How To Create Color Flow Throughout Your Home

Hello Friends,

One of the comments we hear most often when color consulting with our clients is “I want my rooms to flow.”

This simply means they want a color scheme that smoothly transitions from room to room and creates an overall unity within their home.  Especially in many of the open floor plan homes today, you can often see several rooms at the same time, so choosing colors that are pleasing together and not jarring, will make the difference between people feeling comfortable within your home or having a feeling like something is “not quite right.”  However, even if your floor plan is not open, you will still want to choose colors that work well together so that your home’s overall personality feels unified.

Below are Diane’s tips on selecting a color scheme that creates a great flow in your home:

• First, consider your furnishings and artwork, and select a main “foundational” color that pulls it all together.  This is your primary color, and it helps to repeat this color periodically throughout your house, possibly even in lighter or darker shades.
• The safest way to create continuity is to simply use lighter or darker shades of this foundational color as your entire palette.  These would be found on the same fan deck page as your primary color.
• If you prefer a little more color in your palette, you can select accent colors by looking for inspiration in your artwork, fabric or a special accessory.  Select two or three additional colors that complement the foundational color and each another.
• It’s important to keep the “temperature” of your colors consistent. Keep colors with warm undertones together and cool undertones together.  For example, if your foundational color is a warm beige and you want to integrate a blueish color, you could choose one with a grey or grey/green undertone to warm it up.
• If you choose a muted primary color, keep all of the accent colors muted too.  For example, if your primary color is a muted wheat color and you want a reddish accent, make sure the red also has a muted undertone.
• Once you have your palette selected, alternate your primary, and accent colors throughout your home.  For example, if you used an aqua for your master bedroom, you might repeat this color with the accessories in your living room, and then paint the ceiling in your sunroom a lighter shade of aqua.
• Have fun with it!  Your home is a reflection of your personality, so enjoy the process and don’t be afraid to make mistakes.

Blessings,

PICTURES

This home’s warm color palette is carried throughout by using the blonde color in the foyer, common area and kitchen, while selecting a darker taupe for the study and ceiling of the foyer. The dining room is accented in a deep brick shade.

The home below uses a silvery-grey as the foundation color throughout the open floor plan’s living, dining and kitchen space, creating an airy, calming atmosphere. The neutral accent colors include a medium-toned grayish beige in the foyer and pale beige in the back hall and bedrooms.

When pricing painters, why choose quality over price?

Friends,

A home is one of the biggest assets most American families have. Because of this, it is important that when you price and select a painter, you choose one that will do the job properly and not cause you additional expense down the road due to shortcuts that save money (ie: saving the painter time) in the near-term. You are, after all, entrusting your largest asset to this person. It is you and not they who will have to live with the job down the road.

Price will always be a consideration, but to maintain your home’s value and keep from having to repaint too soon, an investment in quality is always wiser in the long-run. But how can a homeowner make a judgment about quality to begin with? And how can they know for certain who will provide a quality job? Below is a guide to those very questions.

What makes for a quality paint job?
• Proper prep work including sanding trim surfaces, vacuuming up dust and cleaning with liquid TSP, and priming to ensure the paint will adhere to the surface years from now and not just in the near-term
• Attention to detail in taping and masking, completely covering floors and all exposed surfaces with plastic to prevent overspray
• Being sure to comply with appropriate drying times before applying primer or paint
• Dime taping wall and trim edges with 60 Day Safe-Release tape to insure a crisp, straight line (see our previous blog entry from September, 2011)
• Applying 2-3 coats of paint to avoid showing roller marks and allow for a rich and even color application
• Using high quality paint so that the paint job will last longer

Before you select your painter, be sure to interview them and ask:
• Are they insured and bonded?
• How long have they been painting homes?
• Who is doing the actual work?
• Will the owner be on site overseeing the subcontractors?
• Are they experienced with the dime taping method?
• If they are doing exterior painting, do they cover shrubs and plants to protect them?
• Do they have photo examples of homes they’ve painted?
• How well do they clean up after themselves?
• Can they provide references (be sure to call them)

By following these guidelines, you will wind up with a result that you will be thrilled with not just the next day, but for years to come.

