House Painting
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| I have very strong opinions on the application process. If you are a homeowner that does not do much remodeling, stick with the basic roller and paint brush, similar to the graphic to the right. The how to remodel workshop will be offering instructional videos on techniques, so stay tuned for those. If you need this information before the videos are ready, please
contact me,
and I will walk you through the process.
If you have just completed a home remodel up to finished drywall, you can either do the brush/roller combination or use an airless paint sprayer. Weigh the costs of this. Unless the room is huge, or you are doing a full basement or house, the airless may not make much sense economically. |
| When your house painting is outside, what time of year are you going to do it, what are the hardscape items around your house? What is the house sided with? If it is predominantly brick or stucco, I would stick to brush/roller. If you have extensive brick/stucco or stone landscaping real close to the house, I would not spray. If it is a windy time of year, or if your house is surrounded closely by neighbors, I would not spray. Even though the paint dries very quickly as it leaves the gun, I would not want to risk accidentally spraying the neighbors new sports car sitting in their driveway. |
About Priming
About priming. Your house painting, exterior or interior, will not look the best if you skip this step when it is required. When would this be required? When you go from raw drywall or taping compound/wood to painted surface you would prime first. If you are covering a smudge or mark, you would want to use a stain blocker primer. When you go from a higher sheen to one less shiny, or dark to light you would use a primer first. If you do not apply the special primer first, you will eventually end up applying more than one coat of the finish paint trying to get the right look. Do yourself a favor and just apply the primer in the first place.
Oil Based vs Water Based Paint
| That brings me to a discussion on oil based products vs water base products. For years there were painters that would not touch water base. Maybe it was founded in the beginning, maybe the water base paints were inferior, but they are definitely not now. Here is the rule of thumb I use when deciding which house painting product to use.
If I need a stain blocked I always use an oil based stain blocker - for 2 reasons - it dries in one hour and it will absolutely, definitely block. The universal favorite for this is shown in the graphic to the right. Downsides to using this product are that it stinks to high heaven(no matter what the can says) and in an enclosed space can make you have a nasty headache - please follow application directions and only work in a well ventilated area. |
If I am painting furniture, some types of shelving or a product that needs to have an extra durable surface, I will spray lacquer. That is the only case I would use that product.
If I am staining, finishing wood work that requires a natural finish, I would use the stains/appropriate finishes for that, in a well ventilated area.
Otherwise, for every other house painting application I would only use a water based product. Easier on your health and cleanup.
What about Sheen - What is it?
The next item to consider when house painting is what sheen to use. Stand at an angle to your kitchen wall, you might notice that there is a slight shine to it - this refers to sheen. Because there are several different types of sheen, we need to evaluate the purpose of sheen, which one to use where and how each one will affect your overall home decorating ideas.
Some trim, shelving and doors will have a "hi-gloss" paint sheen. This is not as common as it used to be. If you visualize these items in your home having a very high shiny gloss, then you will want the hi gloss.
Typically, bathrooms and kitchens or other water use rooms will have what is called "semi-gloss" sheen. This sheen is the preferred paint to use for paintable doors, windows and trim. It is washable and also repels water. It is the 2nd shiniest sheen.
The 3rd degree of sheen would be from either satin or eggshell. These terms are interchangeable, the only real difference being whether it is a commercial or residential application. It used to be that commercial buildings used eggshell, and was only available in wholesale paint outlets. Residential customers bought satin from retail paint outlets. Same sheen, same reason to use them. They have a slight sheen and are washable.
When planning to do any type of faux painting that requires the use of glazing, it is preferable to have a semi-gloss, satin or eggshell paint surface as your base coat.
Any of the paint products that have a sheen will flash easily. This means that imperfections in the wall preparation or patchwork will be seen more readily. The shine just seems to highlight the imperfection. Have you ever run a vacuum over the carpet and you can see the line as it pulls the nap a different direction? This is what flashing looks like, it stands out from the rest of the surface.
If your walls have lots of imperfections in them, you might want to skim coat the walls with drywall mud, or reprime the entire wall or go with a flat wall paint. Check back regularly as we will offer video instruction of the first 2 techniques soon.
For the easiest most forgiving house painting product, consider flat wall paint - it has no sheen. That is why it is always used when painting a ceiling. Light reflecting on a higher paint sheen will immediately call attention to every detail of how that ceiling was taped and finished.
