Spring 2009 Paint Colours

The big colours for spring interior decorating are natural tones of rust, cool grey, pale glassy blue, and eucalyptus green.

The Eichler colour predictions tend toward deep, earthy tones.

Pantone's spring list moves more toward brighter, lighter, happy colours.

Either approach will give your house or office the oomph it deserves after a long winter.

Check the new Dulux greens for both glassy blue-greens and the yellowed greens of the bush.

Grey is the neutral of the moment, giving a more sophisticated look than the tawny beiges that were so well-loved last year. A cooler shade of grey will update interiors that went with purples last year, or establish a more complex mood for an interior that needs a complete redo.

Spicy red-orange like the new buds of eucalyptus makes a great accent colour for the eucalyptus greens, of course, but it also warms up grey and complements blue-green. Use it to pick out architectural details, or take the plunge and do a single accent wall or a whole room for a vibrant effect.

If you're in Sydney, call Courtney & Wise at 9958-1099 to discuss giving your home or office a new spring look.

Hiring a Painter

With Spring on the way, we're all thinking about how to freshen up our homes, offices, and indeed our lives.

Fresh paint is a great choice as the recession lingers on. It can make your business look more prosperous, help you love your home again without expensive renovations, and give you an all-around brighter view of life.

But how can you be sure to get the right painters?

First, you can ask around among your friends and neighbors. A company with a good reputation can give you peace of mind.

You can consult official accrediting organisations such as the Master Painters or the Dulux Accrediting board. Call 13 23 77 and give your postcode for approved painters in your area. Shoddy painters cannot get approval from these bodies, so you can feel confident.

Before you ask the painters to come out, give some thought to what you want done. Have everyone involved in the decision on hand to discuss which surfaces should be painted. If possible, have all the decision-makers present when the painters come out to give you a quote. Going back and forth, or getting quotes that don't include all the things you actually want done, can make it impossible to compare quotes.

Get written quotes specifying the details of the job so you can be sure you're comparing apples to apples. Use our checklist to be certain that you've covered all the points you need to.

For more detail, read our Tips for Comparing Quotes.

What Went Wrong with my Paint?

Paint isn't forever. even the very best job of painting will need to be redone at some point.

But paint that quickly peels, fades, or otherwise fails is a sign of bad choices.

Here are some of the things that lead to paint failure:

• Improper surface preparation. Preparing the surface is enormously important for successful painting. Your surface must be smooth, clean, and dry. If the surface has dirt and particles on it, then the paint will adhere to the dirt and the particles, not to the surface you're trying to paint. Some surfaces may need sanding, priming, and other special preparation as well.
  
• Paint incompatibility. Chemical reactions between old paint and the new paint put on over it can also cause paint failure, so removing old paint is often a necessary step. If you've used oil-based paints in the past, you may not be able to cover them with acrylic or latex paints. You may also have difficulty getting good paint adhesion if you paint over a glossy surface.
  
• Poor quality paint. When you try to save money by using poor quality paints, you end up losing money because the painting has to be done again so much more quickly.
• Poorly chosen paint. Good quality paint can still fail if it's used for the wrong purpose. The best paint for your floors is not the best paint for your porch balustrades. Make certain that your materials are intended for the purpose for which you use them.
• Moisture. Damp is one of the main reasons for paint failure. Leaking windows or roofs and damp conditions can cause paint to separate, peel, and flake.
• Poor painting technique. Painting a top coat when the base coat is not yet dry, or painting in hot sun, can both cause blistering in paint.
  

Extreme Wall Treatments

We've been looking at some simple DIY wall treatments: fun and forgiving paint finishes, removing old wallpaper.

We're not going to pretend that a professional job won't give you better results than DIY, but we also understand the appeal of doing it yourself.

Can we just say one thing, though? When you want something very special and fancy, talk with professionals before you consider doing it yourself. You can waste a lot of your valuable time and good quality materials before you finally have to call in a pro to fix it up.

And by then, it'll take more time to undo what you've done, and it'll end up costing you more to get the results you wanted in the first place.

If you're in Sydney, painters and decorators Courtney & Wise will be happy to give you a no-cost, no-obligation quote for the wall treatment of your dreams.

