Paint Issues?

[DollyParsnip]

Went to B&Q to get some paint for our living room, to discover that the 2 years we've spent procrastinating has bitten us on the arse and now the paint has been discontinued. Also discovered that Crown have drastically reduced the colour range of it's Solo paint and that B&Q will stop stocking Dulux paint from the summer.

So, does anyone know if B&Q will start stocking any other brands, and whether it would be worth waiting to see the colours before deciding again? We only want Once / Solo stuff as it's a freshen up job prior to a proper job in a couple of years when we get the place rewired & replastered etc.

I know it's a shot in the dark, but I'm soooooo fed up that we've wasted so much time !

try Homabase?

Homebase I mean

I second - try another shop.
Homebase, wickes, local decorator centre (we have a Johnson's paint centre & one called Glenwoods in our town that I know of)
B&Q are my least favourite DIY store, despite being the closest.

Thank you for your replies! B&Q is an awful shop but at the end of our road which is why we've only looked there but will definitely have a nose about.

As an aside, do Johnson's do a single coat paint? If so, is it any good (all I know about them is that they seem to do "professional" paint). Also, the same for Wickes own brand one coat paint?

Johnstones one coat emulsion
They are decent paints - most of the ones I specify on general jobs are Johnstones or Dulux, I've never tried the one coat stuff though.

one-coats are formulated for convenience. It has to be balanced against other qualities though. IMO unless for some reason you have only 2 hours to paint an entire room, you will do better with a more conventional paint.

Looking at your first post, if you had in mind a particular colour which has now been discontinued, go to a Dulux Decorator's Centre and look at their mix-up colour sample cards. They can mix an enormous range of colours.

For economy, you can use matt white for the mist coat and first coat. It will even out the colour patches and absorbency of the wall so that you need less of your finish colour. It also makes the room look respectable while you are tinkering.

Second PigletJohn, but have you tried a Crown Decorators Centre, we have one near us, they may be able to mix the colour you need .

The one coats are like plaster to put on - really hard work.
And if your doing it to try and cover something, your likely to still need two coats.

Thanks so much for your advice!

We're looking at using the paint to cover wallpaper - usually we would strip it but as we're rewiring & replastering in a few years we've decided to paint instead. We're only really covering it as some of the wallpaper has been hung upside down and it bugs the life out of me . It's really lovely paper too, but I think they ran out and just used up oddments for things like the bay window edges and didn't bother matching.

If we used a Trade or Decorators centre are they open to the public?

Yes.