Lessons from natural wall paints
Did you know that you could cook your own wall paint from flour? Or from mashed potatoes?
I do not remember when exactly I heard about natural paints for the very first time — was it during my first PDC or wwoofing time at Maria Sperring’s? What I do remember very clearly though is my reaction when first hearing about that: «This is amazing! How is it possible I’d never heard about that before?! I must try!». My enthusiasm back then was as little moderated as when I had discovered permaculture itself.
I thus started some research which led me to discover, without much surprise, that regular industrial paints are toxic as much for the persons applying them as for all of those who will then use the space, possibly for many long years depending on the type of paint. Besides manufacturing and wastes elimination, of course.
Natural paints, on the contrary -at least those I was interested in- were cooked from simple ingredients, little if at all processed. Ingredients I was already using, for some, to nourish my stomach, such as flour (Swedish paint) or potatoes (mashed-potato paint). Way more ecological ingredients than that of industrial paints anyway.
Years after taking my first steps on the exciting path of natural paints, I still feel over-enthusiastic about these experiences of cooking and applying them — which makes it hard for me to stop myself from sharing the many lessons learnt with everyone. I hope this piece inspires you to throw yourself into that thrilling adventure, too!
1. Natural paints are accessible
Cooking and applying your own natural paints requires very little equipment — I personally used my regular cookware for example -, it is really cheap and most likely anyone can do it. It does not require any specific technical skill nor specialised tools — well, except for paintbrushes and paint rollers.
2. Natural paints are a very good way of building our existing skills up to develop new ones.
Cooking, an activity commonly branded as being «for women» (except when talking about «gourmet» cooking which has been cannibalised by men, of course) is generally devaluated, ephemeral and invisible. It also is a skill most of us have developed which tends to be considered strictly utilitarian.
Cooking our own natural paints thus is a good opportunity to make the most of all these years of practice in order to not anymore solely nourish our stomachs but prepare sustainable well-being to spread on our walls (and to proudly show to our visitors and start interesting conversations)!
3. Natural paints are a good way to get to grips with our habitat
Most of us spend most of our lives moving from an impersonal and temporary «home» to the next. And depending on where we land, most of our time to be concerned with leaving as little mark as possible to get our deposit back when we eventually leave.
I don’t know you, but myself, I have a very hard time feeling at home in a standardised place that looks just like any other. Natural paints have been a wonderful way for me to forge a solid bond with my habitat.
Preparing and applying our own natural paints is an excellent opportunity to turn the average place into our very own home. Not only because our walls won’t look like any other, but also because painting is of no consequence even in a temporary place to stay. At least way less than tearing down walls or moving windows!
4. Natural paints teach us to put our expectations into perspective
In our societies, we have been used to one-fits-all, standardised solutions, to choosing from catalogues, to do-this-to-get-that. Which drastically reduces the diversity of choices available for more or less everything. And makes us lose our composure whenever confronted with any uncertainty/nonconformity. Or simply prevents us from appreciating circumstantial variations.
Cooking our own natural paints makes us dependent on many external factors like where we are, the humidity, the time of day, the weather, the ingredients… As for «regular» cooking, the result will vary from one time to the next, as opposed to industrial paint designed to obtain identical results everywhere. This variability shows us the way to letting go of (some of) the final result. It leads us to shift our perspectives and embrace surprises — which, retrospectively, most often turn out to be gifts we should just learn to appreciate.
5. Natural paints progressively teach us to move away from the «everything, straightaway» dominant model
When we enter permaculture through the gardening door, the extended delay between starting something (for example, sowing seeds) and noticing any possible result (for example, a flower) is more often than not extremely frustrating, even discouraging. It doesn’t match at all with how we usually see any activity undertaken within our societies, with the expectation of an instant result on which we can immediately take further action. Sometimes, this gap between industrial civilisation’s and garden’s worlds is hard to overcome.
On the contrary, natural paints represent an excellent compromise between the (almost) instant gratification we are used to and the need to make do with living materials, to which we have to get used to and we need to get to understand the functioning of in order to get as close as possible to the intended result.
6. Natural paints allow us to shift to active learning mode
As for any homemade recipe, it is difficult to provide an extremely precise list of inputs and outputs for each type of natural paint. Again, as always when working with «living» materials, we need to learn how to adjust according to lots of possible variations. Most importantly, we need to accept that we do not have an overly precise operational mode which certainly leads us to a certain result.
Once we have accepted to let go of our demands for standardised results, we can embrace this dynamic of learning by doing, this idea of taking a little risk (that of, maybe, being disappointed) to try something new, observe what happens, how and react to that.
For me, this groping for natural paints experimentations happened to be my actual entry point into permaculture. It lead me to reconnect with another way of being, to develop new ways of learning, thinking and experimenting, and to acquire many skills — including patience.
7. Natural paints are an easy to take baby step that opens lots of doors
As women living in patriarchal societies, it sometimes is difficult — and frightening — to step out of our usual remit and diverse conditionings. It is in itself a form of transgression.
Natural paints acted for me as a good compromise between stepping into action thus breaking my conditionings and sticking to something simple with few consequences. It was way more approachable and less intimidating than felling beams for renovation, while still being very practical.
Taking the chance of ruining my walls — with the terrible idea of having to face this hideous failure every single day! — was a very well-proportioned risk for where I was at when starting with these experiments. It was already quite a challenge for me, with high emotional stakes, while still being doable.
Back then, I for sure would not have dared to knock down a wall in order to cover it back with clay plaster. No more than removing tiles to replace them with an experimental lime slab. Which I eventually did thanks to the confidence I built up during my experiments with natural paints, the successes, and challenges.
I didn’t realise at the time that it was this experience with natural paints that really got me into permaculture. It is only retrospectively, while discussing with a friend, that I realised how critical this adventure proved to be for my growth and understanding of what permaculture actually is. As well as everything I had learnt through that. Eventually, the only missing ingredient to make this learning complete was to tell the story.
I wish that this story inspires you to tell parts of your own herstory through parietal art.
