Finding the Best Blues and Purples
JANE DAGMI. Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about decorating with blue. Inspired by a recent and joyful overdose of hydrangea plants along the California coast, I am loving many shades of blue represented in this bountiful flower from fresh French blue to a mellow heather hue and onto a vivacious violet. Riding a hydrangea blue high, I found a few beautiful rooms whose palettes reflect my state of mind.Continue reading
Great Bedroom Colors
LUCIANNA SAMU. It’s probable that there are better things to dream about on a sultry August afternoon than bedroom walls that match the Mediterranean, or a bathroom painted the color of my riding instructor’s Palomino horse. Maybe cruising the Mediterranean or riding the Palomino horse. Hopefully you are reading this post with one foot on the ground to keep your hammock rocking at your favorite summer spot. You can thank me in September, then, for sparking your enthusiasm to plan a favorite bedroom color combination while you’re surrounded by the inspiring palette of summer.Continue reading
A House Full of Cool Colors
LUCIANNA SAMU. I heard a news story recently which proclaimed 85 percent of the U.S. population live in air-conditioned ‘circumstances.’ ‘Circumstances,’ is probably the operative word here, and my particular circumstance is not air-conditioned. While the debate in my house over whether the benefits of a constant breeze and fans is the equivalent of whole house climate control rages on, Grant Beige, HC-84 is adding a cooling and calming contrast to my side of the argument. Turns out it’s indisputable; you can cool a room with a cool color and improve your circumstance dramatically while you are at it.Continue reading
Prepping Your Deck for Stain
Whether your deck is made of pressure-treated lumber, cedar, redwood, or teak, everything from the sun’s UV rays to rain and snow to simple everyday use creates wear and tear on the surface. Sooner or later it’ll need refinishing. Telltale signs that y…Continue reading
A Quick and Lasting Faux Bois
LUCIANNA SAMU. Avid thrift shoppers, garage sale hunters and curbside collectors alike have yet to put a crimp in the availability of solid wood finds worthy of up-cycling. I like that word, up-cycling–it has a certain poetic ring to it that blurs the fact that really what we’re all doing is passing our discards around. Doors are probably my greatest obsession, and a solid cherry or, better yet, walnut door is a hard thing to find by the curb. So when they do turn up, I strap them onto the roof of my old Volvo and add them to my pile of "someday someone will need this beauty." Someday may come sooner than I thought for my tall pile of rescued wood furniture, thanks to the greatest invention an up-cycler could ever hope for–a reliable waterborne wood stain called Arborcoat.Continue reading
Preparing New Pressure Treated Wood Deck to Take a Finish
The warm weather is finally here and if you’ve just finished installing a brand new deck, it’ll need some kind of protection before you can invite friends and family over to enjoy it. Chances are you used pressure treated wood (PTW), the most common an…Continue reading
Cleaning Brushes and Rollers
Quality brushes and rollers are expensive, so it pays to take good care of them. Fortunately, water-based latex paints have taken most of the hassle out of clean-up–all you need is a few minutes and a little soap and water and you can return your appl…Continue reading
Choosing the Right Roller
Like brushes, choosing the right roller makes all the difference. For very little extra, not only will you get a significantly better finish but the work and cleanup will be quicker and smoother. Seems like a no-brainer but almost everyone gets tempted…Continue reading
How to Choose the Right Brush
It’s surprising to see how often people buy top-quality paint (and spend countless hours on careful prep) then jeopardize the end result by trying to save a few pennies on brushes. There’s almost no better example of ‘penny wise and pound foolish,’ esp…Continue reading
Spring Repairs & Touch-ups
In our last post, we talked about what causes blisters, peeling, and other common paint problems; in this post, we’ll tell you how to repair them and, as important, avoid these problems in the future. Proper preparation is the key, whether you’re fixin…Continue reading