 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
          
|
Room Makeover – Painting (Part 1) Painting is one of the most affordable and easiest ways to make a change in a room. It's amazing the difference that a fresh coat of paint can make to the rooms in your home. You can change the look and atmosphere of a room just by changing the color of the walls and ceilings. There are several factors you should consider when selecting paint. The best way to determine paint color is to purchase a quart of the color and do what is referred to as a “brush out.” Brush the paint onto walls or onto pieces of plasterboard or foam-core to allow you to move these samples around the room. Then look at how daylight affects the color at different times during the day as well as how artificial light affects the color during the evening.
Consider the types of finishes available for paints; flat, eggshell, satin, semi-gloss and gloss. Flat paint absorbs light creating a sophisticated opaque color. Gloss reflects the most light. When it comes to choosing paint, always choose a quality product such as Ace Royal Touch paints. Premium paints like the Ace Royal Touch paints will give better coverage and a greater ease of application, saving you time and money. The
most popular color that people paint ceilings is white. The most frustrating problem
that people experience when painting a ceiling is the difficulty in covering the
entire surface without missing spots here and there. Working over your head, glare,
darkness, and usually painting white over white, all contribute to these painting
problems. That is until now, with Ace's Simply Magic ceiling paint, you can tell
where you have painted already. This innovative product goes on with a blue tint,
yet dries white. Simply Magic is a great white ceiling paint -- with a twist.
Affixed to each can is a pouch with a blue tint additive. Prior to painting your
ceiling, stir the tint into the paint. You will be painting your ceiling blue.
By doing so, it will be easy to insure that you don't miss spots because of the
contrast between the blue and the color you are painting over. Within 24 hours
the light sensitive blue colorant fades away resulting in a beautiful, evenly
applied white ceiling. Quality coating found in these paints also ensures color uniformity, an important aspect for touch-ups and/or underestimated paint needs. Ace paints wear better, longer, and hold up to repeated cleanings. Additionally, selecting a premium paint such Ace Royal Touch brands and Simply Magic ceiling paints, affords you access to their knowledgeable staff who can custom match colors for you and help answer questions you may have such as which type of finish to choose or how much paint you will need. Selecting
Paint and Paint colors This doesn't mean you can't use gloss paints and dark colors inside... however if you wish to use either you will need to take extra care to ensure wall surfaces are smooth and well prepared to minimize the appearance of surface imperfections. If you plan to use dark colors, we recommend you use flat or low sheen paint. If you would like a gloss finish, we recommend using a light color to minimize the appearance of surface defects. When planning a color scheme, consider the adjacent rooms and the environment surrounding your home. If you have already selected other room furnishings, bring samples with you when choosing the paint color. You may even wish to follow the fabric pattern to balance the color palette for the room. There should be some relationship between them and the newly decorated room to provide continuity. If an important feature of your home is a sea view or landscape panorama you may like to bring the colors you see outside into your home's color scheme to provide a natural link between the two. If you want to highlight the view, choose a lighter color palette. If you want to distance the view make your interior color scheme more contrasting against the exterior. When choosing colors keep three things in mind: colors look different in different types of light; next to different colors and depending how much there is of the color. Select colors that reflect the mood you are trying to create. For example, if you want to develop a calm atmosphere consider using a green or blue and steer clear of the bold high energy reds. If high energy is what you desire, a palette of reds, oranges and yellows will brighten the room and encourage activity.
Yellow is bright, bold, invigorating and guaranteed to attract attention. Like road signs and highlighters, yellow is difficult to miss. Uplifting in a cold room, yellow can be overpowering in a sunny room. Yellows vary from green yellows through to orange yellows so test your color to make sure you have chosen the right hue. If in doubt, most rooms will work with buttery and golden yellows.
Blue is cool, refreshing and soothing, making it the ideal choice to cool a sunny room. A popular color for bedrooms, due to its ability to relax the mind, blue should generally be avoided in the dining room as it tends to suppress the appetite. Change your perceptions of a room's size and lighting through the use of pale and pastel blues that will 'open up' the space.
Green is soothing, calm and harmonious, ideal in high stress areas such as hospitals, schools and workplaces to calm the atmosphere. We are all comfortable living with green due to its prevalence in the natural environment, making it an easy color to use anywhere indoors, either in a scheme of its own or to connect other colors. The selection of varied hues will offer a mood from relaxing and calm with a warm light green to freshness and invigoration with a bright lime green. Lighter hues are ideal in living rooms and bathrooms to promote a relaxing environment, while mid greens can give a clean accent in kitchens and dining areas. Green light is focused almost precisely by the eye lens on the retina of the eye making it a very good color to work in especially for patient concentration on manual work.