Blessings,

How to Properly Mask When Painting Your Home’s Exterior

Hello Friends, Proper taping and masking is crucial to any exterior paint job. Without it, you risk overspray on your home, windows, or even worse…brick and rock. Many painters shield these areas in order to save time and money on the materials, but doing that makes it nearly impossible to get clean lines where the paint meets other colors or house materials. This attention to detail will make a huge difference in the overall quality of the paint job, the value of your home and it will also prevent hours of correction and clean up due to unwanted overspray.	Proper masking for painting trim
Below are some tips on masking your home’s exterior prior to painting: If you have a home with siding, make sure you paint your trim and gutters prior to the siding. By using a premium semi-gloss paint on the trim, it will dry to a hard finish, allowing you to tape to it when you mask off to paint the siding. The siding is usually painted with a premium low sheen paint and is done last because the finish is not as hard, thereby increasing the risk of paint pulling off when you take the tape and paper down.	Good masking is in the details
When painting the trim around your windows, tape the edge of the glass on each window using safe-release tape and then cover the window with 9″ or 12″ masking paper, depending on the size of the window. Then mask the siding off around the outside edge of the window frames as well, using masking paper. When painting the siding of your home, you’ll need to mask off the window by taping around the edge of the window frame where it meets the siding, using safe-release tape. Then use plastic sheeting to cover the window entirely.	A properly masked window
When painting the trim at the top of your home, mask around the top edge of the brick, rock, or siding under the overhang, using 1-1/2″ masking tape and masking paper. Do this all the way around the house. Mask off where the siding meets any porches or patios that will not be painted: concrete patio, front porch floor, railings, front door, etc. Then cover the remainder of the floor areas with drop cloths. – Mask off light fixtures on ceilings or walls using safe-release tape and a plastic bag to cover the fixture. Make sure there are no holes in your plastic bag!	Masking the front door and porch light
Like most prep work, masking is not the fun part of painting your home, but when you take off the tape and masking paper, you will have a razor-clean edge making worthwhile your investment of time on the front end. Proper masking is truly a key to having a professional look on your paint job. Blessings,	Ron Barfield gives careful attention to masking off porch prior to painting siding

How to select an exterior paint color

Who hasn’t felt intimidated by the prospect of selecting a new color for their home exterior? Colors can look very different from a paint swatch, once it’s on a large surface. Many of our customers have come to us for help when they are choosing paint colors, so we wanted to share some of our best tips on selecting an exterior color for your home.

Tip #1: Less is More
Don’t use more than 3-4 different colors total. Keep in mind that the more colors you choose, the less visual unity your home will have. This includes textural building materials such as stone or brick too. For example, if you have separate colors for siding, trim, shutters, front door, factory-sprayed windows plus brick and stone, you will have six colors competing on your home. This will look busy rather than harmonious. Reduce your overall colors, and watch your curb appeal jump.

Tip #2: Start With the Foundational Colors
It is always a good idea to start with the things you cannot change: brick, rock, mortar and factory window colors. Then choose a color for the siding that blends the colors together and looks harmonious. You can trim out your home with another color or use the siding color. If you have a painted front door and painted shutters, you might choose to forego a trim color and let the door and shutters be the accent color to your siding. For homes with brick, many people choose the color of the mortar for either the siding or trim.

Tip #3: Look to Your Neighbors
Your home’s curb appeal does not exist within a vacuum and it will be impacted by the colors around it, so consider the colors of the homes on either side of yours. Choose a color that harmonizes and doesn’t compete, so that your home looks like it fits well within the overall streetscape of your neighborhood.

Tip #4: Look to Nature
Because homes are tucked within natural surroundings of grass, trees, flowers, shrubs and sky, colors found in nature are a good rule of thumb. Colors that are more muted and that harmonize with these natural elements will look like they “belong.”

Tip #5: Your Landscaping
Another thing to consider is the foliage in front of your home. For good color appeal and harmony, paint a large swatch of your favorite color and hold it up to your shrubs and landscaping, and be sure the overall color and textural effect is pleasing.

Tip #6: Go a Shade Darker
As you choose your colors, consider that they will always look lighter than the paint chip because they will be viewed in the bright sunlight. You may want to consider choosing a color one half to one full shade darker. Additionally, over time, the paint will oxidize and lighten at least a shade (especially if you use a flat paint) due to the UV rays. We most often recommend using a low sheen paint which does not oxidize as quickly, washes off with a water hose more easily and gives a longer paint life to your home.

