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HC-80 Bleeker Beige

The warmest of the medium toned neutrals, is HC-80 Bleeker Beige. While it can be considered a taupey beige, it carries a hint of gray to create a soft, subtle beige. This pairs well with creams and off whites, as well as warmer, more traditional colours like reds, olives and burnt oranges. It’s also a colour that backdrops mahogany or reddish undertone wood furniture well!

OC-15 Baby Fawn

OC-15 Baby Fawn and HC-173 Edgecomb Gray are one in the same! This historical colour also found in the off-whites, is adeptly placed in both. It’s one of the darkest off-whites you’ll find in the off-white section, but maintains a light-to-medium tone within the historical colours. Truer to the name OC-15 Baby Fawn, in my opinion, is an ever so slightly flesh-pink tone you’d expect to see from a baby fawn indeed! It’s a highly versatile greige; a soft, milky beige, that creates a blend of warmth and familiarity. These factors lend it to be a popular resale home colour.

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CC-490 Stone Hearth

CC-490 Stone Hearth is a slightly darker neutral that leans a little toward the beige side. Having said that, light direction, and the amount of light in a space can affect this colour significantly. In Northern or Eastern facing rooms, it may draw on the gray side of the colour, whereas Southern or Western facing rooms will highlight the warm beige undertone. Conversely, lots of light will showcase a mid-tone depth, where the colour can become significantly darker in minimally lit spaces. This medium tone neutral is an ideal backdrop for muted shades, of all colour spectrums, as it doesn’t lean too heavily toward a green or red undertone.

HC-172 Revere Pewter

For the longest time, HC-172 Revere Pewter has been Benjamin Moore’s most popular colour! It’s a tried and true neutral to the core. It’s a perfect blend of beige and gray, to create a ‘greige’. With a slight green undertone (if any), it pairs well with traditional browns and warm tones, but also just as well with warm grays. The blend of different colours in this hue, allow it to go grayer in cooler lighting, but picks up the warmth in warmer lighting.

OC-28 Collingwood

Also part of the off-whites, this transitional greige, leans to the lighter and grayer scale of the neutrals. With a fairly neutral undertone as well, it makes for a versatile colour for throughout the home. It compliments the in-trend grays, while maintaining a good balance with more traditional dark brown furniture. It’s a friendly and elegant shade of gray that feels inviting yet fresh in many spaces.

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CC-394 Boulevard

One of my favourite neutrals that falls under a greige, is the CC-394 Boulevard. It has a slight pink undertone with a dash of yellow that creates a modest mix! This creamy gray pairs well with other neutrals and stronger pops of colour. Whether its furniture or accessories that are dark, light or even metallic, it gracefully backdrops many different hues.

2111-50 Stone Harbour

This trendy colour is a mix between the warmth of CC-394 Boulevard and the 2017 colour 2112-50 Stormy Monday. Stemming from a brown-gray, it captures the warmth from the brown, but predominantly leans towards a gray. This balanced colour is also a fantastic medium neutral tone for a transitional style, that merges the browns and grays seamlessly. This violet undertone gray looks grayer under cool lighting, and warmer under warm temperature lighting, like South or West facing areas. 

Stormy Monday

As part of the 2017 colour trends, this medium tone gray is a sober and modern colour for updated styles. The mix of blue and red undertones, gives the impression of a purple undertone gray, but coordinates better with cooler grays and red-undertone browns. Mixing pattern and contrast, makes this colour come alive, while layering similar neutrals like whites and lighter grays creates a streamlined and sleek impression.

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HC-170 Stonington Gray

Stonington Gray is arguably one of my favourite neutrals. While it undoubtedly falls into the grays, it’s one of the most neutral and true grays Benjamin Moore has, to offer! It’s mix of blue and green undertones, allows for a more natural gray, rather than an exclusively cold gray. While HC-169 Coventry Gray is worth mentioning as a close runner up, it’s certainly darker than the Stonington Gray and typically doesn’t assimilate in dimly lit spaces as well. The HC-170 Stonington Gray pairs well with crisp whites to create a modern impression or warmer whites to soften the grays. Most importantly it coordinates flawlessly with charcoal grays like HC-168 Chelsea Gray or HC-166 Kendall Charcoal. 