Red stimulates activity, increases blood pressure and heart rate making it the highest energy color. An appetite stimulator, red is a popular choice in dining rooms and restaurant and high-energy areas such as business foyers. It is generally best to keep red out of the bedroom as it can make relaxing more difficult.
Orange is cheerful, friendly, lively and dynamic, but be warned, it's a color people tend to have a love hate relationship with. Ideal for high activity, social areas such as kitchens and family rooms, it is also a popular choice in bold living room and children's bedrooms schemes. Avoid orange in hot sunny rooms, as the addition of orange may make the room seem unbearably warm. No matter what colors you like, successful color schemes have one thing in common - balance. Try to use no more than 2-3 principal colors with touches of other accent colors to lift the scheme. Sometimes it pays to start with a simple scheme of two colors and an accent, then introduce other colors into the room as you gain confidence. If you are a novice decorator you may prefer to keep to one color type (a monochromatic scheme) or select from related colors (an harmonious scheme) to ensure a balance scheme. Most people find pastel colors easy to use in a color scheme. Pastel colors are pure colors with the addition of white, taking a bright yellow to a light yellow and so on. The common element, white, between all these colors means that you can successfully combine any pastels into a color scheme. The addition of clean white also means that most pastels appear soft and fresh, making them a very popular choice for decorators. Light and texture will impact on the total color scheme. If you change a room's color from bright lime green to navy blue, the light reflectance of the room will decrease, making the room appear darker.
Similarly, matt surfaces absorb the light and will always appear darker and deeper than glossy reflective surfaces. Light colors and glossy finishes are perfect for rooms you wish to appear larger; however you may prefer to use darker colors, heavier textures and matt finishes in areas such as dining rooms to draw the walls in and make the room seem cozier. If you have painted a wall with matt paint and find it is too flat you can paint over the top with a glaze to increase the light reflectance. A good balance of tones is employed in the best color schemes. If you think of a newspaper clipping, the most interesting pictures are those that have a good balance of light, mid and deep tones. Aim for a balance across the different tones to ensure your scheme is visually interesting. Always keep in mind when developing a color scheme that will be using the space the most. There is no point using bright orange because it is in fashion if the entire family dislikes the color. Similarly, the best homes are decorated with the owner's personality. Nature lovers may prefer greens and blues to bright reds, while a vibrant owner may prefer bright and bold feature walls that reflect their bubbly personality. To help you visualize the effect different paint colors will have on your room, visit your neighborhood Ace Hardware Store. Ace is the place for great paint. Ace decided to manufacture its own paint to ensure that their customers receive the highest quality paint. Deciding how much paint to buy for your project can be a challenge. Ace has added an Ace Paint Estimator to their web site to help you do some at home planning. All you need to do is answer a few simple questions about the room or walls that you are working with and we can give you a quick estimate on how much Ace Paint you'll need. You can even print a copy of this estimate and bring it to the Ace Paint department at your neighborhood Ace store. With hundreds of colors to choose from, selecting the right color combination is easy. If you like changing your environment, the best idea may be to use a neutral color scheme and provide accents through replaceable items such as cushions and flowers. This will enable you to change the mood of the room with a simple change of the accent items.
