France, Paint, Chalk Paint, high prices, frustration

My latest project is painting furniture, there is so much good wooden furniture here being thrown away because it is dated, dusty and brown  - much of it in my house waiting to change colour.    I'm thrilled to learn about Annie Sloan paint www.anniesloan.comand Autentico paint, www.autentico-chalk-paint.co.uk.  

These paints paint over everything, even orange varnish no sanding or chemical prep needed, beautiful skin-like texture and lovely colours, I tried some out, would like to buy some.  Okay I'm drooling to buy some right now.

Texture like skin

His and Hers stools, white paint and lightly coloured wax (originally dark worn varnish, paid 3 Euros for both in 'brocante).

 I sloshed some over our industrial metal spiral staircase, and it sticks!  No need for stinky harmful chemical coats!

Dry and Cure...
The trick is to understand that acryllic emulsion type paint takes a short time to dry, but up to 30 days to 'cure', so something that seems to scratch off when you first do it won't later, and in the meantime if you wax it and are careful, you can still use the beautified painted item.

Reproduction chair, left out on pavement  by neighbours,  originally dark brown shiny varnish and tatty dirty grey, painted cloth with red emulsion and wood with home made 'satin' chalk paint mix.  (Teamed with grey will cushion and checked cushion, both from brocante)

Used matt paint and polished with coloured wax, like sweets...

Very waterproof and stain-proof and easy to clean, self-polishing when sat upon

But as usual with good ideas and good products NOT IN FRANCE!

Problem One;  The price of Paint in France

I'm, stunned, I'm SHOCKED to discover the difference in price for paint in England and France.  For example, Dulux paint can be had in England for £15 or £20 for 2.5 litres.  Here, Dulux 'creme de couleur' a satin emulsion, sells for 18 Euros for HALF A LITRE!!!  Four times more expensive in France, WWHHHAAATTT¿????!  Why?  My internet researches reveal only speculation, social charges, taxes...but nothing concrete.  I'm suspicious because glasses are outrageously more expensive in France than in any European country, and there is no Specsavers on the scene, and seems to have much more to do with the purveyors and sellers of glasses earning a good living than anything else..

Problem Two;  Finding the equivalent paint in England (using example Dulux)

So naturally, I set about working out the equivalent Dulux paint in England, to see if anyone would bring me over a 2.5 litre pot for the price of a 0.5 litre one of the same (American) make in France.    I chose Dulux because I had a very bad experience with Luxens paint which fell off my shutters, and even when I'd sanded and primed, failed to stick and soon chipped  off my stairs and banisters (not so chalk-like paint which covers the mess the 'proper paint' left absolutely beautifully).   The guy who sold me this paint did not tell me it was crap.  I found this out from another guy at the same local DIY shop Weldom when he sold me some Dulux, in which case he was prepared to wrinkle his nose at Luxens and say he did not like it as it was 'too elastic' (?).  Anyway, Dulux seems to be voted 'most likely to stick'.

Interestingly, in France some of the Dulux range (but careful, not all) is 'multi surface', so can be used for walls and woodwork.  I presume this means it has more resins and binding agents in it to make it stick.  But in England, ceilings/walls are firmly separated from wood, different products needed in UK, apparently, call it fashion, call it national expectations, call it marketing...

I bumped into an English woman living in France who told me all French paints are 'not as good' as English paints in colour, texture/finish and performance, but was unable to give me evidence to back up this claim, such as the cause (lack of good quality pigments, low resins???).

Problem 3;  The Price of Annie Sloan paint in France

Well, given that French paint is so madly priced, the Annie Sloan stuff doesn't look so expensive by comparison.    In England it sells for about £18 (or about 22 Euros) a litre.    It has good quality pigments and is a special high-resin recipe, so fair enough.  I found a French shop which supplies Annie Sloan paint, and their paint was indeed 22 Euros for a whole litre.  Or so I though.  In fact it was 22 + 10 Euros, making it 32 Euros, and as the flat rate for delivering 7 tins was 35 Euros, from Brittany (??) I make that approx 37 Euros a tin, getting on for twice the price in England, where some shops offer free delivery over £100 (no such luck here) and standard delivery is £5.

I was really prepared to support Annie Sloan, I like what she's doing artistically, ethically, philosophically, and I appreciate the initiative work and skill she's put in to the product, and the colours appeal, but I can't pay twice the price for the same product because it's in France, I just can't.  Even though the nice lady at the shop (www.lescouronnessauvages.com) explained it was the cost of transporting the paint into France and the cost of running her shop which put the price up.  She said I should take it up with Hollande, but what with all the problems he has I doubt if he will prioritise my chalk paint trials.