2121-40 Silver Half Dollar

While this colour could barely be considered a neutral, the strong blue undertones in this colour create a fresh and crisp gray that is in trend currently. It coordinates well with contrasting bold colours, and similar tone grays. It may perform better, to cool down a strongly lit Southern or Western exposed area, whereas the same undertone would be intensified in Northern or Eastern exposed spaces. It coordinates well with contrasting bold colours, and similar tone grays.

Goldilocks only had three options to choose from in her story, but there are 10 beautiful and perfectly neutral mid-toned colours to fulfill your own colour story!

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The post Top 10 Benjamin Moore Mid-tone Neutrals (warm to cool) appeared first on The Paint People.

7 Steps to Painting a Tile Instead of Replacing It

Follow these basic steps to get a long-lasting painted finish on any floor tile.

1. Make Sure the Area is Well Ventilated – Open the windows and use fans whenever possible.
   
2. Clean the Tile & Grout Lines – Thoroughly cleaning the tile and grout is crucial to the success of the project. Ese water, a mop, and a brush to clean the entire surface with a product like TSP.
   
3. Apply a Coat of Bonding Primer – Ceramic tile is usually glazed. A bonding primer offers the adhesion properties needed for the paint to endure the wear and tear on the floor. We recommend StixTM Waterborne Bonding Primer from Insl-X. It’s a low-odor product that bonds to hard-to-coat surfaces and cures in even lower temperatures. Coat the tile and grout in small sections and let it completely dry.
   
4. Apply the First Coat of Paint – Go with a heavy-duty paint designed for floors. You can use most types of paint, but oil-based and epoxy paints offer the best adhesion and durability. Paint the floor as you would any floor.
   
5. Drying Time – Let the paint dry for at least two days. This step is important because many people are in a hurry and they won’t let the paint dry for long enough. Painting glazed tile means doing everything you can to maximize adhesion. Recoating too soon can reduce the bond with the primer.
   
6. Apply the Second Coat – Let it dry for two days also.
   
7. Apply a Urethane Top Coat – Any floor paint must stand up to lots of wear and tear. A polyurethane topcoat, in the finish of your choice, helps the painted floor last longer. For best results, apply up to three coats of polyurethane finish.

If you liked this post, check out our recent article on the Benjamin Moore 2019 colour trends we’re most excited about.

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Stay Ahead of the Design Trends Curve

Even if you follow your own design instincts and direction, it always helps to know what’s happening on the street. It can help you develop your own ideas, or show you what you want to avoid.

5 Interior Design Trends for 2019

Without further ado, here are the design trends we’ve identified for 2019.

1. Benjamin Moore Paint Colour of the Year – The richness of recent Benjamin Moore Colours of the Year, including 2018’s Caliente and 2017’s Shadow, made then well suited for accent walls. But the 2019 Colour of the Year, Metropolitan AF-690, will work in entire living rooms, bedrooms or even whole-house applications.
2. Floral Patterns – Whether it’s in the fabric of a piece of furniture, or on the wall in paper designs, floral patterns are so 2019. And we mean just about anything floral, from subdued tones as a backdrop to bold colour patterns as a focal point.
3. Bold Backsplashes – While the black and white kitchen is in the midst of a long run of popularity, it’s time to open up more opportunities for colour and patterns. The backsplash is it.
4. Millennial Pink & Emerald Green Are Out for Whole Rooms – Don’t get us wrong, we love millennial pink and emerald green. But they seem to have been part of ‘interior design trends’ since the start of the century. Time to change all that. They’ll make great accent colours in a Metropolitan-coloured room.
5. Get Acrylic – From furniture to kitchen countertops, acrylics are on the rise. Clear acrylic furniture is popular for smaller places, like all those downtown Toronto condos. And newer resins make acrylic countertops durable enough to be an option in the kitchen.

