Kitchen Paint

Kitchen paint

Due to the unique requirements of kitchen paint, almost all brands on the market fail to be environmentally friendly or healthy for the room’s occupants. So what are these requirements? Have a think about professional kitchens – do you see any paint? Professional kitchens are composed almost entirely of stainless steel, for durable work surfaces that can easily be wiped down. In the heat and pressure of the kitchen, you simply can’t be worrying about flecks of splashing oil while there’s a backup of orders in the restaurant, or your hungry family at the table. You need kitchen worktops and kitchen cupboards that can be wiped down with harsh chemical sprays, and stainless steel has historically been the ideal solution. However, you can’t simply fit out your flat or family home with a stainless steel professional kitchen. What kind of home environment would that be? Everyone has their dream vision for their kitchen design. A mismatch of the perfect kitchen cabinets, kitchen islands, tiles, etc…but paint always plays a major role in setting that colour scheme. Kitchen paints cover the cabinets, walls and shelves that surround the stove and worktops, in close proximity to all that sautéing and flambéing. Critically then, it’s important that kitchen paints mimic the washable characteristics of stainless steel, which as you can imagine requires a harsh concoction of chemicals and synthetics. 

In order to be an easily wipeable and washable paint, the coating must be ‘film forming’. In other words, it must be water-resistant enough that moisture doesn’t soak right into the surface, allowing the paint to be wiped down easily. Consequently, over the last few decades the paint industry has migrated towards using acrylic (plastic) resins for their bases. You are essentially painting a plastic film on your wall that seals in moisture, but has incredibly high washability. However, the high content of plastics, petrochemicals and formaldehyde in acrylic paints is incredibly damaging to the environment. These also have an incredibly detrimental effect on the Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) of the room. This is because acrylic paints are actually the second largest emitter of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) after car exhausts themselves! VOCs are carcinogenic, so due to the prevalence of acrylic paints, painters/decorators are now 40% more likely to contract lung cancer according to the World Health Organisation. The issue here is easily noticeable: the paint industry has disregarded the health and environmental effects of using synthetic ingredients, in order to make their products as ‘practical’ as possible.

Traditionally, natural paints have presented a poor alternative when it comes to washability. As they’re usually rather powdery, they fail to exhibit the ‘film forming’ properties that allow it to be washable. Instead natural paints tend to absorb any water, making them incredibly difficult to clean.

This is where Graphenstone is breaking the trend, and bringing a revolutionary new product to the market. Our paints are made from 100% natural lime and silicate, but are infused with pure carbon nanotechnology graphene. This technology brings remarkable durability and elasticity never seen before in natural paints, meaning Graphenstone offers the first Class 1 strength natural paints in history. ‘Class 1’ refers to the standard ‘Rub Test’, determining the amount of abrasive pressure a coating with stand before it wears away. The fact that our paints are Class 1 strength means they can easily be washed and wiped down, but retain all the characteristic of a natural paint, with none of the harmful chemicals and plastics so prominent in acrylic paints. Paint your kitchen cabinets with which ever colour ideas you are going for. Match them with your tiles and never worry about backsplash, because these paints can easily be wiped down of any grease. Create your perfect kitchen design with a sustainable, healthy paint, and never worry about difficulty cleaning.

Graphenstone Kitchen paint colours

Traditionally, natural paints have offered a poor colour range when compared to their acrylic competitors – many of our natural competitors offer less than 100 shades. This presents a huge problem for customers, as they don’t have the freedom to create the beautiful matt emulsion finish to match the colour palette of their bathroom tiles, shower curtains and general decor. This can really throw a spanner in the works of your dream bathroom painting project, making the majority of natural paints simply unviable. Here at Graphenstone we’ve refused to follow this trend, offering our bathroom paints in an incredible range of 980 colours according the Natural Colour System (NCS). We have a core range of 72 house colours which can be delivered in 2-3 days. Alternatively, get in touch with us directly to order from the wider NCS 980, or request a bespoke colour. Our white paints, along with primers, are delivered by Next Day Delivery.

Surface preparation for Graphenstone kitchen paints

Graphenstone offers an comprehensive range of high-quality primers, allowing our exterior paints to be applied on all classic substrates in construction, including mortar, brick, concrete and old paints, and similarly our interior paints to work on all classic interior substrates, including plaster, gypsum, old paints, prefabricated plates, unpainted wallpaper, bare brick etc. The substrate itself must be dry, firm, well-adhered and free from any impurities that may hinder the product from setting fully. If the substrate presents algae, mould, fungi or other impurities, it is recommended to do a thorough cleaning, eliminating in its entirety and with specific products for this purpose.

If the substrate has salt deposits, brush and apply Neutralysal Premium. If the substrate contains a high moisture level, apply StopWater Premium diluted 1:1 with water and leave to dry for 24 hours.

If the substrate presents surface cracks, apply Füllmasse Premium for 1-3mm cracks, or Naturglue Premium for cracks 3-10mm. If the substrate presents deterioration of mortar, first remove areas that do not adhere by scraping or pricking and clean up by brushing or plenty of water. Apply Ecoputty Premium for damage of less than 3mm depth, for 3-8mm apply Naturglue Premium with a mesh, and for 8-20mm apply MortarBase Premium and finish with MortarFine Premium.

Application of Graphenstone kitchen paints

Please note our bathroom paints come undiluted. This ensures our pot weights remain low and thus our shipping footprint is as environmentally friendly as possible. Before use, be sure to dilute our paints with 10-15% water according to the labelled instructions, and stir (excluding our 100ml sample pots). Our paints may be rolled, brushed or sprayed according to requirements.

In kitchens, we would recommend the use of our GrafClean product. 

FAQs

For other questions, please refer to the downloadable Technical Data Sheets for the product you are interested in, visit our FAQs section, or email info@graphenstone.co.uk.