Hot Paint Colors for 2014 Part 2: Mellow Yellows and Flower Power

Part two of our series on interior paint color schemes explores using the beauty of nature for inspiration when it is time to paint.

Flowers are great sources for Interior Paint Color Ideas | (480) 232-5474

Flower Interior Paint Color Schemes

In our last article, we covered the use of sea colors, however, let's go inland for a while.  The rules for interior house painting have changed a lot.  It used to be that yellow was exiled to the kitchen.  However, it looks wonderful in the dining room as well as the living room.  And it is just one of the colors that you can use that are based on colors present in nature, particularly where flowers are concerned.  How about the purple red of a bleeding heart fuchsia, or the rich peach color of a teacup rose?

Vibrant colors can be used throughout the home, and there are a lot of painting tricks you can do where interior house painting is concerned.  Want that old time feel of wallpaper without the hassle?  Then your house painter can tape sections and paint them white with a vibrant color between.  Another trick is to take leaves or blossoms and imprint them in paint and then lightly touch them to the walls.  There is sponging too, of course, which gives your paint a nice textured look.  However, these are just some of the painting tricks you can use.

Interior House Paint Color Tricks

According to THISOLDHOUSE.COM: "Consider the ceiling the fifth wall of a room. Though sticking to "ceiling white" generally makes a space feel airy, a similar effect can be achieved by painting the ceiling a lighter shade of the wall color. Just take the paint sample card that has your wall color as the middle choice, then go one or two choices lighter for the ceiling color. The result will be a room that appears larger, because the contrast between wall color and ceiling color has been softened. In a small room, such as a bathroom, the ceiling can even be painted the same color as the walls to make it look bigger. Of course, sometimes lowering the ceiling visually creates a welcome feeling of enclosure. In his own 19th-century brownstone, Ken Charbonneau painted the dining room ceiling Pompeiian Red. "People love to ask if the red paint doesn't bring the ceiling down too much. But you're sitting the whole time you're in a dining room, and you want to create a warm, cozy, intimate feeling, so why not?" Of course, his ceilings are 11 feet high. In a house that has ceilings just 8 or 9 feet high, painting a bedroom ceiling a pale robin's egg blue, for instance, would be a way to create a similar, soothing effect." [READ SOURCE ARTICLE]

So as you see, there are lot of tricks you can use.  And your house painting pro knows them all and more.

Ameripro of Gilbert
3038 East Des Moines St
Mesa, AZ 85213
(480) 232-5474
Your House Painter in Gilbert

Part one of a series on hot paint colors for 2014 explores the colors and shades of the sea.

Sea colors are among the hot paint colors for 2014 (480) 232-5474

Interior Paint Color Schemes

We live in Arizona.  The nearest ocean is about 300 miles either to the south in Rocky Point, or to the sun drenched beaches of San Diego, Long Beach, or Los Angeles.  Spending time by the sea is peaceful and in our last article, we covered using a Southwestern motif.  However, what if you are tired of the desert, and would rather spend some time at the beach? Then you are in luck.  Sea colors are very big this year.  And like the Southwest, there is a wide range of colors available when you take your inspiration from the sea.

Some people are skeptical of this.  The sea is blue, the sand is white.  However, there are so many other colors that you can get from the sea, or the beach.  There is the weathered gray of a teak pier or dock.  There is the vibrant white of a boat or hydrofoil above the deep blue of the open sea.  And as for the sea itself, look at how many colors  you can call on for your interior paint color scheme.  There is the deep veridian or the pale aqua of the ocean as it is near the shore.  Look at the space of time between the wave and see the slight pale blue-green that is almost white.  Look at the rich amber of seaweed, or the pale salmon color of a sea shell.  It used to be that sea motifs were confined to the bathrooms, however, you can paint with sea colors in so many more areas.

Sea Color Motifs in The Living Room

If you have a sunny window, here is a fun decorating tip.  Paint your walls a medium teal color, have simple white curtains, and paint your ceiling beams an off beige or off white color.  You can spend every day at the beach, without the cost of a beachfront property.  Or maybe the open sea is more your thing.  How about a deep, rich marine blue color with pure white accents, and maybe a jute wall hanging?

The seaside is beautiful and a place of delight and peace.  Why not bring that to your home as well.  So get in touch with your house painting professional and see how you can bring the ocean home with you.

Ameripro of Gilbert
3038 East Des Moines St
Mesa, AZ 85213
(480) 232-5474
Contact Us 

Exterior Paint Colors: Know Your Palette Part 3

Part three of our series on exterior house painting explores using the Southwestern color palette correctly.

Use the Colors of the Southwest for your Exterior Paint Colors (480) 232-5474

Exterior House Painting and The Colors of the West

It used to be that southwestern paint color schemes were gaudy, and gauche.  Look at the 80's for example.  Bright turquoise mixed with hot pink.  Maybe a super tacky touch like buying a cow skull, painting it pink and putting it in your front yard.  However, the west is full of colors.  Look at the deep red of a Navajo rug, or the pale blue of a desert sky.  The pale olive green of a yucca plant, and the vibrant orange of a summer sunset.  All of these can be used in exterior paint colors.  In fact one of the biggest trend in house painting is not confining your home to two colors, namely the paint and the trim, but to use three colors.