Curious to find out more about Metropolitan AF-690? Check out our last blog post Introducing Benjamin Moore’s Colour of the Year for 2019.

The post 2019 Interior Design Trends Your Clients Will Love appeared first on The Paint People.

Staging a home is like marketing it. You present the house in the best way possible to improve how fast, and for how much, it sells. Marketers will tell you that the secret to good marketing is to highlight what’s different about what you’re trying to sell.

So if every other house on the market is painted in whites and beiges, what should you do when staging your home?

Wall Paint Colours that Help Stage Your Home

If you were able to find paint colours that weren‘t bland, and unlike what buyers see in other homes, then your home will have an advantage over the rest.

Here are just a few wall paint colour suggestions that will add unique style, while not being too bold for your buyers.

Benjamin Moore – Come Sail Away

This pale turquoise works well in a variety of living room decors, so you may not need to change anything else in the room. In colour psychology, turquoise is said to create emotional balance and stability.

Benjamin Moore – Lemon Meringue

As delicious looking as the name implies, Lemon Meringue goes well with wood, marble or granite countertops in modern or traditional kitchens.

Benjamin Moore – Shadow

A former Benjamin Moore colour of the year (2017), Shadow continues to attract fans. We’ve included it here to prove that even darker shades can work for home staging. When used on an accent wall, Shadow can add depth and dimension to just about any room in the house.

If you would like more paint colour suggestions and staging tips for your home, call or visit us here at The Paint People.

The post Wall Paint Colour Suggestions to Avoid ‘Bland’ When Staging Your Home appeared first on The Paint People.

But painting the kitchen cabinets isn’t like painting the walls. Before you start, filling holes and cracks in walls is a relatively easy fix. But if the wood of your kitchen cabinets is cracked, warped or badly chipped, it may need to be replaced.

Choosing Colours for Painting Your Kitchen Cabinets

At least as much as any room, you have lots of leeway for paint colours in the kitchen. While most kitchens tend to stay lighter and brighter, the recent trend to two-tone kitchens offers the option of using colour combinations too. Houzz recommends Benjamin Moore’s North Sea for lower cabinets and their Meadow Mist for uppers.

How to Paint Your Kitchen Cabinets

1. Protect the kitchen

Cover floors, furniture, and appliances with drop cloths, paper and/or cardboard so paint doesn’t get on them.

2. Take apart cabinets and drawers

Take the facings off drawers and remove cabinet doors. Remove the hardware, including handles, pulls, hinges, latches and knobs. Mark where the doors and drawers came from on inside surfaces of each and keep the hardware organized.

3. Clean all the surfaces to be painted

Kitchen cabinets take a beating from spills and grease. This job deserves a proper cleaner (dish detergent would do) and a strong sponge.

4. Sand

Use a fine grit paper to sand all the surfaces to be painted. Make sure to thoroughly wipe the surfaces clean after sanding. You’re just trying to prepare the finish for the coats of paint, so no need to sand it clean to the bare wood.

5. Prime the surfaces

Apply a coat of paint primer to the painting surfaces. An oil-based or shellac-based primer will help stop the old surface from showing through.

6. Sand between coats

Lightly sand the surfaces with a fine grit paper between coats of primer and paint.

7. Apply a top coat

This is your kitchen. Like we said, kitchen surfaces are exposed to more than their fair share of dirt, grease, steam and spaghetti sauce. If you will ever use a premium paint, like Benjamin Moore Advance, now’s the time.

8. Apply a second coat

The second coat will ensure consistent paint colour and offer added protection for your cabinets and drawers.

9. Install your ‘new’ cabinet doors and drawers!

After the paint has dried thoroughly, replace the handles and knobs, and reinstall the doors and drawers. If you want to make your mini-reno look even more like a full one, look for new cabinet hardware. It’s amazing the difference a different style of knobs and handles will make.

For more advice on painting kitchen cabinets, drop into your nearest The Paint People location.

