Bacteria-killing paint and magnetic wallcovering highlight innovations in surface materials

The usually staid paint and wallcoverings category is still capable of incubating innovation.

Sherwin-Williams recently introduced Paint Shield, the first EPA-registered microbicidal paint that kills virtually all infection-causing bacteria—including E. coli, staph, and VRE—after two hours of exposure on painted surfaces.

Third-party testing has validated Paint Shield’s health claims and allows the paint to be marketed as “antibacterial.” Consequently, Paint Shield could be well suited for a variety of settings where bacteria-related infections are a risk, including healthcare facilities, schools, daycare centers, senior citizen communities, and cruise ships.

Innovation of a different sort is showing up in offices and schools, where walls are often used as collaborative platforms to write on and post work product. IdeaPaint, which makes a premium line of dry-erase paint, kept hearing from customers who were frustrated with magnetic wallcoverings on the market. “They were experiencing a lack of hold and, in some cases, complete product failure,” says Jen Reddy, IdeaPaint’s VP of Marketing.

So the Boston-based supplier came out with PULL, an easy-to-install wallcovering made from magnetically active glass fleece, which offers significantly more magnetic strength and works in tandem with IdeaPaint’s paint line.

PULL’s installation takes several days to complete, as walls must be prepped and primed, the wallcovering cut and mounted, and the dry-erase paint applied, all with drying times of between 12 and 24 hours between each step.