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How to Make your Holiday Entertaining it’s Best this Upcoming Season!

You don’t have to settle for old, red brick on either your Exterior of your home, or for your Interior Fireplace. Many homeowners are updating the brick on the Exterior, or partial brick on the front of the Exterior, and changing the color to a more updated white, off white, or even light gray such as the photo below. Having the right painting company do the work, with the right application process, is very important. Not only is the specific Materials used important, but also having highly skilled painters/ painting contractors doing the work is a must. Changing the outdated red brick Fireplace is another option that homeowners have. Not only does it look like a brand new fireplace, it also brightens up the room when a white or off-white color is used, such as the photo below. Dont “settle” for what you have, either when you buy a new home, or when you have lived in the home for many years. A facelift does wonders for the appearance, and you will love to show this off to your friends and family members.

10 Home Improvement Projects to Tackle Before Moving Into a New House

We always recommend using Sherwin Williams SuperDeck Solid Acrylic Stain for the best protection of your deck. We stain Decks if we are staining/painting the whole house. We always recommend using a Solid Acrylic Stain, as opposed to a Semi-Trans stain for your deck to look better and last longer. With a Solid Acrylic Stain, you can use the same color that you are using on your house, or you can go with a totally different color for the deck. All the choices of colors that you have for your house can also be used for your Deck, along with some other colors that come in the SuperDeck brochure. We are often asked ” How often should you stain the deck?”. That all depends on the Deck, along with the weather conditions and the foot traffic on the Deck. Because of the foot traffic, a Deck is often stained more that a house is stained. A typical house is done every 5-7 years to be on the best maintenance schedule. We occasionally, though, need to do the Decks for our customers more often, possibly every few years. Many of our customers, though, only do their Decks when they are doing their house staining.

According to a Seller Survey by HomeGain on Top DIY Home Improvements, painting the Exterior leads to a 55% ROI. The Exterior of your home is the first thing sellers will see. Curb appeal is extremely important. Jennie Norris, Chairwoman of the International Association of Home Staging Professionals, however, recommends that you leave it to the Professionals to do the job, however. She says that you don’t want to use too many colors on the Exterior. A variety of colors can be distracting and make the house appear choppy or smaller- distracting the buyers eye. Typically, 3 colors is the most that you want to do. She recommends using the 60-30-10 percentage rule. 60% is the body, 30% is the Garage doors and Trim, and the final 10% is the front/shutters with just a pop of color. However, even if you are not planning to sell your home, it’s important to keep up on the maintenance of your home. Typically, a cedar sided home is done every 5-7 years. The signs of when your home needs to be done would be: Peeling, chipping, cracked wood, fading, and rotted wood. Also, if the caulking is bad, such as cracked and loose. Your home is typically your largest investment. You need to protect your investment wisely.

One important part of the painting process for Interior Painting is knowing the correct finish to use when painting walls, trim, and ceilings. For walls, it is very important not to use too high of a finish. The lowest finish available in most paint products is a Flat. The next highest is a Matte, or some paint brands refer to it also as Low Sheen. From there, it goes up to an Eggshell, and next highest is often a Semi-Gloss. Different finishes have different purposes, besides just the look. A flat finish will hide the best for any imperfections in the walls ( this has nothing to do with the paint job. It is with the construction or wearing -divots, nail pops, previous drips from other painters, cracks, bad drywall work, bad construction of the walls where you can see all the seams, etc). A flat is also recommended where you have light reflected walls, or walls that get a lot of direct sunlight, with large areas as such. That is because if you use too high of a sheen, you can get a “flashing” problem, where when you look down the wall, you can see the stops and starts of the rollers or brushes. A Matte or Low Sheen is what we recommend for most walls, as it has a slight sheen which looks nice, but most importantly, it cleans up better than a flat. Sometimes an Eggshell is used for Bathrooms and Kitchens, which are the rooms that would get the most wear/ marks on the walls. However, we feel the products we use ( Benjamin Moore Aura or Ultra Spec, or Sherwin Williams Emerald), have a good Matte or Low Sheen that is sufficient. Again, if you go too high of a sheen, you can have problems. For trim, you should not use regular wall paint in a semi-gloss, which is what some painting companies do. We recommend an enamel is used instead, such as the Benjamin Moore Satin Impervo Waterborne. Finally, on ceilings, the only finish we recommend is Flat, so that you do not see any flashing. Choosing the right painting company that has the years of experience to know about these finishes is important.