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But, especially in the bathroom and kitchen, where moisture can have an effect, painting the ceiling is an important part of redecorating any room.

Here are just a tips to make sure you know what to do when it’s time to paint the ceiling.

1. Pick Your Colour

Most people opt for white ceilings. But the characteristics of your room might make other colours a better choice. If you want to make a room with high ceilings feel a little more intimate, think about painting the ceiling in a darker colour.

Large rooms can give you the opportunity to get creative with a different shade of your wall colour.

2. Get a Work Platform

To help reduce the strain on your arms, neck and back, try using a work platform. It will help you get closer to the ceiling and make painting it that much easier. Ladders can work, but you’ll be constantly climbing up and down them. Extension poles help, but they put you far away from the surface you’re painting and they take a little extra muscle. You may still need some extension even on a work platform.

3. Prepare the Room & Ceiling

You should always paint your ceiling before your walls. Ceiling paint can drip on walls and you don’t want that to happen after you’ve painted the walls. But there are other advantages too. Unlike when you paint your walls, preparing to paint the ceiling means everything in the room must be covered to protect against paint drips and splatter. So if you start with your ceiling, your room will be fully protected for the entire paint project.

If you’re only painting the ceiling, tape off the tops of the walls to protect them against the ceiling paint. Apply a coat of primer. This is especially important on the ceiling because it’s more susceptible to moisture seeping down from the floors or attic above.

4. Paint a Cut-Line

Paint rollers are not able to reach into the corners between the ceiling and walls and you’ll need to ‘cut in’ the edges of the ceiling with paint using a brush. But not any brush will do. Use a trim brush, with paint bristles tapered to one end, of 2 or 2.5 inches in width. Even if you have taped the walls, a clean cut line takes some care.

5. Roll On Your Paint

You can use a low-nap roller if your ceiling has no texture. If the ceiling was finished with stucco, use a ½” to ¾” nap roller depending on the depth of the stucco.

Pour paint into the roller tray no higher than where the ‘washboard’ part of the tray starts to slope away from the paint pool. This is to help avoid submerging the roller into the paint. Not only does that put too much paint on the roller, but it also puts paint on the ends of the roller, where it can drip and or get onto your walls.

Use the washboard section of the tray to get a consistent amount of paint around the entire roller. Paint in small sections of about three to four feet square, depending on your reach and how close you are to the ceiling. Roll back and forth in straight lines, overlapping each line, and try to distribute the paint evenly in the section you’re painting.

It’s important to roll the paint slowly. The faster you roll, the more splatter you’ll create. When you’re finished a section, move on to a section beside it and overlap the previous section.

6. Do You Need a second Coat?

After the first coat dries, check it closely for any issues, like a drop of paint that’s dried, or areas that you missed. If not, you’re done, nice job! Repeat step 5 if you need a second coat.

For more advice on painting your ceiling, or any other part of your home, call or visit your nearest The Paint People location.

The post 6 Steps to Paint Your Ceiling Like a Pro appeared first on The Paint People.

But to really add romance to a room, it takes more of an overall approach to the design and décor, versus just dimming the lights and putting on Barry White.

Choose muted colours and patterns

Regardless of how romantic you make a room, it’s not really so until someone’s in it. If that certain someone disappears in a sea of strong colours or busy patterns, let’s just say some of the romance will be lost.
Starting with wall paint colors, including Benjamin Moore’s Pink Bliss, or their Marilyn’s Dress, stick to neutral palettes and minimal patterns.

Have Elements of Vintage, Antiques and/or Natural Wood

It takes time for something to be imbued with romance. That doesn’t mean your entire room must look like a Victorian parlour, but touches like an ornate chandelier, copper accessories or even a hardwood floor in a lighter stain can do the trick.

Be Versatile with Your Lighting

Just slapping a dimmer onto the overhead light in the bedroom won’t be enough. Think about all the different ways the room can be lit to set a mood, including things like indirect lighting and pot lighting, and give yourself all the options. That way, regardless of anything else in the room, it can be made to suit the mood.

