With a wealth of experience and expertise in the education field, Johnstone’s is well qualified to recommend and provide paint solutions that meet the specific needs of schools and colleges.
When planning a decorating scheme for an educational building, there are a number of key points that should be considered.
Choose Colour to Inspire Learning
The creative use of colour in decorating schemes can create inspired and highly effective learning environments for students. Colour can dramatically affect the look and feel of a room and can therefore evoke certain moods and feelings. By careful selection, designers can use colour to subtly influence moods. The warm side of the colour spectrum provides happy lively colours – reds, oranges and yellows – while the cool side gives us calming, sombre colours – greens, blues and purples.
The effective use of colour in different learning environments can result in the required mood, for example, lively discussion in a classroom, quiet concentration in a library or a high energy atmosphere in a leisure facility.
Within the education section of our website are suggested colours and colour combinations for different zones within buildings for primary, secondary and further education.
Colour for Access
Colour is also essential in ensuring that partially sighted people can gain access to and easily navigate around public buildings. The building regulations Approved Document M provides guidance in line with the Disability Discrimination Act and highlights the need for critical surfaces to be decorated in colours and shades that have contrasting percentage points of light reflectance value (LRV).
The LRV of a colour relates to the amount of visible light that is reflected and how much is absorbed. It is recommended that there is a difference of 30 points between colours on critical surfaces such as walls and floors.
Specify Perfect Products
When selecting what type of paint products to use, it is essential to consider the specific needs and requirements of the building. Schools, colleges and universities are subject to high levels of traffic and surfaces are frequently knocked and scraped, so paints and coatings need to be extremely durable and easily cleaned and maintained.
Also, the amount of time available for decoration is generally restricted as classrooms and other facilities are in constant use during term-times. To minimise classroom downtime, it is recommended that quick-drying, low odour water-based paints are used, ensuring that application is fast and achieved with minimal disruption.
Suggested Products
Johnstone’s Acrylic Durable Matt
Johnstone’s Acrylic Durable Matt has been formulated to provide outstanding durability in even the most challenging of environments, with no compromise on performance. A tough robust paint product, it withstands the rigours of many of today’s demanding cleaning regimes.
Meeting the highest official scrub resistance standards of Class 1 of the ISO 11998 scrub test, which is based on the effects of 200 simulated scrubs, Acrylic Durable Matt retains its true matt finish and colour. Tougher than a standard Vinyl Matt, it will extend the maintenance cycle of any redecoration project.
Johnstone’s Aqua Water Based Gloss
Johnstone’s Aqua Water Based Gloss and Undercoat are technologically advanced and use revolutionary trim systems that integrate the advantages of water based and solvent based paints. The low odour and low taint qualities provided by the Aqua system allow this product to be used in almost every situation and their quick drying properties mean that rooms can be back in use within a matter of hours.
Being water based and low in volatile organic compounds (VOCs) mean that Johnstone’s Aqua Water Based products conform to EU VOC legislation.
Ensure Minimal Maintenance
When specifying products and colour schemes, it is important to consider maintenance implications. Being subject to high levels of traffic, surfaces are naturally subject to wear and tear and may require touching-up from time-to-time. When formulating decorating schemes, we suggest that you rationalise the number of colours and finishes colours wherever possible. For example, use a consistent product for trim throughout the building which means that only one product needs to be retained for maintenance, therefore saving you storage space and money.
Technical and Colour Advice from Johnstone’s
The education section of our website is designed to provide you with some immediate guidance on decoration for education environments. It highlights key considerations for specific situations, recommends suitable products for different surfaces, environments and suggests colour schemes to create the right environment.
If you would like more help and advice or a tailored approach for your project, our dedicated specification team is here to help. They can provide an initial on-site consultation or work from plans and project briefs. Following their investigations they can provide a bespoke written specification and colour scheme document incorporating suggestions from the Johnstone’s palette of 15,000 colours.
Call 01924 354156 to speak with our Technical Specification & Colour Consultants.
Or click here to download our brochure "Paint Solutions for Education".