7 Things You Should Know About Exterior Painting in Denver Metro, CO
When you have a home, you need to paint the exterior from time to time — it is a necessary part of your home ownership whether you are the one who does it or you get a professional painting contractor to assist you.
There are many aspects to exterior painting that are useful to know when you are engaging in a painting project, some of which involve the preparation of the exterior of your home.
That said, here are seven things you should know about exterior painting in Denver Metro, CO.
1. The Best Way To Start Is To Plan
Before you lift the paintbrush for the first time, you need to make a plan for the exterior painting project.
A plan like this entails figuring out when you are going to paint your home’s exterior as well as what materials you are going to need, including how much paint you are going to need.
By planning your exterior paint job prior to starting it, you are going to save quite a lot of time that could be otherwise wasted as well as money in the long run.
2. Painting Helps Find Exterior Flaws
When you paint the exterior of your home, you are bound to find any exterior flaws that may exist, be they areas of the siding that have holes in them that need to be repaired or issues with mold that certainly need to be treated sooner than not.
Because you have to thoroughly examine the exterior of your home prior to starting, these issues come up and therefore can be treated before they develop into worse issues.
3. Not All Paint Is Created Equally
When it comes to painting the exterior of your home, you need to make sure that you are using the right kind of paint.
For one, this means that you need to make sure that you are using exterior paint when you are painting the exterior of your home just as you should use interior paint when you are painting the interior of your home.
Exterior paint has certain qualities that protect the home — UV protection being one of them, and being one of the reasons that home exteriors need to be repainted from time to time as the UV protection fades over time.
4. Quality Over Low Price
Though some will have you believe that you can get just any paint that’s available for sale as well as the equipment that is involved in painting, this is not at all the case.
Lower quality paint, for example, tends to spread less easily and it also does not last nearly as long — you will find that it fades quickly.
5. Choose The Right Time Of Year To Paint
It’s not always the best time of year to paint the exterior of your home.
If it’s too cold, for example, it will take too long for the paint to dry and that is not good for the painting project as a whole.
If on the other hand it is too hot, the paint will dry too quickly and it will cause numerous issues with the paint.
6. Do Not Paint While It’s Raining Or Snowing
The exterior of your home should be dry before you paint it and thus you should not paint while it is either raining or snowing.
For best results you are going to want to hold off until the forecast calls for dry weather before you begin your painting project.
7. Sand And Scrape Peeling Paint
When you have peeling paint on the exterior of the house, you are going to want to scrape and sand those areas and then apply a coat of primer.
The two things — the sanding and the primer — will ensure that the painting area is smooth and thus be best for painting.
Don’t settle for just any painter when you can get the attention to detail and professionalism from Imhoff Fine Residential Painting in Denver Metro, CO. Call us today to speak with one of our professional color consultants.
Tips and Tricks for Choosing A Stain For Your Kitchen Cabinets in Denver Metro, CO
When you get new kitchen cabinets, one of the first things that should be done is to choose whether to paint the cabinets or to stain them.
The difference between painting your cabinets and staining them is relatively substantial, in that one will greatly cover the wood of your cabinets. In contrast, one will highlight the natural grain and appeal of your cabinets.
If you choose to stain your kitchen cabinets, something you will need to do is to determine which stain will go best with them — and not all stains are appropriate for your kitchen cabinets.
With that being the case, let us look at some tips and tricks for choosing a stain for your kitchen cabinets in Denver Metro, CO.
White
A white stain is a good look for you if you like the appearance of white cabinets, but you also want to retain the look of the grain of the wood.
It is the kind of stain that can be optimal if you pair it with more colorful appliances, flooring, or even countertops that contrast well with the white cabinets.
It is good to note that white kitchen cabinets pair well with appliances of just about any color.
Sand Well Before Staining
Though it’s agreed that sanding before painting your kitchen cabinets, it is not entirely agreed that you also need to do so before wood staining.
Sanding your kitchen cabinets can make the difference between well-stained cabinets and cabinets that look quite awful and need to be redone.
You would do well to use 220 grit sandpaper to finely sand the surface of your cabinets before you begin the staining process.
It’s worth noting that you should also properly clean the cabinets as the sanding dust that comes about from sanding should not be left.
Stains And Finish Should Be Compatible
When you are finished applying coats of stain — the more coats of stain you apply, the darker it will be — you will apply a finish to the surface of your cabinets.
These two must be compatible — and the good news is that the label on your stain will let you know which finishes are best for your stain.
Cherry Red
Cherry red is one of the most popular when it comes to stains for your kitchen cabinets.