Mix Design Styles

Typically, décor styles, like contemporary, industrial or scandinavian, generally mean sticking to the colours fabrics and designs of that style. But ‘romantic’ isn’t really a design style. It’ll take a different combination of elements in your home than it will in anyone else’s home.

If you’re looking for paint colour or décor suggestions for any style of room, stop by The Paint People and let’s chat.

The post How to Give Your Home A More Romantic Décor appeared first on The Paint People.

While a complete bathroom renovation may be a tall order, a bathroom refresh could be all you need to create blissful surroundings. But what makes it blissful? What type of surrounding would bring you joy? Is it a light, airy space, a dark moody atmosphere or pale tranquil hues? No matter the style, a blissful bathroom should establish a feeling of harmony and happiness! A simple change in paint colour can help achieve that.

Traditionally, light and pale colours could be considered blissful and with varying wisps of blue, green and pink undertones, these blissful beauties are sure to bring serenity:

2139-60 Green Tint

2123-60 Seafoam

2122-50 Iceberg

2122-40 Smoke

2035-70 Italian Ice Green

HC-144 Palladian Blue

OC-71 Sand Dollar

OC-37 Glacier White

2114-60 Hint of Violet

880 White Zinfandel

1366 Rosemist

Comfortable and familiar neutrals, or slightly darker tones of colour, can also create an equally blissful atmosphere!

1536 Northern Cliffs

OC-18 Dove Wing

CSP-115 Barnwood

CC-460 Inukshuk

2129-30 Blue Note

OC-28 Collingwood

The bathroom is probably one of the easiest paint projects to undertake yourself! An obvious first step might be to implement organization solutions, but after addressing storage and clearing floor and counter space, you’re left with the walls. Ideas of consistency and unity come to mind when establishing a blissful surround, so often the best approach is to create a palate off your existing tiles. Complementary colour undertones pulled from the tile colour can bring a unified and soft palate that indeed creates bliss!

The finishing factor of a blissful bathroom may lie in the product you decide to use for the walls. Typically, a shiner finish would have been warranted for bathroom walls years ago, but now, shiner finishes feel dated and sometimes even cheap. Benjamin Moore’s advancements in paint technology has bestowed a beautifully updated and durable matte bathroom product. The Aura Bath & Spa, only available in matte, remains washable and holds up to the moisture and humidity that is inevitable in bathroom territory.

While your bathroom can be utilized for getting ready and conversely also for moments of relaxation, finding your bathroom bliss can originate from differing colours, from calming hushed hues to clean tinted whites right through to cozy darker tones!

The post Paint Ideas for a Blissful Bathroom appeared first on The Paint People.

But considering the deep freeze we endured this past winter, you may need an even bigger fix of summer. And you can get it by bringing some of the summer’s natural, easy-going paint shades to your interior colours and wall paints.

The bonus is, if next winter is another cold one, you’ll still be surrounded by summer! Here are just a few paint shades and interior course you can use to bring summer inside this year.

1. The Calm Light of the Forest

In the brightest, sunny day, the forest is still mellow. If you have bright rooms, you can keep the mellow mood with walls in Benjamin Moore’s Kelp Forest Green.

2. Lighter with Limestone and Hampton Green

What if you have the opposite problem and want to lighten a room by reflecting more of the sun’s light, without using the harsh glare of white. Benjamin Moore’s Limestone is bright but relaxed. And it is nicely complemented with Hampton Green, which offers interesting contrast without any harshness.

3. Freshness & Youth

Just like the flavour, Benjamin Moore’s Spearmint Ice is cool and refreshing. It’s the perfect backdrop for denim blues and slate greys. If you’re looking for lively splashes of colour, accent the room with white, chartreuse and lime. This paint shade is like an endless summer!

If you’re looking to get more summer shades for your home’s decor, call or visit The Paint People. You can take advantage of our Creative Haus Designs colour consultation services to add summer to your existing decor or come up with the palette for a new renovation.

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