Removing Old Wallpaper

How hard is it to remove old wallpaper?

This depends largely on how old the wallpaper is. If it's fairly new, it may just peel right off, with the help of a putty knife and some muscle.

Older wallpaper takes more effort. Cut it into sections first, and then soak it with a spray bottle. Use a putty knife to scrape it off. Clean the exposed wall thoroughly and make sure it's completely dry before trying any more DIY. You don't want to end up with mould problems.

Realistically, it can take you a full day to remove wallpaper from an ordinary-sized room. Take everything off the walls, remove all the furniture you can, protect the remaining furniture and floors with dropcloths, and plan to have takeaway for dinner.

If it seems like too daunting a task, you might wonder if you can leave the wallpaper where it is. If you have one layer of old wallpaper and it's securely attached to the wall, you could paper over it. Never paint over it, though; you'll just be wasting good paint. The results will never look as good as they should.

If you get into the job and realize that it's more than you're up to, call your local professional painters and decorators.

Special Finishes: Sponging

Sponging is another special finish that's easy enough for DIY. Sponging allows you use three different colours or more if you choose. It often works best with analogous colours -- those close together on the colour wheel.

Paint the wall with your first colour, following basic methods.

Then pour out a bit of the second colour. Wet a natural sea sponge, dip it into the paint, and squeeze out any excess paint. Now pounce it lightly onto the wall.

Work gradually, overlapping a bit. Step back now and then to see the overall effect.

Once the second colour is completely dry, pour a bit of the third colour into a paint rolling pan and repeat the process, concentrating on any areas you missed the first time round with the sponge.

That's it! This is a very forgiving technique -- mistakes won't show.

Special Paint Finishes

Courtney & Wise do many special paint finishes, and some are too difficult for DIY attempts. Some special finishes, though, are fun to try. One such is the watercolor finish.

You can use a special watercolor finish paint, or you can mix a thin paint yourself using water and texturiser. Take a soft, clean rag and saturate it in the paint mixture. Sweep it over the wall for pale floating colour, or build up to the look of a Mediterranean fresco. Unevenness is part of the look, so don't feel that you have to be perfect.

This can be a great family project! As always, if you like the idea but don't care to do it yourself, Courtney & Wise will be glad to step in and give you the effect you want with professional ease.

What's a VOC?

Volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, are what you're smelling when you smell that old familiar "fresh paint" scent.

They're not good for you. They're not good for the environment, either.

Traditionally, you've had to go with pale colours and matte finishes (read our last post to learn about that) in order to reduce the VOCs in your paint.

You've had the option on choosing "low VOCs" paints for a few years now. A "low VOCs" paint is defined as any paint with less than 160 grams of VOCs per liter. Often, these paints have had less saturated colours and less durability, requiring repainting sooner.

As a Dulux accredited painter, Courtney & Wise recommend Dulux green paints, which have received the "Greenhouse Friendly" seal. These paints are greenhouse friendly, with extremely low VOCs.

Here's the really great part: they also come in lots of colours, and are washable. You can have the good parts, and the great part. No downside.

Matte, Eggshell, Semi-Gloss -- What Are They Talking About?

We give a lot of thought to choosing just the right colours for painting. Have you thought about the finish?

When your painters and decorators start bandying about words like "eggshell" and "matte," they're talking about the paint's finish. There are a number of different finishes:

• matte, or not shiny at all
• eggshell, having a very slight sheen
• satin, a low-gloss finish with a bit of a shine
  
• semi-gloss, a bit light-reflective
• high-gloss, a hard shiny finish
  

As you can see, these finishes are listed in order from completely flat to completely glossy.

How much of a sheen do you want? There are two main factors to consider.

First, a flatter finish is more forgiving. Mistakes in painting don't show up as much with matte paint as with glossy paint. If you have a professional painter, this doesn't matter. But if you're a DIY painter, you might consider going with a flatter finish.

Second, a glossy finish is easier to clean. Matte paint isn't washable. Glossy paint can take some scrubbing. A semi-gloss finish makes sense for kitchens, baths, children's rooms, and hallways. Matte paint is better suited to low-traffic areas.

When you choose your paint, try a couple of finishes and see how you like them before making your decision.