwork; including a tongue-&-groove ceiling upstairs. As you can imagine, in places it gets a bit dark at times.
Spurred on by B&Q’s offer of a half-price Paint Pod I deviated to DIY en route from a busy morning of gelato deliveries. Having stowed the hallowed instrument in my trolley I surveyed the available colours with dismay. I’d assumed said gadget could be used with the full range of Dulux paints: alas, no; & ‘Light & Space’ certainly isn’t available.
Thinking about the many walls I have to paint I reflected on how nigh-on impossible such a ‘useful’ gadget would prove to use. Most walls here are of rough-cast plaster, & bulge & bellow in all directions; not the easiest to smooth over with an automatic roller.
I put a little more careful, considered thought into what I wanted to achieve. Whilst the Paint Pod would have been ideal for our dark-&-dingy Dining Room, the whole house could do with a brightly-painted smile.
I stood there, perplexed by the wide array of brightly-coloured paints on offer. Albeit with limitations, the Paint Pod still beckoned. But my fretful mind worried that if it doesn’t prove popular & is withdrawn from the market (which as it’s already being offered at only half-price, seems likely) I was loathe to invest in a ‘fad’.
So I thought more carefully. Do dining rooms really have to be saturated with dark, oppressive colours….? These days ours is used more as an impromptu study, than a room for intimate ‘tete-a-tete’ meals.
So the Paint Pod has been shoved back on its DIY store shelf; & I’ve armed myself with a set of best-quality brushes along with a goodly pot of L&S ‘Coastal Glow’ which I know will prove just the tonic for our lovely old hallway.
And I also invested in a whole host of other ‘Light & Space’ sample pots – the cottage deserves not only a thorough spring clean but also a much-needed makeover. So here we go…!
But the house is only a suitably modest beginning. As you can imagine, we have loads of outbuildings here on the farm; most walls are whitewashed with doors & windowframes, a dark blood red.
You’ve inspired me to transform the Ffarm & dip into the light, alluring colours which decorate our ‘Lovespoon’ gelato pots – to brighten up the whole place, inside & out. No doubt not only Tony but a whole host of goats, sheep, ponies & poultry will thank you for it…!
So if ever you fancy a “busman’s holiday” feel free to take an excursion to Wales – where you can admire the bright & beautiful fruits of our labours, inspired by your ever-welcome advice.