๐ 827 Burnt Umber has no Benjamin Moore code. Nearest: Cinnamon Slate 2113-40, one shade darker on the cloth.
- ๐จ Jacquard's own swatch of 827 samples to #7B5E5A, a dusty rose-brown, not the dark chocolate the name suggests. A retailer chart shows it redder (#7F4048). Jacquard's image is the better source; confidence moderate.
- ๐ซ Benjamin Moore Cinnamon Slate 2113-40 (#897475, LRV 20) is the closest chip by hue, a touch lighter and greyer. Mink 2112-10 (#52443C) is the darker warm cousin.
- โ ๏ธ It is a transparent dye going onto grey polyester, so the wall will read darker and greyer than any chip, nearer Mink than Cinnamon Slate. The Sunday strip is the only true swatch; hold BM chips against it in the room light.
- ๐งฑ The hard-wall pick in the guide is Urbane Bronze SW 7048 (#54504A). A burnt umber cloth next to it reads warmer and rosier than the renders, which assumed black. If you want the cloth to match the renders, stay with 829 Black.
Cinnamon Slate 2113-40
Jacquard swatches
๐ "Spray" means an electric paint sprayer. Pour the mix in, pull the trigger, it comes out as a fine mist like hairspray.
๐ซ Why not a brush or roller
- A brush or roller pushes liquid into the weave and fills the holes. The cloth seals and the wall starts reflecting treble. Spraying lands tiny droplets on the threads and leaves the holes open.
๐ซ The tool, two options
- Option 1, HVLP sprayer (recommended): a handheld electric gun with a cup underneath, about $100 to $180 at Home Depot. HVLP = high volume, low pressure: a built-in turbine blows air through the nozzle and turns the liquid into mist. The Wagner Flexio series is the standard one. Use its fine-finish (small) nozzle, flow knob near minimum, pattern set to a wide fan.
- Option 2, a $15 garden pump sprayer: because the mix is as thin as water, a 1 gallon hand-pump sprayer with the nozzle screwed to its finest cone mist works too. Jacquard sells its own spray can for exactly this. More even than you would think, cheaper, slower, droplets a bit bigger. Fine for the test strip and acceptable for the walls if you keep it light.
๐ช The motion
- Fill the cup with the mix, strained through a mesh cone so nothing clogs.
- Stand 10 to 12 inches from the wall. Start the spray off the edge of the cloth, sweep across at walking pace, stop past the other edge. Never start or stop on the cloth; that is where drips come from.
- Next pass overlaps the last one by half. Work the wall top to bottom in horizontal bands.
- The first pass should look too thin and patchy. Good. Walk away for 30 to 60 minutes.
- Repeat. Second and third passes even the tone out. Stop when it reads even; you are tinting, not painting.
- Rinse the gun with warm water straight after; the AirFix mix hardens inside it.
๐ฅ See it once
Wagner Flexio at Home Depot
Pump sprayer at Home Depot
๐ The reviews are right about one thing: Dye-Na-Flow is acrylic, and too much of it films. Neither product has data on woven cloth. Test both head to head.
โ๏ธ What each one really is
- ๐งด Dye-Na-Flow: pigment in a thin acrylic binder. Sprayed diluted it soaks into the fibre and leaves the holes open. Brushed or flooded it builds a film like any acrylic. Jacquard's own forum moderator warns it goes "stiff and crunchy" on absorbent textured fabric unless diluted about 20%. That is the review complaint, and it is an application failure, not a property of the thin coat.
- ๐ชจ SonoKote: relabelled Romabio mineral paint, marketed as acoustically transparent. Its lab test was done on bare 1 inch felt panels, a thick porous body where a surface coat matters little. It dries to a washable eggshell film. No test on a woven polyester face cloth, which is what you have.
๐ฏ Why the pick is still Dye-Na-Flow, confidence moderate
- The only peer-reviewed data on painted cloth over an absorber (Internoise 2022) found thin fabric paint and dye kept the absorption; film-forming paints cut it. Thin acrylic fabric paint is the category Dye-Na-Flow sits in.
- SonoKote's claim rests on a different substrate. On a thin weave a mineral film has nowhere to hide.
- Strongest case for SonoKote: it was built and tested for acoustic surfaces and Dye-Na-Flow was not. If both are misted thin, they may perform the same, and SonoKote covers in fewer passes.
๐งช Settle it Sunday with the same test on both
- Three scrap strips: untreated, Dye-Na-Flow 20% diluted misted 2 coats, SonoKote or Romabio misted thin 1 coat (never brushed).
- Dry overnight. Breath test: blow through each against your palm; any strip that pushes back harder than the untreated one has closed the weave.
