Month: March 2016

The Benefit of Using Premium Paints

To many, paint is simply color, a convenient way to bring the elements of a space together and unify them. It’s a last minute decision made after spending hours and hours pouring over lighting, flooring, case goods and furniture systems– those limelight stealing prima donnas. Why do we leave paint decisions for so late in the design process? Is it because paint is boring? Maybe if paint had a better story to tell than simply providing flat color, it might feel more vital to the success of a space. What if paint could wrap architectural details in shimmering pearlescent effects? What if paint could have engaging textures or metallic hues? What if paint could provide protection for walls? The good news is that paint can have all of these characteristics and more: Welcome to the world of Premium Paint.

Get our scrub rating guide here to help you determine what paint is right for your project.

If paint is going to attract designer’s attention like lighting and furniture, it needs an exciting look, it needs to be tough, and it needs be low emitting. The local hardware stores are full of paints that look great but easily wipe right off the wall–not exactly practical for commercial interiors. There’s plenty of durable paints to choose from, too–most of which are so volatile they’ll have the Sierra Club picketing your job site. And of course there are low emitting paints that can’t be cleaned and need constant repainting–which kinda’ defeats their purpose. Only great looking, long lasting, low emitting paint can truly be called premium and earn a higher slot in our design process.

Because paint is often viewed as a commodity, many designers aren’t aware that better options and premium paints exist. The difference between premium paint and store bought paint is as pronounced as the difference between type 1 and type 2 vinyl. You wouldn’t specify type 1 vinyl for an active commercial interior, it would be trashed before the move-in was complete. Specifying regular paints for high-traffic areas is just as fruitless yet we do it all the time.

Dig, if you will, a picture: You’ve completed a new space, it’s opening day and every aspect of the project is pristine. Almost. The walls, corridors and common spaces where you specified regular paint are full of scuffs and kick marks from the move-in process. These walls can’t be cleaned and already need repainting. Oh, and the client is not thrilled. We’ve all painted ourselves into this corner before, but specifying premium paints will get us out of it. Premium paint like Scuffmaster is 10-45x more durable than regular latex paints. That increased level of performance means walls that withstand nicks and chips, and kick marks that wipe off walls without burnishing them or needing a costly touch up.

So that’s the practical side of premium paint, now for the fun side. Imagine radiant metallic paints, envision coatings with textures that echo other elements from the space, picture glossy drops of color creating a fresh, dewy appearance. Premium paints can achieve all of this while maintaining VOC levels low enough to qualify for LEED credits. Yes, premium paints are more expensive (doing it right the first time always is) but your projects deserve premium paint and premium paint deserves a higher place in your design process (if you leave it until the last minute it can get VE’d out). So as you are working, be aware that paint can be so much more than just solid color. and better paint like Scuffmaster is there, waiting patiently for a lead role in your next project. Get our scrub rating guide here to help you determine what paint is right for your project.

Commies love concrete. Rolling Stone reporter P.J. O’Roark famously made that observation in 1986 while surveying Eastern Europe’s landscape from 15,000 feet. This would have been a fairly easy conclusion for him to reach in 1986 as he was flying over the Soviet Block. Grid after desaturated grid, block after featureless block, high-rise after looming, oppressive high-rise, the era’s Communist city planners from Poland to Beijing were waging a war against joie de vivre and their weapon of choice was concrete.

Eventually, the Berlin Wall crumbled–as all concrete does–and the freedom that people experienced as a result came with a desire for more distinctive architecture and a greater sense of place. With a determination and dauntlessness typical of Eastern Europeans, they went for it. Big time.

Loosening restrictions and cultural reforms have had a similar effect in China causing a crop of genre defying architectural wonders to sprout up in recent years.

So, of course, the government now wants to put an end to it.

The Chinese government has recently issued a New Directive criticizing some of the “oversized, xenocentric, weird” buildings in the country and outright banning “bizarre architecture”. Like many such ideas, it’s fine in theory but will be disastrous in practice. The line between that which is beautiful and a cultural good, and that which is bizarre and xenophobic will now be defined by the same crowd that brought you the Great Leap Forward.

One imagines hopeful architects approaching the newly crowned Minister of Culturally Appropriate Aesthetics with renderings clutched in trembling hands. “If it pleases your exaltedness, might you deem my humble vision an Aesthetically Worthy Cultural Asset so that it might one day grace the skyline of our city?”  Squinting one eye at the renderings and cocking his head a bit the Minister replies, “looks good. Loose all that glass, though. Concrete’ll do just fine.”

There’s a story and a dream behind weird architecture. It adds local color and it’s a far cry more inspiring than slab after slab of cold concrete. So while buildings like the Tea Kettle aren’t exactly my cup of, well, tea, I still love them for their adventurous courage. I want them around and I hope the Chinese government will still allow some architects to get weird once in awhile. The weird ones inspire us and give us the courage to take risks with our own work.

Make it big. Make it shiny. Make it pink if you want to. It’s okay with us if it’s weird.