Tip #7: Swatch It!
Once you’ve considered all of these factors, buy some poster board and get small tester paint swatches of your favorite paint colors. Cover the poster board with your paint and take it outside to get a better idea of how the color will look covering a larger area.

Following these tips will give you greater peace of mind in selecting your color and a better final result once your house is painted.

Blessings,

Why One Coat of Paint is Not Enough

As sunlight hits this wall, brush strokes are evident after applying one coat paint.

Most people think that one coat of paint is enough when repainting either an interior room or the exterior of your home. We certainly want it to be enough after getting that first coat completed!

At a glance, it seems to have done the job, right?

However, even when you have tried to be very
thorough the first time, there are areas where the paint hasn’t covered completely and you can see bits of the previous color coming through. You also often can see where the cut-in stops and the roller coat begins. As the light changes throughout the day, you can see these flaws more.

The chief benefit to applying two coats of paint is that you get a smoother, richer and more even depth of color. So, take a deep breath and dive in to that last coat. You’ve already done the hardest part, so make the final result really sing!

Blessings,

“Nip in the Bud” Your Home’s Exterior Cracks, Seams and Gaps

Hello friends,

This is a topic we commonly encounter when asked to repaint a client¹s home
exterior: damage to the siding, trim or structure due to moisture that has seeped in from cracks, seams or gaps which were not addressed when they should have been. Because it is such a prevalent problem for homeowners, we wanted to give it the attention it deserves and show you examples of these common problems, as well as explain how to fix them.

Maintaining your home¹s painted exterior is so easy to put off because, let¹s face it, we want to make our existing paint job last as long as possible! We spend most of our time indoors too, so it can easily be ³out of sight ­ out of mind.² However, if you don¹t stay on top of needed repairs as they occur, it will cost considerably more in wood replacement and labor if you wait too long.

A quick walk around your house will reveal any of these issues before they add up to thousands of dollars in costly replacement.

Common warning signs:

1. SWOLLEN SEAMS
Seams that begin to swell due to moisture retention where the wood trim or siding comes together. This commonly is seen in new homes that use Hardiplank, a composite fiber board used for siding. Often, the seams were not caulked when the home was built, and over time the seams separate, allowing moisture to enter the board and swell the seams. Without intervention, the planks will begin to rot and at that point, they will not be salvageable but will need to be replaced.

2. CRACKS ABOVE OR AROUND WINDOWS
Over time, heat and cold cause cracks to form around exterior window casings, allowing water to get behind the wood and cause damage. Sometimes the damage can extend to the inside of the house as well. Here too, we find that when some homes were built, there was either no caulking or improper caulking done around windows. This is a huge frustration to homeowners who often don¹t know this and don¹t make a habit of checking their home¹s exterior for yearly maintenance.

3. TRIM THAT HAS SPLIT
When trim is not primed on the edge and then is installed where it is regularly exposed to rainwater, the water will seep into the wood or Hardiplank, causing it to rot quickly. If this is not caught soon enough, it will run the risk of mold spreading to your home¹s structure under the trim.
These planks, and possibly the wood underneath, may need to be replaced. A costly fix for something as simple as having primed the edge of the trim at the beginning.

Solution:
Assuming you catch these warning signs early enough, you can still salvage your existing siding and trim. Wait until it has not rained for 48 hours to give the moisture time to evaporate. The seams, cracks and plank edges then need to be primed first, being sure to work your brush into the area and get all exposed parts of the board covered with primer. When dry, it should be caulked with a high quality exterior caulk, being careful to wipe off the excess and get a smooth finish. Finally, it will need to be painted with any existing paint you may have saved from your last paint job. Be sure to feather the paint out at the edges, using a good quality 2² ­ 3² brush.

Congratulations on doing the hard work now! It will be worth it in the long run.

Blessings,

Transform your kitchen with updated cabinets!

Hello Friends,

Do your stained cabinets make your kitchen seem dark? Is the stain or former paint wearing off in the areas that get the most use? Are your kitchen cabinets due for an update?

These procedures will give you a professional look:

First, clean the cabinets with Liquid TSP. Tape off and mask all appliances, windows, counter tops, walls, etc. with 60-day safe release tape.

