The biggest problem may not be the actual jobs you need to do, but choosing which one to start with. It’s always daunting when you head outside in springtime and see just how much work needs to be done.

Your first job is simply to clean up the yard of debris and make sure your plants, shrubs and lawns are in good shape and get the attention they need for a solid season of growth.

After those basics are in order, it’s time to look at your home and give it the loving care and maintenance it’s starving for.  Here are a few ways to do that:

1. Power Washing

Whether it’s rain splattering mud from gardens onto the sides of your home, or just dirt that’s built-up on your siding over the winter, giving everything a good power washing will either make it look as good as new, or get it ready for a coat of paint that will.

2. Paint Wood, Vinyl and Aluminum Siding

For the ultimate in looking “springtime fresh” there’s nothing like a good coat of paint. It’s easier and a lot less expensive than you might think. And your home will look great.

3. Re-Stain Your Deck & Wooden Fences

With the constant barrage of sunlight, it doesn’t take long for your deck and fences to look weather beaten. Re-staining both of them will not only make them look much better,it will help protect them against more sun and water damage.

When you look at all these jobs at once, it’s tempting to give up. But if you pick one, like painting your siding, and then break that job down further, maybe by starting only with the siding in the back, suddenly you turned the job into doable parts and it’s easier to get them – and the whole project – done .

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With those details out of the way, let’s start talking ideas. Like most parents, you want your children’s rooms to be relaxing and inspiring places where they can retreat, be themselves, and feel comfortable.

Colours and Designs

1. Magnetic Walls

Imagine your children being able to quickly put up their own drawings, pictures or clippings on the walls of their room. Or playing on the wall with magnetic toys. Magnetic wall coverings can make it happen. Hung like wallpaper, magnetic wall paper can be painted in any colour scheme to suit your décor.

2. Chalkboard Paint

We told you before about all the benefits and applications of chalkboard paint. In a nutshell, chalkboard paint no longer means you have to think in terms of traditional chalkboard colours: green and black. You can paint your kid’s room with chalkboard paint in any colour of the spectrum. The beauty of chalkboard paint is that it encourages your child’s creativity without spiking your stress levels with impromptu pencil drawings on your living room walls.

3. Dry-Erase Paint

Similar to chalkboard paint, dry-erase paint makes your wall more than just a wall. It becomes a canvas for your child’s imagination. Dry-Erase paint is available in two basic varieties. White dry-erase paint literally turns the wall into a giant whiteboard. Clear dry-erase paint can be applied to any wall paint, or wall covering, like the magnetic covering listed above. It turns any wall into an easy-to-clean surface for anything your child cares to draw or write on it.

The possibilities for your children’s rooms are almost endless. If you’re not sure which way to go when redecorating, just ask your children what they would like.

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A common reason for whether or not a home décor project inexplicably comes together, or never quite worked, is the pallet of colours used throughout the room.

While there are no steadfast rules as to which colours work together and which ones won’t (there are too many other factors that affect the look and feel of your project, including textures, and colour shades and tones), having a basic knowledge of colour theory will increase your chances of getting pleasing results from your room renovations.

Colour Theory

If you haven’t already, please check out Part One to learn more about the basics of colour theory, including how the colour wheel helps you apply the theory, and what are the primary, secondary and tertiary colours on the wheel.

Colour Harmony

Known most for its use in music, the broader definition of harmony means a pleasing arrangement of parts. The Beatles had great vocal harmonies, Toronto’s City Hall is famous for its architectural harmony and your room’s décor will have a tough time being successful without colour harmony.

There are three basic ways to get colour harmony, using a basic colour wheel of 12 colours.

1. Use Analogous Colours

Two or three colours that are side-by-side on the wheel are analogous. Yellows and greens, reds and oranges, and blues and purples are analogous. Before you start wondering how you’ll ever get red and orange to work in a room, remember some of the other factors that come into play in colour theory, like colour tone. And one colour should be dominant. So red/orange harmony would happen in a room of earth tones.

2. Use Complementary Colours

Colours that are directly opposite each other on the wheel are complementary to each other. These include blue and orange, and red and green. Complementary colours are a good chice if you want a room of high colour contrast.

