Blog

Graeme of Westmount Heritage in North Yorkshire has been working as a decorator for over 35 years but had become disillusioned with plastic exterior paints and modern building materials.

I am not new to the product or production methods of (pine) tar and tar oil, but spending a week at the Nordic Tar Oil Seminar in Mariehamn, Åland ( Finland) showed me how much I still have to discover about this incredible product.

Even though I prefer to analyse linseed paint in its historic context and setting because there are at least a few centuries to work with, that doesn’t mean that I shy away from modern methods and techniques to gain a greater understanding.

This property had a devastating fire which destroyed most of the top floor, but fortunately the story had a happy ending for the owner Anne Marchini .

Every now and again, we come across historic texts which are so apt, they might as well have been written last week. James Gallier’s The American Builder’s General Price Book And Estimater, published in Boston, MA in 1836, is such an example.

This Victorian workers cottage is located in a conservation area and the current owner set about replacing the oversized UPVC windows with wooden sash windows to take the property back to its original historic look. Fortunately there was an old photograph of the cottage to help get as close to the original windows as possible.

Brouns & Co are delighted to be supplying paint to The Scottish Fisheries Museum where preserving the wood and the appearance of their flagship vessel, Reaper, is a top priority.

This year has seen a good flax crop in the UK, and we’ve been out in the fields near Wetherby to watch the harvesting take place.

Tim Semler is using Brouns & Co linseed paints as part of the ongoing project to restore his 120-year-old timber-framed farmhouse and barn, as well as newer buildings which house his bakery business.

This saddlebag style house in the Town of Wake Forest North Carolina was commonly in use as slave housing. This house, however, is a much grander version. It was probably built around 1875, or possibly a little earlier. It is a rare example of post American Civil War housing for the African American working class.