Christmas is over, and every householder worth their salt starts thinking of one of two things. Moving or decorating. It’s an automatic reaction when the decorations come down, the twinkly lights stop twinkling and you suddenly realise the rosy glow the Christmas time spread throughout your dwelling is no longer covering everything. So it is chez nous.
When we bought the house, it had pleasant enough if a tad dark walls in some rooms and a corporate cream colour woodwork throughout. What it didn’t have were additional detailing, viz brown blotches on the architraves and skirting boards. They came later. It would appear that the previous owners had a very distinct budget in mind when they made various alterations and the budget didn’t include either kiln-dried wood or someone who could make the best of cheaper wood. So we now have knots showing through in various places.
Trouble with acrylic-based paints as opposed to the old oil-based is they don’t cover knots, at least not for any length of time. They certainly do if you only want to hide them for as long as it takes to sell a house, but not if you actually want to live in it, you have to hatch a plan B. And sharpish. So anyway I tried undercoating and then glossing over the top which worked for longer than just glossing, but within a short time our little friends were back. So it had to be a rather more industrial solution. Speaking of solutions, I have never found that knotting solutions work all that well, and you certainly have to be careful what you paint on top.
It occured to me that I had used some fairly knotty pine in making some boxing and because it was only in the utility room, had used a coat of aluminium primer with acrylic-based quick-drying undercoat and gloss on top. After two years it still had not shown through, so worth a punt I thought. And it worked, or at least has done so far. OK, so well short of definitive proof, but I have high expectations! But why is it though that you only notice the bit you missed after you have cleared up and cleaned the brushes? There is one little bit of knot still showing on the side of an architrave, how annoying it that?
So having tested the technique on the inside of the bathroom, not a particularly high public traffic area, I will have to put my primer where my mouth is, only metaphorically of course, and attack a knotty, knotty architrave in the hallway. Reading that back, I am bizarrely reminded of ‘Allo, ‘Allo which won’t mean anything to those who don’t watch BBC programs. But try reading it with a fake French accent for yourself…..
Hmm, anyway the trouble is, when you start doing any maintenance decorating or diy, you begin to think whether the time has come for more wholesale change, and in our case, whether the time has come for the corporate cream to give way to brilliant white. Now that’s a whole other kettle of fish or paint kettle or something. For another day, or month.