This is the kind of color that works well if you have neutral colors in your kitchen to go along with it.
You should also consider appliances that are stainless steel, or perhaps white or black, as these look good when you have cherry red kitchen cabinets.
Colored Stains
Colored stains give you all the benefits of painting your kitchen cabinets with traditional paint, but allow you to appreciate the grain of the wood still.
The stronger the color of your kitchen cabinets, the more you will likely want to go with neutral colors for your walls as well as the appliances in your kitchens — for a while, you could have bright colors on both, it would undoubtedly make for a jarring experience for the person coming into the kitchen.
Black
When you see black kitchen cabinets, you tend to think of a modern kitchen.
One issue that people tend to have with kitchen cabinets that are stained black is that they seem to give a kitchen an appearance of being smaller than it is.
A solution for this is not to have all of your kitchen cabinets black and to split them with some of the cabinets being black, and others being another color.
Don’t settle for just any painter when you can get the attention to detail and professionalism from Imhoff Fine Residential Painting in Denver Metro, CO. Call us today to speak with one of our professional color consultants.
5 Tips For Staining Wooden Stairs in Denver Metro, CO
When you have wooden stairs in your home, part of the maintenance and upkeep of the stairs involves making sure to take the time to occasionally re-stain them — or, if the stairs are newly built, staining them, to begin with.
Wooden stairs are like any other wooden product and need special care — you can’t just treat them like other stairs that would get cleaned and even painted.
While wooden stairs can, of course, be painted, there’s a special quality that you get from staining them — they certainly benefit health-wise from wood staining.
Let’s look at and consider five tips for staining wooden stairs in Denver Metro, CO.
1. Clean First
When you’re looking to stain your wooden stairs, the first thing you need to do is to make sure that the stairs are clean.
This means more than just sweeping them and wiping them to make sure that they are free of any loose dust or dirt that may be on them.
It would help if you scrubbed the stairs well to make sure that they are entirely free of any dirt and then, of course, allow time for them to dry.
2. Don’t Try To Stain Already Stained Stairs
In staining your wooden stairs, there has to be a certain quality — open pores, that is — that will permit your stain actually to affect your stairs.
When your stairs are already stained, and you want to stain them anew, you will have to take steps before applying a new coat of stain.
Specifically, you have to sand the stairs gently — this will open up the stairs’ pores and make it possible for you to stain them.
If your wooden stairs are newly constructed, of course, you don’t have to worry about this because the newly constructed stairs won’t have any stain on them.
3. Don’t Leave Stain On Too Long
The longer you leave on the stain, the darker the stain ultimately will be.
That being the case, you don’t just put the stain on your stairs and then walk away for a few days — invariably, you’re going to have a little excess stain on the stairs that need to be wiped away.
The issue is that some people presume that the quantity of strain they put on is okay, and they leave it all on indefinitely — and this is not appropriate ever.
The stain shouldn’t be allowed to dry on — but rather, you should time the length it stays on consistently throughout the staining process so that all of your stairs get stained for the same amount of time.
4. Gloves And Old Clothes
When you’re staining your wooden stairs, you can’t just go in wearing new clothing and nothing on your hands.
Well… you can, but only if you don’t mind getting your new clothes covered with stained and utterly ruined, and your hands similarly covered in stain and need of a good cleaning.
Instead, it would help if you considered how to choose clothing — clothing that you don’t mind getting completely covered in stain — and choose a good pair of disposable gloves to wear while staining.
This is a good thing because, at worst, you can dispose of the clothing, and you won’t feel a loss over it.
5. Stain Is Not Protection
Lastly, please remember that staining your wooden stairs does not protect them, and you have to take a final step to get that protection.
Specifically, you have to put on a clear finishing coat before you can consider your wooden stairs fully and properly stained.
The clear finishing coat is the step that you have to take to protect your stairs.
Don’t settle for just any painter when you can get the attention to detail and professionalism from Imhoff Fine Residential Painting in Denver Metro, CO. Call us today to speak with one of our professional color consultants.
Guest Room Painting On A Budget in Denver Metro, CO.
When you have a guest room, you, of course, want it to look as good as possible but like any room painting project, it can be extremely expensive if you’re not careful.
However, what you should know is that there are things that you can do in order to improve upon the look of the guest room without spending too much money — and if you take advantage of these things, you will know that you’ve gotten a good deal on your guest room painting project or at the very least will cut down the price a bit.
With that being the case, let’s have a look at some tips for guest room painting on a budget in Denver Metro, CO.
