{paint in germany: tips?}
help! i'm looking to paint a few rooms in august and wonder if you can save me the frustration and suggest some good paint (wandfarbe) manufacturers and where they can be found in and around the hannover/hamburg/berlin area. i went to obi (like home depot) last year, and i know of hornbach, but i don't know one paint from the next. i'm looking for a line that is equivalent to say, the american company benjamin moore, not too spend-y, but also it needs to provide decent coverage, not fade in the sun, and be latex paint without too strong of an odor. any suggestions?
Comments
ToyTownGermany.com has been a great resource for me in terms of all things ex-pat. (english speakers living in Germany) Most of my questions have long been answered, so I live off their search feature! Do a search on their chat boards and you'll find a few threads on interior paint - didn't read through them all to see what came of them tho.
a very good brand for white paint is alpina (http://www.alpina-farben.de/) - it should be available at home depots like hornbach and obi.
and i've heard that the paint from schöner wohnen (http://www.schoener-wohnen-farbe.de/trendfarben08/trendfarben.html)(you might know the corresponding magazine) is very good, too - i've seen it at the home depot bauhaus.
ute
and juliette, for the link to toy town.
xo
holly
I've used a dark turquoise from Swing-color (and they mix EVERY Tone u want!) and I'm very satisfied with it. I have no experience with latex paint. For White color I used silicate paint which comparable with lime-white cement paint (don't know the right term...sorry!)
Alpin is a great white paint also
I live in Hannover with my husband and have been renovating here several appartements in the past, sometimes flats for friends and sometimes some own rooms. So when You now move to our city I would like to give you my personal recommendations: I have some good positive experiences in the past with the alpina paint (for a real white colour) and with the dulux paint as well (Feste Farbe and Dispersionsfarbe if you want colours and if you need to buy more paint in exact the same colour). The advantages are: Both paints can be used right out of the can, they don´t drip badly and one coat will be enough to cover. But my last good experience in our own house was with two ecological paint manufactureres who got wonderful colours: Kreidezeit (pale colours with traditional Kalkfarbe) and Lesando (deep colours in clay looking like the strong le-Corbusier-Colours). A material I really never would recommend is Latex because of a former experience of a friend of mine. He has been decorating his bathroom with latex paint. The stench was really horrible and the result wasn´t convincing.
If we need to buy some renovating stuff in town we prefer Hornbach to Obi (Hornbach is cheaper in many products and seems more professional to us). If we want to buy some ecological material we go to Umbau in Hannover Linden. But in this shop it really depends on the salesperson who is there at the moment (sometimes we got some got advice and sometimes we left the shop really dissapointed. Then there was only the possibility to a comfort with a cappuccino at 11a at Küchengarten or Die Bar in the Limmer Straße.) My last recommendation is Boesner Künstlerbedarf at Bornumer Straße in Hannover. They have some inspirating decorating materials (artist´s pigments e.g.)
well, I have been using the SIKKENS Colour System ... anything wholy organic is with Rosner & Seidl Lacke & Lasuren or try KEIM Farben ... these are the best products for interior architects.
Good Luck !
I love your blogs !
Birgit in Augsburg