Once you have narrowed down your color choices, test your color to confirm your color scheme on the surface you are planning to paint. Apply two coats, leaving a border around it so the color is not influenced by anything else. When the paint is dry, pin your color to the wall and view it in daylight and artificial light, moving it around different areas of the room and folding it into the corner of the room for a true feel of the finished effect. Remember that paint is your most versatile medium and can be easily changed when you feel the need for a new look. Once you have decided and applied your color scheme, make sure you take a note of the colors used for future reference. If you wish to paint each side of door different colors, take care when painting the edges, as the edges of the door will be visible when the door is left ajar. We recommend you paint the opening edge of the door the same color as the face of the door that opens into the room, and paint the hinged edge to match the other face. This way when the door is left open, the color of the visible edge and the face of the door are continuous from whichever room they are viewed. Never rush into a color scheme, as you will only regret hasty choices later. Give yourself time to learn about your color likes and dislikes and develop these into a personalized scheme. Do test a small area to try out your chosen color scheme - the cost is minimal compared to the time and money you will waste if you have to repaint a wall you don't like. And the most important thing to remember is... have fun! Choosing
a Good Paint Brush Reach for a high-quality brush like the 4-in. Ace One Coat Brush when you're facing broad expanses of siding, wide trim, garage doors, porch floors or any other big, flat job. The jumbo size is designed for speed, so you can spend more time standing back admiring your work than doing it. It carries a lot of paint per dip, and with its 4-in. spread, you'll quickly cover everything within reach. High-quality 4-in. brushes have the light touch of a smaller brush. The best ones have a mix of nylon and polyester bristle tapered, split and combined in several lengths to form a slim tip. This tip spreads the right amount of paint smoothly and evenly, without leaving brush marks. Better brushes will also have long bristles (3 to 4 in.) to carry more paint and deliver it gradually. Moderate-priced brushes typically have split bristles too, but the bristles usually aren't tapered, so they don't flex as well or deliver paint as evenly. Although synthetic brushes were originally designed for latex and other water-based paints, high-quality ones with tapered bristles work fine for oil-based paints, too. Reach
for a 2-3 -in. trim brush when painting narrow trim, working corners and narrow
edges, and cutting in close to window glass and other materials. It puts the paint
exactly where you want it without slopping over. Odds are that you'll spend more
time holding this pintsized cousin of the 4-incher than any other brush. High-quality
trim brushes have the same features as the 4-inchers except that they have shorter
bristles that'll hold a straight, steady line when drawn along an edge. Compared
with lower-quality brushes, which are either too stiff or too soft, good brushes
have soft tips and a gradual flex that make the paint easier to control. Even
if you don't have a steady hand, a high-quality trim brush will help you put the
paint right where you want it. Trim brushes are available with straight or angled
tips. The angled tip reaches into corners slightly better, but a straight tip
works well, too. For the best results on detail work, buy a synthetic bristle
brush for latex and other water-based paints. Use a natural bristle brush for
oil paints. Choosing
the Correct Roller Selecting your roller is easy. Two points are critical -
Rollers are the ideal way to paint a large area quickly and get a professional result. Painting with a roller is fast and easy if you let the roller fabric do the work. The fabric pile on the roller will control the paint application, so all you need to do is provide the labor. Always use good, well cleaned equipment. Good quality rollers hold more paint and give a better finish than inexpensive rollers. If you are unsure as to whether you are using the right roller, check with your neighborhood Ace Hardware Store who can recommend the best roller for the paint you are using and the surface you are painting. Be prepared! Have everything you need ready before you start applying paint. Work steadily! Don't rush and don't roll fast with a loaded roller - unless you want to be a spray painter! Rinse new rollers in water (water based paints) to remove any loose fibers or dust before use. If your roller handle has been used before, place a drop of oil on the roller handle bearings (i.e. the two plastic end caps) - it will make painting much easier. Make sure your roller tray is clean. Tip the paint into the tray to the paint level shown. If you overfill the tray, loading the roller is more difficult and spillages are more likely. Once you've got the right amount of paint in the tray, roll the roller into the paint to saturate all the fabric. Use the ribbed section of the paint tray to squeeze. Below is a suggested list of essential material needed to start your paint job:
Applying
the Paint Before applying paint, be sure that it is properly mixed. Professionals use a system called "boxing." This process assures that there are no mismatches among different cans of paints. Mix all your paint into one large container until the paint's color and consistency are uniform. It is important to prepare enough paint to cover all surfaces with this mix, since matching can be difficult if you run out. Air often causes a scum on oil-based paints. In this case you will need to strain it through a nylon stocking to separate this "skin." Also, if you are thinning paint with either a thinner for oil based paints or water for water based, thin slowly so as not to over-thin and thereby require adding more paint. Finally, use a nail and hammer to punch a hole in the rim of the can so that excess paint will drip back in. There is a sequence often used in painting which I recommend:
By painting the ceilings first you can be sure that any drips falling on the walls will be covered. When painting the walls, always paint from the top down, again to be sure drips are covered. And, finally, do the trim so that any paint that accidentally gets on the trim can be covered. Needless to say, wear old clothes. A hat and scarf or hooded sweatshirt is recommended while doing the ceilings (unless you want to try some unusual hair coloring combinations). Again, be sure that everything is properly prepped and covered. | ||||||