Painting Victorian coving

[News]

The coving in two rooms in our house is unusual - well, I haven't seen it before. The house is in NE Scotland, and was built around 1880. The coving in the two front rooms downstairs is traditional coving shape, with a concave front, but, in front of the curve, are shapes, like leaves and fleur de lys, so hollow behind. Painting with a brush is an absolute nightmare, and will probably take the rest of my life. Someone decided to paint them brown, and I'm repainting white. Could I spray 'em? With what? I did think about emulsion in a mister, but it would be too thick. Any bright ideas before I top myself?

[NT]

The recommended paint type for intricate coving is distemper. The reason is that it can be washed off with hot water and detergent. Other paint types build up over time, making all the details look very uncrisp, and not nearly as nice. I've never tried spraying distemper, I expect it should work, though it would probably need frequent agitation and several coats if diluted. If you want white, distemper is easy and cheap to make.

NT

[MuddyMike]

Distemper! Now that's something I have not heard of for years. Granddad used to talk about distempering the walls, how do you make it?

Mike

[SS]

Distemper....

[John Rumm]

A HVLP sprayer ought to handle emulsion...

(you would probably want multiple of thinned coats to avoid losing all the detail).

[Geoff Pearson]

Having washed many such cornices (not coving), distemper is best as it does wash off - with a lot of mess. I am very envious of your undercut cornices - well worth hours of effort.

[NT]

...oil bound distemper rather than soft distemper, not the same thing.

NT

[News]

In message , Geoff Pearson writes

Thank you. I confess to not being sure of the difference between cornices and coving :-(

Photos of what I have are at the bottom of this page :

[NT]

NT

[News]

OK, thanks.