Many homeowners struggle with moving forward on taking on a project for the home of having their house painted because the thought of selecting all the colors for the rooms can be overwhelming. However, the resources are out there to help you with the whole project. Sherwin Williams Paint Stores have professional Color Consultants on staff who will take you through the process of choosing the right colors for your rooms. Of course you can use on line assistance of Social Media sites like Pinterest to get ideas, but nothing compares to having a professional come into your home and help you select your colors that compliment your existing fabrics and decor in your home. Paint-Right Painting Inc., for large-scale projects, will help you with the cost of the color consult as well, when you choose us to do the project for you. The consult typical time is up to 90 minutes, which gives you plenty of time to walk around your home with the consultant and get ideas. So don’t put off getting your outdated and marked up walls in your rooms updated with new color schemes and current trend colors. Contact your local Sherwin Williams store after talking with us about painting your home. Pictured below is Kathy Wright/V.P. Sales and Marketing with Sherwin Williams area Color Consultants, Sharae, Naja, Maria, Yvonne, and Naperville Store manager, Rob.

Now that the Exterior season is finishing, we thought it would be interesting to hear what the crew has to say about which weather conditions outside are the toughest to work in. We asked them to rate the following: 1) Heat, 2) Humidity, 3) Cold, 4) Wind: Here’s the answers: Dan, Painting Contractor: The worst is Wind. Next is Cold. Following that would be Humidity and then Heat. Tony, Painter: Humidity is the worse. Next is Wind. Following that is Heat. The easiest is Cold. Comments: We had a good season, but 1 job with a lot of prep work we did was hard. This house was in really bad shape. There was a lot of peeling. It probably could have used a 3rd coat, but the customer wanted to do only 1 coat, except in worse areas he agreed on 2 coats. What happened is this house was not kept in good condition, and the last time it was painted, they probably just painted over the peeled areas. Mike, Painter: The worst is Humidity. Next is Wind. Following that is Heat and then finally Cold. Comments: One day, when I was working with Dan, the wind was so intense that you couldn’t even go on a step ladder. Also, with winds, when on a roof or putting a ladder on it, it can be very dangerous. John, President: I would combine Heat and Humidity together as the worse. Next is Wind, and then Cold. If it is Cold and Windy, you can’t work. If it’s just cold, then you can. In 4 Decades, the worse is the Heat with the Humidity. It’s a killer. It destroys you. Chris, President of Tacoma, WA location: These conditions don’t apply out here. We never have Humidity. However, the fog can be bad. Typically, we start with a rainy season, then it turns good, and then comes the Fog with the Cold. At the end, there is only 4-5 workable hours time in a day. Also, what currently is going on is a lot of smoke from all the fires out here. So that’s the opinion of the crew. Everyone has a different perspective of the conditions. The guys in IL are in for a big change now that our Interior season is starting, and they don’t have to be concerned about the weather outside! In the Tacoma location, Chris is doing Exterior and Interior both during the Spring/Summer season.

Many homeowners of Cedar Sided homes have a brick front/ or partial brick on their home, and want to create a “WOW” Factor when the house is up for a new painting/staining. This us usually done to take a darker colored brick to go lighter. Most often, white is used on the brick. However, it can be a tan or gray color, or another color to match the siding. There are some situations, however, that we prefer not to paint the brick. The first is when their is noted water damage to the brick, which you can tell by seeing water stains on the brick in areas. Another situation is when there is efflorescence, which is water in the brick, that evaporates, and then leaves crystalline salts on the brick. The final situation where we prefer not to paint the brick is when there are problems with the tuck-pointing falling apart. In the above situations, you may want to hire a company that stains the bricks instead. However, it won’t be a solid, uniform, consistent look such as the painted look. Painting the brick is usually a 3 step process of a primer, and 2 topcoats of a flat paint that is good for masonry surfaces. You want to ensure it has a uniform, consistent finish, which is why a hand application as opposed to spraying is the best way for the project to be done.