Completely cover floor with 3-foot brown paper and 1 1/2″ tape.

Remove knobs. Hang plastic to prevent overspray from going into adjacent rooms.

Set up spray rig with primer sealer. HINT: Spraying cabinet doors while hanging on the hinges keeps one from having to set up a separate spray booth area. We use Zinzer White Pigmented Shellac as it gets the best adhesion and sands very easily.

Spray one coat of sealer, sand, spray second coat of sealer and sand again.

Clean up spray rig with Denatured Alcohol.

Set up spray rig with Premium Semi-gloss Water Based, Acrylic, Alkyd Enamel Paint (tinted to chosen color).

Spray all cabinets with one coat of paint.

When completely dry, sand and spray second coat of paint.

Let dry completely and carefully remove tape, paper, plastic, etc.

Your kitchen will look brand new!

Blessings,

Exterior Power Washing and Painting

Hello Friends,

Fall is in the air – it is my favorite season as I enjoy the crisp clean air and seeing the trees display their wonderful fall colors.

Fall here in Tulsa is also a great time for exterior power washing and painting.

Power washing is a very important part of preparing the surface to be painted. Paint will not adhere to dirt and oxidation. Where there is mold or mildew, mix a 50/50 solution of bleach and water in a pump up garden sprayer and spray it on affected surfaces. This is a very important step as the mold and mildew will come back through the paint unless you kill it. Use a semi-stiff brush to clean the surface and power wash to remove the solution, dirt and oxidation.

The next step is to use a good primer on all the bare wood, brushing it into the edge of the painted areas to seal them. Caulk all areas that need it to be caulked. Tape off and mask or use plastic to cover windows, brick, deck, concrete flooring, etc., using blue tape for easy removal.

You are then ready to set up the spray rig and begin spraying the paint on the surfaces, working it in with a roller or a brush. At Royal Touch Painting, we like to use Kelly Moore Premium Low Sheen #1245 paint, which gives more protection from the UV Rays and it looks great! Remove the tape, masking paper, plastic, etc.

Stand back and admire your job well done!

Blessings,

Dime Taping – with pictures

Hello Friends, I hope you have been enjoying your summer. In our last post, we discussed painting trim, and I mentioned a technique we will cover in today’s post – dime taping. Dime taping gives you a perfectly straight, flawless seam between your wall paint and your trim paint. No more blotches and runs!
Here’s how to do it: After painting the trim and letting it cure out a few days, wipe it down with a soft clean cloth to remove any dust. Tape the trim a dime’s width (hence the name) away from the wall using 60-day safe release tape. Cut a very small hole at a slant on the end of the tube of caulk and insert it into the caulk gun. Then squeeze the lever to get a VERY THIN smooth line of caulk between the tape and the wall. Using a thin damp cloth wipe off the excess caulk SO YOU CAN SEE THE EDGE OF THE TAPE. This is a very important step because leaving too much caulk will result in a rippled line when removing the tape. After the caulk has dried, brush the paint on the wall, covering the edge of the tape. When the paint has dried, pull the tape off at an angle to get a perfect line. Your paint job will look just like a pro did it! Blessings,

Dime Taping

Hello Friends,

I hope you have been enjoying your summer.  In our last post, we discussed painting trim, and I mentioned a technique we will cover in today’s post – dime taping.

Dime taping gives you a perfectly straight, flawless seam between your wall paint and your trim paint. No more blotches and runs!

Here’s how to do it:

After painting the trim and letting it cure out a few days, wipe it down with a soft clean cloth to remove any dust. Tape the trim a dime’s width (hence the name) away from the wall using 60-day safe release tape.

Cut a very small hole at a slant on the end of the tube of caulk and insert it into the caulk gun. Then squeeze the lever to get a VERY THIN smooth line of caulk between the tape and the wall. Using a thin damp cloth wipe off the excess caulk SO YOU CAN SEE THE EDGE OF THE BLUE TAPE. This is a very important step because leaving too much caulk will result in a rippled line when removing the tape.

After the caulk has dried, brush the paint on the wall, covering the edge of the tape. When the paint has dried, pull the tape off at an angle to get a perfect line. Your paint job will look just like a pro did it!

Blessings,