Ottoson linseed oil paint - which shade to choose for our front door?
My favourite subject - linseed oil paint
I've treated myself to another tester pack of the stuff - the task at hand is finding the right shade for our front door.
This type of paint is pretty hard to come by, so I'll tell you a bit about our sources. This time I ordered from Histocolour, a company that also sells 'Histoglass', a thin glass solution for sash and restoration windows (but that's another story). UPDATE 2015 - The company is now called: Oricalcum, and they stock Emente paint, too.
They are a retailer for Ottoson linseed oil paint or 'linoljefärg', as it's called in Swedish. I'd used another make before, Norfolk-based Holkham, who basically sold Allbaeck linseed oil paint (another Swedish producer), although they've stopped doing so now. As we were holidaying in Norfolk this summer, I obviously HAD to visit the Holkham Estate to see the linseed paint in action. It seemed there was plenty of it around on doors and windows, but I couldn't find anyone working there who knew anything about it and they may well have given up using it. However, the friendly lady in the gift shop told me that the Allbaeck paint is now sold by a company where we've purchased all our lime mortar from, The Old House Store.
Here a few pictures of where I'd used the Allbaeck paint before,
A little teak garden chair, painted in 'Linseed Blue'.
Anyway, back to my new set of testers from the folks at Histocolour. Which shade would suit our front door? We settled on green as the colour, as it should work well with the stained glass panels, but I made some tester panels that should help us decide which of these shades:
Blackout
This type of paint is pretty hard to come by, so I'll tell you a bit about our sources. This time I ordered from Histocolour, a company that also sells 'Histoglass', a thin glass solution for sash and restoration windows (but that's another story). UPDATE 2015 - The company is now called: Oricalcum, and they stock Emente paint, too.
They are a retailer for Ottoson linseed oil paint or 'linoljefärg', as it's called in Swedish. I'd used another make before, Norfolk-based Holkham, who basically sold Allbaeck linseed oil paint (another Swedish producer), although they've stopped doing so now. As we were holidaying in Norfolk this summer, I obviously HAD to visit the Holkham Estate to see the linseed paint in action. It seemed there was plenty of it around on doors and windows, but I couldn't find anyone working there who knew anything about it and they may well have given up using it. However, the friendly lady in the gift shop told me that the Allbaeck paint is now sold by a company where we've purchased all our lime mortar from, The Old House Store.
Here a few pictures of where I'd used the Allbaeck paint before,
A little teak garden chair, painted in 'Linseed Blue'.
A close up of the kitchen window outside, painted two years ago with plain white from Allbaeck. The paint is holding up very nicely.
Anyway, back to my new set of testers from the folks at Histocolour. Which shade would suit our front door? We settled on green as the colour, as it should work well with the stained glass panels, but I made some tester panels that should help us decide which of these shades:
The 125ml tins came nicely packed and secured with clips.
The all had the familiar oily and creamy consistency, except for 'Blackout', which was very thick, almost like a gel. Feels like it consists of pure pigment with a bit of oil.
Before I painted the tester panels, I couldn't help but give the Bedroom Two door a first coat of 'Restoration White'. It went on more thinly than the Allbaeck paint, but that might just have been the way I'd applied the other one.
Blackout
Ardbeg Green
Copenhagen Green (both types)
To the right, Leaf Green and Restoration White
So, for clarity, the order the colours lie in the photographs below is:
Blackout
Ardbeg Green
Copenhagen Green
Copenhagen Green Light
Leaf Green
Restoration White.
So, which colour should we paint the door? What do you think?
Help, please!