3. Try a Monochromatic Scheme

While not particularly related to the colour wheel, many rooms come together nicely when different shades and textures of the same colour predominate – but you’ll probably need to break up the monotony with some elements of an analogous or complementary colour.

If you would like to learn more about colour theory, or you just want to skip it all and go straight to getting expert help with a colour scheme for your next home redecoration project, be sure to check out The Paint People’s Colour Consultation Services.

The post Colour Theory to the Rescue of Your Home Décor – Part 2 appeared first on The Paint People.

Few home improvement projects are planned to the same extent as an interior decorating project. It starts with your vision of the décor and ambience you want when the project’s over. Then you have to find the colours, furniture and accessories that come closest to that vision. And that’s not to mention budgeting and any calendar dates that might restrict the time you have to get the job done.

Never-the-less, off you go, surfing the web, leafing through magazines, talking to the people at the paint and wallpaper store, scoping out your neighbours’ and friends’ homes – whatever it takes – to make sure your homework’s done before you start the actual work.

Every Do-It-Yourselfer Has this Problem at Least Once

If you have at all decorated a home before, you’ll know that there will be problems, so you’ll be prepared for something to happen. But, even after getting all the paint, stain, brushes, drop cloths, etc., etc., all lined up, few people are prepared for one of the most difficult questions to answer:

What Do I Do First?: refinish the floor/lay the carpet, or paint the walls?

There are potential disasters looming in each scenario. If you do the floors first, there’s always the potential for paint to fall on it, regardless of how careful you are at covering it up. And if you do the walls first, you could easily scratch them with refinishing equipment, or while laying carpet.

And the Answer Is …

Always paint your walls last – after you finish your floors. Here’s why:

1. It’s easier to cover your floors to protect them from paint drips than it is to cover your baseboards to protect them from your floor stain and/or finish.
2. You have more time to wipe up a paint drip from a finished floor or carpet, before it leaves any lasting marks, than you do to wipe a floor stain from wall paint.
3. Quarter-round needs to be added to baseboards along walls after you finish your floors. If the walls were painted first, there’s a good chance that adding the quarter-round will leave a few marks, and you’ll need to at least touch-up the paint.

In the end, there’s no big mistake in finishing either your walls or your floors last. In all cases, you need to take as much care as you can – and be ready to handle the inevitable spills and smudges as quickly as possible.

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The two most important things to painting contractors I find, are time and money. Purchasing premium quality paint will save you time, which in turn will save you money. When you use premium quality paint, with high volume solids, you are actually getting more “paint” in the can for your dollar. More “premium quality paint” in the can means more coverage. You actually get more square footage out of a gallon of premium quality paint when you compare it to a lower quality product. More square footage per gallon means you need to purchase less gallons for the job. There are many reasons why a gallon of paint can vary in cost, most of the time it’s because you’re actually getting less paint in the can, with poor quality ingredients. Don’t be fooled by the price tag!

Solids are that portion of the paint that will dry or cure to a solid film. They include the resin fillers and pigments remaining when the paint is dry or cured. The balance of the paint consists of solvents that evaporate during spraying, air drying or curing.

Premium Quality Paint & Touch-ups

It is very important to painting contractors that there touch-ups are seamless. The last thing you want to be doing is re-painting a whole wall because you can notice the touch-up you just applied. Aura & Regal Select from Benjamin Moore (both premium quality paint products) have excellent hide and touch-up capabilities.  Saving a few extra dollars at the checkout will only cost  you more in the end, because you will have to
spend another day working at no cost, re-painting walls that are not touching up well.

Premium Quality Paint & Brand Association

Another benefit painting contractors will have when using premium quality paint like Benjamin Moore is, you get to associate your brand with top quality products. This is HUGE, and can offer you a competitive advantage against the others. There are thousands of painting contractors out there, but what differentiates you against the rest? We need to understand that not everything is based on price. The products you use, and the services you provide, are all a representation of the brand you are creating. Customers now are far more educated than before. When they are paying for a service they expect top quality products to be used. Using premium quality paint & products will keep you ahead of the game.

Billy Petrovski
Creative Director
The Paint People

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