1. Look For Paint At Donation Centers
One thing that you’ll be able to do if you’re looking to save money on your guest room painting project is to look to purchase your paint at donation centers, where paint and painting supplies are donated in order to raise money for not-for-profit organizations.
Of course, the one thing that is going to separate purchases made at such centers other than the price can be that much lower is that you aren’t going to have any control over what color or colors you’re going to find there.
For some people, mind you, this is actually a bit of a fun challenge — to go to the painting donation center and to see what is available and then to take on the challenge of making use of the paint for painting the room with what you find.
2. Paint More Slowly
Though it may seem a bit odd, you can actually save a bit of money on your painting project if you paint more slowly, and the reason for this is fairly straightforward.
When you are painting a room such as your guest room, you might be tempted to go through it fairly quickly because you want to get the paintwork done and over with as soon as you can.
This would be a bit of a mistake, however, because all you’re going to end up doing is making the occasional mess — and these are the sorts of messes that are going to haunt you in the form of then having to go back and spend a good amount of time correcting these mistakes – and the time that you spend correcting these mistakes will be quite costly to you.
By not making mistakes in the first place, you’ll be able to cut down on the price of your project.
3. Primer Before Paint
The cost of your painting project is not just how much the project costs upfront – when you look at the project, you have to think of it in terms of how long the paintwork will look good before it finally becomes time for you to paint the area once again.
Anything that you are going to be able to do to stretch out the period of time between when you allow the paint to dry for the final time and when you next have to plan out a painting project is going to make the long term price of said painting project cheaper, one day at a time as it were.
So you should therefore carefully consider the importance of using a primer before you apply the first coat of paint — for doing this is going to not only make it that much easier for you to apply paint to the surface of the walls in the guest room, but it will keep the paint there longer.
Primer is going to make your guest room walls more receptive to paint and has adhesive qualities that will make the paint stay on better – and that is good for the long-term budget of your project.
Don’t settle for just any painter when you can get the attention to detail and professionalism from Imhoff Fine Residential Painting in Denver Metro, CO. Call us today to speak with one of our professional color consultants.
Storage Room Painting Techniques in Denver Metro, CO.
You may know your storage room only when you think about how important it is to keep your things that don’t seem to have any place else in your home, or perhaps when there are things in your life that simply are to be used during certain times of the year and no other times (seasonal items, for example…) and given the nature of the room you might think that it doesn’t really matter how well it is or isn’t painting.
This is not necessarily the case, however, and you should be well aware of the fact that when you have a well-painted storage room it goes beyond just having a storage room that looks nice — given the steps that go into room painting, you will find that you actually will more often than not also substantially improve the walls when you paint.
With that being the case, let’s have a look at some storage room painting techniques in Denver Metro, CO.
1. Use Primer
One of the things that you’re going to need to do when you’re looking to paint your storage room is to make sure that you apply a coat of primer before you apply the first of possibly a couple of coats of paint.
This is fundamentally important for a couple of reasons, one of them being that a coat of primer will make the paint that follows it go on more smoothly.
The other reason that primer is good for your storage room painting project is that it helps the paint that you apply adhere to the surface better than if you do not make use of any primer, and you will see that the typical painting project that makes use of primer will last quite a bit longer than one that does not use a primer.
2. Choose A Good Color
You’re probably thinking that you don’t have to put too much thought into the color or colors that you’re going to apply to your storage room walls considering that it’s just going to be the storage room that is being painted.
You can really use just about any color you want, so long as it’s the kind of color that will look good on the walls of your storage room.
Indeed, this could be anything ranging from some of your favorite colors to just a color or colors that will look good with some of the other things that you have in your storage room.
3. Use A Good Brush And Roller
You’re going to want to make sure that when you are painting your storage room walls that you are using paintbrushes and rollers that are of at least average or better quality and certainly not lower-priced brushes and rollers.
As you are going to be spending a good amount of time painting your storage room walls, you should do so with good quality brushes and rollers for a couple of reasons – one of them being that you will actually find it significantly easier to apply paint and primer with better quality hardware.
Moreover, you will find that when you make use of low-quality brushes and rollers, there is actually a chance that the bristles and the roller covering will break off as they were while you are painting and you will end up looking at these same bits and pieces in the paint itself – certainly not a look you’ll want.
4. Paint Type Still Matters
Lastly, you’re going to want to make sure that you’re using the right kind of paint – at the very least you should be using interior paint and not exterior paint, certainly — for those are exclusively meant for use on the exterior of your home.
Don’t settle for just any painter when you can get the attention to detail and professionalism from Imhoff Fine Residential Painting in Denver Metro, CO. Call us today to speak with one of our professional color consultants.
