Easy House Painting Tips - Newsletter April, 2009

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Colours Do Matter

Exterior Painting Tips

If you have smaller rooms then paint your house in such a way that it would look spacious and bright as well.

Following the simple tips you can make your small rooms look spacious:

1. Always use pale colors so that the room will look larger than what it is. The light colors give the enlargement effect in smaller room.
2. Blue, purple and green are the colors which give cool effect and make the rooms look much larger.
3. Using shiny surfaces also makes the ceilings look higher and hence the room appears bigger.

1. Painting walls with dark colors will give closeness effect.
2. Colors like red, orange, and yellow will give warmth and closeness effect.
3. You can also make your room look smaller by painting them with soft, dull, and non-reflective colors.

1. House Wash - Give the sides of the house or the areas that you plan on painting a good wash. A pressure washer (carefully) is a good time-saver as well.



2. Choosing Colors - A lot of times, you will find that the painting brochures at the paint store give you a lot more ideas than picking up some paint swatches. Of course, the colours are strictly up to you and your tastes.



3. Use Quality Paint - Like the old adage states – you get what you pay for. I’ve used a few of the lesser quality paints as requested by clients and won’t be doing it again. Spend a few extra dollars and get a good quality paint – it doesn’t have to be the top of the line. Benjamin Moore of course is my preferred brand as they have good time-tested exterior paints and primers.



4. Latex vs Oil Base - With the new formulas for latex paints, you can now feel confident on using them on the exterior of the house. Latex paints will allow the paint to breathe better and not trap moisture which is the biggest cause for cracking and peeling with oil-based paints. An oil-base primer however is a very choice and the latex finish paints can still be applied over this.



5. Oil Base Stains - If you plan on staining your house there are many excellent exterior latex stains. Especially solid body stain. Solid body stain looks like regular paint except it's made for rough wood siding. Now if you have a natural wood color siding you will want to use a "semi-transparent" stain that is oil base. I would use an oil base stain in this instance because the oil base stain can permeate down into the natural wood. This is something that should be done every few years to keep the sun and elements from deteriorating the natural wood look. A quick one coat to protect the natural wood siding is best.