Problem 4;  Anomalies in paint prices in France - in most shops you  pay 4 times more for the same product bought in bulk elsewhere...has nobody noticed?

I  decided to make my own similar paint (no doubt not as good) as I couldn't buy it.   This is tricky, because no-one lets you know what's in their paint apart from Auro www.auro.co.uk paints.  Sadly ecological paints like Auro don't stick to furniture in the same way, I tried, and created powder.  So I bought a tin of Dulux 'archi TECte', for 20 Euros for HALF a litre, which promised high resin content, I'm guessing quality pigments and matt finish (not popular here and difficult to find) - it became obvious to me that chalk and lime paint sticks to everything if and only if the acryllic/emulsion paint you use if of good enough quality.  Now at least I could experiment.    I made some chalk-like paint by mixing one part slaked lime with this paint (10 Euros for 20 kgs) and got something which worked and which I liked.
This Dulux paint is about 40 Euros a litre,  BUT if you buy 10 litres (from Leroy Merlin) it's a staggering 10 Euros a litre, yes, take your pick, 40 Euros a litre or 10 Euros a litre for the same product.  Taxes, social charges, or commercial toss???

Problem 5;  lack of transparency on paint ingredients

It has become clear to me that we as customers do not have access to the information we need to make a judgement on the paint  (for a specialised project for example), but must make do with marketing packages for purpose.  We can get scant and varied info on whether a paint is 'no' or 'low' VOC emmisions, as dictated by the EU, but not about other possible ingredients and their possible downsides.  Commercial competition is interfering with human creativity and freedom of choice.  The one exception to this I know about is AURO www.auro.co.uk who are happy to list all their ingredients, hooray.  I would buy their paint but have not yet found equivalent to chalk and lime paint, and my home made attempts ended in powder, I guess they already have calcium carbonate and slaked lime in them, and fewer synthetic resins necessary for universal sticking.  But I'm using eco paint for everything I can (walls, windows, ceilings...).

Problem 6;  price cut exploitation, high price exploitation

I am not a lover of cut-price because faced with a tempting price, and the urgings of our society to do our duty and find the lowest price,  we forget to ask why the price is low.    For example, why are these carrots so cheap, when so much labour has gone into bringing them to us?  Could it be that the intensive farmer is treating his illegal refugee labourers like animals, beating them, paying them next to nothing, making them work 12 hour days with no break and 'housing' them in animal barns with no heating or water?

I like prices to reflect the real cost of a product and a reasonable wage for all those working on it, preferably not too many salespersons.

However, in the case of unusally high prices (and hazy explanations), I have to question who is being exploited?

Current options;  Home-made or Annie Sloan/Autentico from England

I'm desperate to continue my chalk-like paint project and maybe even turn it into a career which gives me a purpose in life and a label (What do you do?   I'm a furniture decorator).  So here are my options;

Make my own, either by buying in bulk at 10 Euros a litre, or researching English paint and finding an equivalent and begging someone to bring some over.   I can get wonderful ecological paint pigments from Calca Del Brenta www.lacalcedelbrenta.itAuro www.auro.co.uk Biofa biofapaint.co.uk and perhaps I can try beetroot, ash, soil??  All this will take a long time and I will make a lot of mistakes which would be avoided with the pre-tested products which I would prefer to support.  And I'll never be sure it's quite as good.

See if a sales outlet in England would offer me a better price including delivery on Annie Sloan or Autentico, or try to organise a friend to bring some back from a shop near him or her.

I'm currently pursuing the Autentico chalk and lime paint option, they do a special strong version (velvet) which would be good for my kitchen cabinets.    I even got to see some paint and charts and buy a sample in my small home town (whereas Paris, capital city in the country of origin of this type of paint technique, has NOTHING).  I emailed Autentico, and man from Autentico replied really quickly, and offered to have some sent over from Holland for 12 Euros, and promised to send me a colour chart. The chart never arrived (French post?) and the man from Autentico has not yet got back to me, I keep trying.  I'll try the Oxford shop of Annie Sloan next.


WHY IS EVERYTHING SO BLOODY COMPLICATED IN FRANCE?

HOW ON EARTH CAN FRANCE EXPECT TO COMPETE IN EUROPE WITH THIS ATTITUDE?

HOW DOES ANYONE MANAGE TO RUN A BUSINESS HERE?

WHAT IS FRANCE DOING TO ENCOURAGE SENSIBLE AND NECESSARY INNOVATION?

YES THIS IS A RANT

But please remember I have the same thing with every good product I discover and try to buy and every service (fences,gates, trellis, garden furniture and innovations such as grow-bags,  acryllic splashbacks, a competent and available plumber, ditto doctor, education,justice, ..and on and on)  and so, forgive me.