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Distemper Paint

Here at Ingilby Paints we have been hand producing Distemper paints for over 20 years creating bespoke colours for projects all over the UK. Our colours can be seen in many buildings in picturesque villages including Lavenham and Long Melford as well as many other historic properties across Suffolk and East Anglia.

What is Distemper Paint?

Distemper is a generic term encompassing several different coatings. One of the earliest being what is now known as soft distemper. Soft distemper was used as a coating for plaster work and ceilings with its main constituents being chalk and a glue size as its binder. Glue size is usually made from animal skin, bones or horns. Due to this soft distemper had a limited shelf life, with the animal glue likely to turn rancid after a short while.

Although soft distemper has many advantages including good permeability to water vapour it is not durable, washable, or suitable for heavy traffic and this gives way to other binders that help increase distempers resilience and give the former its ‘soft’ name.

Casein, a protein extract from milk, is used as the binder in casein distempers, the forerunner to modern matt emulsions. This gives the resilience needed for a modern breathable coating for internal walls and ceilings.

At Ingilbys we have a formulated casein distemper, based on a traditional Victorian casein resin emulsion, with added boiled linseed oil. This addition gives extra durability and allows for the coating to have a wipeable finish. This is known as our Oil Bound Casein Distemper.

Why use Oil Bound (Casein) Distemper?

Oil Bound Casein Distemper is used when a breathable, traditional coating is required on internal plastered walls and ceilings.

Suitable for substrates including lime render, wattle & daub, gypsum plaster, cement and modern plasterboard as well as over coating on previously emulsioned surfaces.

Oil Bound Casein Distemper has good permeability to water vapour and is to be used as an alternative to modern matt emulsion when a breathable, wipeable, matt finish coating is desired.

What colours are available in Oil Bound (Casein) Distemper?

Here at Ingilby Paints we offer colours from our Colour Cards as well as Colour Creation. We also have access to archived recipes for hundreds of colours spanning our 30+ years of manufacture. These recipes include colours ranging from pastel shades and creams to deep terracottas, yellows, reds and greens using traditional and historic pigments including red, yellow and black oxides of iron, raw and burnt umber and sienna as well as modern pigments and stainers.

Links to our Online Store below

Popular Oil Bound (Casein) Distemper Colours

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