radiators - paint or not

[safeplanet]

I've been looking at the radiators on best heating. If you had a blue room would you chose a white radiator, a white radiator that you paint the same colour as the walls or a contrasting colour eg navy? The room will have shutters so the white may look ok but not sure if it's too in your face against the blue.

I personally don’t like painted radiators. It puts me off houses on Rightmove tbh.

whereas I prefer a radiator to blend in.

The only issue is that you need to use radiator paint ,otherwise there’s a chance the paint will bubble as it get hot, so it’s unlikely to be an exact match to your wall . Some of our older radiators are repainted white as they discolour over time anyway , and we have a grey one too .

I always paint then the same colour as the walls unless they are really good looking (like Victorian cast iron). On my brick wall I did put a vertical black one as it seemed to go with the slight industrial feel. On the other end of the room that's painted white I put a white vertical one to blend in.

unless you have feature radiators, I prefer them in the same colour as the walls. Lots of places will mix specialist paints in designer shades and there are lots of types of paints suitable for use on radiators, not just those marked as ‘radiator paint’, eg Zinsser Allcoat can be used on radiators and tinted to pretty much any colour you like.

thanks all, they are just bog standard column radiators so i think i will buy white & have them painted with the room

@AndrexPuppy thanks, not heard of that stuff.

Depending on the radiator they can be an arse to paint (priming then painting) unless you get an all in one primer/rad paint. I painted one of mine and maybe I'm just not a very skilled decorator but it looked a bit lumpy bumpy compared to the other sprayed ones I had.

You can get custom spray painted ones colour matched to blend into the wall, although obviously will be more £££. If it's a nice radiator I'd go for one ready painted say a dark blue to go with a light blue wall (and so on) if a matching tone is available.

I also got mine with brass fixings and it's the nicest thing in our house haha

And I totally agree that rads matching walls is way better than a white radiator, don't listen to the haters! White rads will stick out like a sore thumb unless the wall is also white

We used the same emulsion as went on the wall. I know it isn't proper radiator paint but it seems to work and it doesn't cost much.
You may need three coats, first one just takes the 'shine' off. On flat radiators you can use a roller for most of it.

i think i will get them painted, thanks all

I think it depends on the colour on the walls. If you're painting the walls cream/light grey/light neutral type colours, then white rads and skirtings look fine. If you're going dark and strong (navy/dark green/charcoal/deep red etc) then the rads and skirtings look best painted the same colour as the wall (unless as a PP said the rads are particularly beautiful ones in their own right such as Victorian cast iron).