Home Remodeling – The Ease of Painting a Room

Remodeling can be a task that some people dread. However, home remodeling can actually go very smoothly if you are well organized and know exactly what needs to be done. Often, painting your home, whether inside our out, can be the one task most people put off. Due to the time it takes, painting tends to be placed on the back burner. Paining can add a new element to your home. When you are looking for a change and you want to change the interior of your home, painting can be a fairly quick method of refreshing your home. Changing from a light color to a dark color and visa versa can dramatically change the look of a room.

A great benefit of many home improvement stores like Home Depot and Lowes in Cleveland, Ohio is that they carry a wide variety of paints and color selections. Many stores have the paint swatches that you can take home to see how they will look in your home. These also list the specific name of the paint color so that the store you obtained the swatch from can mix the paint according to its specifications. Once you have chosen your color you need to decide what type of paint finish you want. Some of the finishes include:

·   Flat – a flat finish has no sheen (shine) to it and it tends to hide flaws easily. This type of finish is suited for low traffic areas such as a bedroom or closet. You won’t want to use this in areas of high traffic like the living room because it is too difficult to clean up.

·   Eggshell – this offers the same amount of protection as a flat paint but offers a little bit of luster to it. This finish is a little easier to clean then a flat finish.

·   Satin Finish – this is easier to clean than the previous two methods. This is an excellent finish for a child’s room since it is easy to clean.

·   Semi-Gloss – this paint reflects a lot of light off of it. This is a selection that is used in a lot of kitchens because it doesn’t soak up the grease like other finished.

·   Gloss – this paint finish offer the greatest luster content and is very easy to clean but is not recommended for whole wall applications. This is more of a trim paint.

Now that you’ve chosen your paint and color, it’s time to get the furniture moved out of the way and prepare the walls for painting. You want to start by covering up your trim so that you don’t get paint all over them. There are a wide variety of tapes made to cover trim that won’t hurt its finish. You’ll also want to do this with electrical outlets as well as light switches. Next, you’ll want to primer the wall if you’re going from one dark color to a light color. However, if you are doing the opposite, you may be able to get away with putting primer over any spots. Use some spackle to cover any holes and then paint the trim areas around doors and windows to make it easier to paint all over later. When you apply your first coat, be sure to allow it to fully dry before adding a second coat. Also, make sure to let the wall fully dry or let it dry for at least 24 hours before re-hanging pictures.

Sounds like a lot of work but it will be well worth in the end and you’ll have a room that you can be proud of at half the cost of fully remodeling.

Drop Cloths can help you ensure that paint doesn’t splatter all over your room. The difference between drop cloths and plastic, is that Drop cloths are absorbent, skid resistant, and leak proof. According to Murphy’s law, paint will fall on the places that are uncovered no matter how small, and it isn’t until you start painting that you realize how true this is!
Image Credit:kimberly hurst

Canvas drop cloths are the best for professionals. They are tough, and can be reused over an over. They have an excellent grip on the surface, and are completely non-permeable. It’s also the most expensive.

For a one time paint job however, paper drop cloth is easily the best choice. They can be used to cover the floor and the furniture, and are cheap as well. However, they it does absorb the paint. This is good and bad. It’s bad because there is a chance that whatever you’re covering will get stained. It’s good because it won’t wet your feet when you walk over the spills.

Plastic drop cloths are like paper drop cloths, but don’t absorb the paint. The advantages and disadvantages are reversed here. Cleaning up afterwards can be a mess since the paint is still on the plastic, but it protects the underlying surface a little more.

Finally, the paper/poly drop cloth tries to use the advantages of each. The paper ensures that the paint is absorbed a bit, and the plastic ensures that the underlying surface doesn’t get stained. However, it is understandably more expensive

Last Friday, we learned about the Color Wheel, where you can find out which colors match in a systematic way. However, that is only a guideline and a starting point. The actual process of deciding room colors consists of many more steps.

Image Credit: alynch

There are so many color choices available, in so many different shades, that you will inevitably feel confused about which colors to choose. There are many surfaces that need to be painted like the exterior, the walls, the ceiling, and the furniture. Also, you will need to harmonize all that with the color of the curtains, and the other fittings in the room.

How does one make the best use of all that is available? One of the best ways, is to collect trim samples. This means, taking a minuscule sample of the fabric of the curtains, carpet, and floor colors. When you place thse out in front of you, the color scheme comes clearly into your mind. You can then combine this new insight with guidance from the color wheel.

Your paint shop will probably bundle the color wheel with a fan deck consisting of all the colors they offer in various shades. Once you have removed those colors that you feel don’t harmonize, and have got a good idea of what you wold like to see in front of you, get larger samples of those colors from your paint dealer.

This will allow you to finalize your choice, and help you to come a step closer to your dream house.

When people say that ‘these colors don’t match’, are they referring to something subjective, or objective? Is it possible to say, ‘Well, that’s your opinion. I don’t think so?”. It turns out, there’s a branch of investigation called ‘Color theory’ that lays out the dos and don’ts of what colors ‘go’ with each other, and what colors don’t.

Image Credit: unleashingmephotography

We need to first introduce the Color Wheel. It is a systematic arrangement of colors around a circle. There is a long history behind it, and different fields have different color wheels, but most of them comprise of the three primary colors, three secondary colors, and intermediate colors, arranged in a systematic pattern.

When deciding on a color scheme for your room, you can select colors from the wheel based on certain rules. These rules are like so:

Mono Chromatic Colors

You select all colors in a room based on variations of a single color like blue, or green. The variations are in texture, hue, saturation etc.

Complimentary Colors

You select from colors that sit opposite to each other on the color wheel. If you look at one color for long enough, and then stare at a white wall, you will see an after image of the complimentary color as a result of eye fatigue. Use of complimentary colors makes a bold statement.

Analogous Colors

This involves using a set of colors that are next to each other on the wheel. They can be used to ‘theme’ the room to a particular mood, since the colors will have similar ‘character’

Triadic Colors

These are colors that are equally spaced out on the wheel.

So if you’re not much of a color person, and can’t make out the difference between one color scheme and another, use the color wheel for guidance, or as a starting point for your final choice.

Paints can be classified in various ways, and as a result, different classifications will come up depending on what you’re comparing. For example, you can compare paints based on what they are based on chemically, or based on the finish they provide.

Image Credit: decor8

Let’s look at the classification based on the chemical properties first:

Oil based paints

Also called ‘Alkyd’ paints, these use oil as a base. As explained in an earlier article on Green paints, these contain Volatile Organic Compounds. However, they are still widely used, and for good reason. They provide a very durable layer, and resist wear and tear. They are also slightly more difficult to use, being thicker. Since they will not allow moisture to pass through them, you will often see ‘bubbles’ on the surface of dried paint.

Water based paints

These are also called ‘latex’ based paints, though they don’t really contain latex. They are easier to use, and clean up. They are also considered to have a better finish than oil based paints. As also explained earlier, they are classified as ‘Zero VOC’, and is thus preferred nowadays for health reasons.

Good quality Latex based paints, use acrylic resins, and are more durable.

Consult with a professional before deciding what type of paint to use for your interiors and exteriors.