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On the left, the salvaged plank wall structure that was under the cardboard surface we ripped off the kitchen wall this week. In order to support the weight of tiles, it will need to be faced with wallboard by the professionals. All of our walls have this structure underneath, but all the ones we've worked on so far also had a layer of wood fiber board covering it to provide insulation and smoothness. I suppose they didn't think it was worth it for such a short section of internal wall, or didn't want to build the masonry wall out to keep it level with the greater thickness the fiberboard would create. This wall and the other like it, apart from the pencil marks, remind me strongly of some fake salvaged wood 'effect walls' I've seen on Pinterest (not convincingly, mind, but at least the color palette was similar) and so I keep giggling when I see them. I guarantee there are hipsters in Finland who rip down their wallboard and find these walls and then just leave them there open to the air like this because they think it looks cool (they're not treated in any way and have lots of penetrating holes to the cavity in the center of the walls, so... leaving them open is not good for the structure AT ALL. All of this info brought to you by the furious research on midcentury houses, wooden houses, and Finnish WW2 post-war frontmen's houses we've done since June and especially Panu Kaila).
On the right, our bedroom after one coat of clay paint. We've been wanting to have it a color like this for years and years, but the mineral paint just makes it even better. The build up of color is so fun and interesting and tangible when you're working with them, and then the color variations in the matte finish of a mineral paint make it look almost velvety. It's very similar to the experience of painting with milk paint as we did in the dining and livingroom, but traditional milk paint has a more chalky wet consistencey than this, Auro 331 clay paint, which contains castor and canola oil and hence has a smoother feel to work with. The dimensionality of the finished surface is also very similar, but the darker color made it much easier to see the color variation both wet and dry, particularly here in the natural light from the east windows. The colors we used in the living areas were very light, which made it difficult to tell the difference as it was going on and difficult to be sure of even coverage over the white wall surface. Of course, when I say 'even coverage', I don't mean TOO even. The visible brush strokes and color variation are the whole point, although the light spots will be less dramatic after a second coat in this case.
We have a bunch more milk paint mix and I'm indescribably excited to start using it for furniture, but I can't decide on colors until the rooms are more finished anyway. It's hard to chivvy oneself into sanding cabinet doors and removing hinges and un-fun things like that when you have the tantalizing possibility of experimenting with powder pigments still in front of you. Also I know I really SHOULD be experimenting with whether steam will more easily get wallpaper off the crumbly cement facing on the brick masonry walls around the chimney. Nothing is stopping me from doing that except the 2 downstairs radiators that haven't been turned on because parts are missing (?) so it's like 16° (60) on our side of the house right now.
On the right, our bedroom after one coat of clay paint. We've been wanting to have it a color like this for years and years, but the mineral paint just makes it even better. The build up of color is so fun and interesting and tangible when you're working with them, and then the color variations in the matte finish of a mineral paint make it look almost velvety. It's very similar to the experience of painting with milk paint as we did in the dining and livingroom, but traditional milk paint has a more chalky wet consistencey than this, Auro 331 clay paint, which contains castor and canola oil and hence has a smoother feel to work with. The dimensionality of the finished surface is also very similar, but the darker color made it much easier to see the color variation both wet and dry, particularly here in the natural light from the east windows. The colors we used in the living areas were very light, which made it difficult to tell the difference as it was going on and difficult to be sure of even coverage over the white wall surface. Of course, when I say 'even coverage', I don't mean TOO even. The visible brush strokes and color variation are the whole point, although the light spots will be less dramatic after a second coat in this case.
We have a bunch more milk paint mix and I'm indescribably excited to start using it for furniture, but I can't decide on colors until the rooms are more finished anyway. It's hard to chivvy oneself into sanding cabinet doors and removing hinges and un-fun things like that when you have the tantalizing possibility of experimenting with powder pigments still in front of you. Also I know I really SHOULD be experimenting with whether steam will more easily get wallpaper off the crumbly cement facing on the brick masonry walls around the chimney. Nothing is stopping me from doing that except the 2 downstairs radiators that haven't been turned on because parts are missing (?) so it's like 16° (60) on our side of the house right now.