There are exceptions to every instruction, so don't get too bogged down in these rules. It can be great fun to combine flat and semi-gloss to create interesting looks with just house painting. If you feel like having a flat wall or a shiny ceiling, go for it. Just remember that if you go from a shiny surface to a dull one, you will need to prime first so that the new paint sticks to the surface.
Your Color Personality - How It will Affect Your Choices
Now for the moment you have waited for. How do you select the colors? First of all, let's spend a few minutes defining your color personality. Then we will be able to help you select that perfect color for each room in your house.
Great, you are back, that survey was pretty informative wasn't it? Got a few laughs no doubt. But how in the world will you use this information, especially to pick colors for your house painting project?
Review the number in each column. This will tell you if you have a color preference that leans one way or another.
When reviewing house painting, remember that warm colors tend to stimulate the appetite, promote socializing and excite the mind. Cool colors are calming, cooling and encourage relaxation. Neutral colors make you feel safe, secure, down to earth and are transitional colors. So, you can see already how they can lend themselves to particular rooms. Further, if you will notice on the form, I have divided the activities by what you would naturally do in a particular room.
Go back and review the survey again. Do your color choices tend to be the same depending on groups of activities? If so, you now know what color ranges to use in this house painting project for that particular room.
Color and Fashion Trends
How does this jive with the latest fashion trends in home decorating? My first reaction is to tell you that this is not important. Let the latest fashion trends be what you wear, let the longterm things like paint on the wall be something that you decide based on your own innate color preferences. After all you do have to live there season in and season out.
But, then, I have to back that up and qualify it with this realization. We are creatures of fashion, no matter how much we either deny or try to ignore it. Color especially surrounds us, fashion will dictate the colors that we see every day. Whether we like it or not, fashion will somewhat control what we like or don't like, just from being inundated with it.
So, I believe that the long answer for this house painting dilemma is to put your color preferences into the wall paint and add fashion statements with accessories.
Color Intensity
You can also use the answers you got from the intensity column to pull in some fashion trends. If your preferences were predominantly pastel, but one activity in the group prompted you to select a stronger intensity, then you have a perfect design moment. Paint 3 walls in the pastel tone and paint the third with the more intense color. I am willing to bet that this more intense color is probably a fashion color of the moment. Without conscious realization you are picking up on that.
Great, it all makes sense, except you selected orange for an activity. You didn't really see your perfect shade as a choice, so that was the default answer. But, really, you can't begin to imagine bronco orange in your kitchen. No worries, this is a guideline. Take your survey with you to the local house painting store. Pick up color chips in that color range. In the example I just used, orange would be a bit much, but what about peach?
Color Clashes within the Family
Ok, so, what if your color choices clash with a family member? For example, I definitely like the cool colors and yet my partner Chuck leans more towards the warm colors. It is not right or wrong, we just know now. How do we handle it? Depends on who wins the thumb wrestling war at the time we decide to do our house painting. Just kidding.
When this happens to you and your family, try this. Paint private rooms, like a childs room, to their color choice. Specialty rooms could be painted the color preference of the one who uses it the most. If no compromises can be reached on common use rooms, go with the neutrals. Use the neutrals in transition areas to go from color to color.
Blending and Contrasting
That is the question. Whether 'tis nobler to blend or contrast is definitely in the eye of the beholder. Read a story about how this issue affected one couple and then definitely answer this all important question for yourselves.
Color Chips and Lighting
A word about color paint chips and lighting. Start with the smaller color chips in the store. Also try to get a bigger chip to take home with you. I guarantee that the size of the chip and the lighting in the store will cause differences in your feeling about that particular color. If there is doubt, buy a quart of the color and put it on the wall before you actually start the project. A quart of paint runs about $10, which is much less expensive than buying multiple gallons and expending the time to paint, just to realize at completion that it was the wrong color.
A Few Other Tricks Up Your Sleeve
A few other tricks to remember. Dark colors shrink,light colors expand. White ceilings lend height to a room. When considering trim colors remember these color rules. If you have tall cavernous ceiling spaces, use darker trim colors to pull them down. Or if you have short ceilings, paint them white and use white trims to lengthen space.
One other thing: do you know how many shades of white there are for house painting? So, when considering shades of white, think once again to your own personal color preferences. Cool whites, warm whites,neutral whites, the choices never, ever end - welcome to the world of home remodeling.
Breathe. When all is said and done, just go with a color that feels good when you look at it.
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