- Hiss test: play pink noise from a phone speaker, hold each strip over it, listen for the top end dulling. Record with a second phone 6 inches away and compare the 4 to 8 kHz level in a free RTA app. Within 1 dB of untreated = pass.
- Rub with a white cloth, flex, look at sheen under the cove light. Pick whichever passes all four; if both pass, Dye-Na-Flow for the softer hand.
The one thing that is not in doubt: the mistake is thickness, not brand. Whichever wins, mist it.
๐ The one product: Dye-Na-Flow 829 Black, 32 oz quart
- ๐ค The schematics show the wall cloth as near-black charcoal next to Urbane Bronze hard walls. The build guide (order line Anton #6, step 2.2.1) specifies exactly this: Jacquard Dye-Na-Flow, colour 829 Black, 32 oz, thinned with water to charcoal. There is no separate "charcoal" bottle; black plus water is the charcoal.
- ๐ Dharma sells every colour on one page. This link preselects 829 Black 32 oz; check the dropdown reads "32 oz. / 829 Black" before adding to cart.
- ๐ข How many: order 1 quart now for the Sun Oct 4 test strip, then the rest. The guide budgets 8 quarts (2 gal) for 330 sq ft because coverage on this cloth is unpublished; the test quart sets the real number, likely 4 to 8.
- ๐งช Plus AirFix 8 oz, one bottle per 2 gal of paint.
Dye-Na-Flow 829 Black 32 oz
AirFix 8 oz
Build guide, step 2.2.1
๐จ It is one paint plus one additive plus water. You mix it yourself, then spray it.
Dye-Na-Flow is the colour. AirFix is a few teaspoons of catalyst so it cures on the wall without an iron. Water thins it so the weave stays open. That is the whole mix.
๐งช The mix, per 32 oz bottle of black
32 oz Dye-Na-Flow 829 Black
+ 6 to 8 oz water (about 20%)
+ 6 teaspoons AirFix (Jacquard's rate is 3 tsp per 16 oz)
Stir, strain into the sprayer, use within 6 hours.
- โฑ๏ธ AirFix starts the clock. Mix only what you will spray that session.
- ๐ค Four bottles make about a gallon of sprayable mix, enough for 330 sq ft in 2 to 3 thin coats.
- โซ Want charcoal not black: add more water on the scrap strip until the tone is right, or cut in 820 Pearl Grey.
๐ Buy
- 4 ร Dye-Na-Flow 829 Black 32 oz, $35.25 each
- 1 ร AirFix 8 oz, $31.49 (an 8 oz bottle covers a gallon of paint with room to spare)
- 1 ร HVLP sprayer if the studio does not own one. A Wagner Flexio class gun is enough; a fine-finish tip, 1.3 to 1.5 mm, mists best.
- Paint strainers (cone mesh), distilled water, measuring cup and teaspoons, nitrile gloves, N95 or P100 mask, painter's plastic and tape, drop cloths.
- One scrap of the same polyester cloth, or a hidden corner, for the test.
Dye-Na-Flow Black
AirFix
๐งญ How to do it
- ๐งช Test strip first. Mix a small batch (8 oz paint, 2 oz water, 1.5 tsp AirFix). Spray a scrap or hidden corner in 2 thin passes. Let it dry overnight. Blow through it, rub it with a white cloth, flex it. Open weave, no rub-off, still soft = go.
- ๐งน Prep the room. Vacuum the cloth. Mask track, trim, outlets, floor, bar, piano. Open doors, run a fan out of the room.
- ๐ฅฃ Mix one bottle at a time per the recipe above. Strain into the gun cup.
- ๐ซ Set the gun to its finest mist, low flow. Hold 10 to 12 inches off the wall, keep moving, overlap passes by half.
- ๐ซ๏ธ Coat 1, light. It will look thin and uneven. That is correct. Do not chase coverage; a wet coat seals the weave.
- โณ Dry 30 to 60 minutes between coats (fan helps).
- ๐ซ๏ธ Coats 2 and 3 the same way until the tone is even. Stop as soon as it is.
- ๐ Cure. Touch dry in an hour, leave it alone for 72 hours, full strength in about a week. No wiping until then.
- ๐งผ Clean the gun with water right away; AirFix mix hardens in it.
โ ๏ธ Mistakes that cost absorption
- Heavy wet coats. The highs die first and you cannot undo it.
- Skipping the water. Straight Dye-Na-Flow sprays fine but sits thicker on the fibre.
- Mixing all four bottles at once. Half of it will gel before you reach it.
Sources: Jacquard AirFix instructions, Dye-Na-Flow, the Q&A page.