What’s in our paint, where our ingredients come from and where it is made
Ingredients and where they come from are at the root of why and how we make our paint. A generous use of a humble, clean and lightly travelled group of ingredients, using hands and humans for other humans’ health.
I believe if we nourish ourselves at home, then life can only be better. We use a bio-based binder (sometimes called plant-based), rather than the usual acrylic or vinyl. It is made from simple, raw ingredients including sugar, bio-ethanol and vegetable oil produced from waste crops.
We manufacture our paint in our own manufactory in East Sussex. Our dolomite and calcium carbonate fillers come from Cornwall and the remainder of our ingredients are mostly mineral based and natural. We have one preservative - because it is necessary, but it is the cleanest and smallest amount we can use.
Our paint has the highest breathability and trace or low VOC’s only. And we share all of this information happily.
The right ingredients sourced well and as locally as possible matters in food. It also matters in fashion. And I hope it matters in the world of ‘interiors’. As a business and a person, I draw from the great knowledge of the Slow Food movement. The complex nature of local, organic, less meat, more veg. No packaging and definitely no grapes from Chile (unless you live in Chile).
And by applying these principles to how and what we make our paint with, it makes hard choices easy and morally easy choices hard.
I have always taken the approach to avoid ‘preaching’ or claiming. I think you can back yourself into an unpleasant corner and perhaps take your eye off what is important.
For us it is making the best paint possible in our view of what this is - local, mostly unprocessed, minimal preservatives and good materials. Definitely no fungicide, no ammonia, no petro-chemical binder (acrylic/plastic) and very definitely not travelling the world to get to us. Our titanium dioxide is sourced from the UK – not further afield. This is extremely important, as other manufacturing countries contribute to water pollution. These choices also mean good, clean smelling paint which, once you have smelt it, raises so many questions about what paint should smell like.
And we happily share this information. It would be torturous to take the opposite approach.
All paint is made from a combination of filler, solvent, resin/binder, pigments, and extra additives. We then choose what the combination is and where it comes from. I think a recipe should read simply – easy, understandable, well sourced ingredients and as clean as it can be.
Then we keep our eyes and our research heads on the future – always improving, always making it cleaner and better – as soon as we can.