A southwestern casita can be painted with a center section a deep loam brown.  Each wing of the house can be painted an off-white with the one wing being painted beige, and the trim can be a coral pink.  Why such a wide range of colors?  It ties in perfectly with terra cotta roof tiles found in a lot of casita style homes. And tri-color paint schemes are extremely popular nowadays and are one of the hottest trends with exterior house painting.  However, there are even more color choices connected with the Southwest.

Southwestern Paint Colors

How about a rich amber brown color that calls to mind a jar of sun tea? Or maybe a vibrant saffron gold color that evokes images of California poppies? Or maybe you want a pale yellow color that looks like your home is originally from the Chiricahua mountains? Need some more inspiration?

The desert floor is pale pink or taupe. The foothills around Phoenix are olive mixed with a hint of brown. The superstitions are purple and blue. The cliffs of canyon lake are salmon, with vibrant shades of yellow lichen. Sedona has so many different colors that simply calling it red rock country isn't entirely true. All of these and so many more can be used in your color palette.

The most important thing you can do however, is get a professional's take on it.  You want to call in a decorator or a professional house painter to help you narrow down your choices.

For more information on exterior painting and colors, be sure to read part one and part two as well.

Ameripro of Gilbert
3038 East Des Moines St
Mesa, AZ 85213
(480) 232-5474 
See Our Work

Exterior Paint Colors: Know Your Palette

Part two of a series on exterior house painting focuses on color trends.

Olive is a popular exterior paint color nowadays | (480) 232-5474

House Paint Color Trends

It used to be that exterior house paint colors were  limited to an incredibly narrow range of colors.  There used to be a family of white shades and different shades of tan and that was essentially it.  Interior paint colors were even more limited.  You usually had whites, tans, and pastel colors.  That was it.  Nowadays, however, there are literally millions of color choices to consider, as well as painting finishes that weren't available even a few years ago.  There are so many colors that paint companies have entire departments of people that come up with new names for them! The days of paint names such as Red #23 and Yellow-12 are fading.  Instead, we have colors such as Hawaiian Hibiscus and Saffron Gold.  And in some areas you are starting to see HOAs relaxing some of their limits on what colors can be used.

For example, why not paint your home a combination of colors.  If you have a southwestern style home, maybe paint the bulk of your home a pale gold color, with a brick red upper portion and an olive entryway.  Tri-color exterior house paint colors for homes are in style nowadays.  But it isn't just exterior walls that could do with a coat of paint.

A New Paint Job For Your Home Can Say Welcome

Painting your home is a great way to improve your home's look and style.  However, something as simple as painting your home's doors can radically change your home from drab to fab overnight.  The color that you pick for your door should be all about saying welcome.  Let's say you have a wooden panel door, no window in it.  Your home is white.  You've got a wide open palette of choices for your door color.   You could paint it a glossy black,or bright red and add some polished brass fittings to it for a clean British look.  Or you could paint your door an emerald green and give the illusion of a visit to Ireland.  Or maybe you want to go south.  Maybe you want to go with a brick red color to go with the Southwest and make your home a nice taupe color.

So, all you need is a few things.  You need to know your tastes, and what you can and can't paint with.  And most of all you need the advice, and the assistance of a professional house painter in Gilbert or wherever you call home.

For more information on exterior painting and colors, be sure to read part one and part three as well.

Ameripro of Gilbert
3038 East Des Moines St
Mesa, AZ 85213
(480) 232-5474 
See Our Work

Exterior Paint Colors: Know Your Palette

When you're looking to paint your home, it is a good idea to know what you should do as well as what you shouldn't do where colors are concerned.

Get an estimate from a professional house painter in Gilbert | (480) 232-5474

Exterior Colors:  Keep Colors Simple

What do you call a house that's been painted in bright orange and yellow? How about one that is painted purple and lavender?  Give up?  Eyesores are what most people would call these color combinations. In some parts of the world, houses can be painted in a vibrant array of colors. You can have a red villa in Portofino, Italy, right next to a canary yellow one, and on the other side, you see a building that is the color of a Spanish olive minus the pimento. Let's say you go on a trip, and when you get back, you race to paint your home. You get the color you want, a brick red matte finish, and you slap it on the outside of your home, and overnight, your three bedroom looks incredibly out of place in your neighborhood. That's why it's a good idea consult a house painter.

Why does a brick red villa look great in Portofino, but horrible on a ranch home in Chandler, Arizona? Well, for one, it is a different location and a different style of building. For another reason, look at your neighborhood. You usually only find a few shades of a color, and in Arizona it makes a great deal of sense to paint your home in a light color, particularly in the summer. A dark red home surrounded by eggshell, beige, and off-white homes will stick out and not in a good way. In addition, the villa that you probably saw has some accent pieces that look wonderful in conjunction with the dark red, such as black iron fittings and white trim. A house painter has an eye for this sort of thing.  However, clashing with the paint jobs of your neighbors is the least of your worries.

You Painted Your House, What Now?

Let's say you're still coming to grips with the way your home looks. You are bemused by your neighbors who are looking at your home and wincing a bit. Then one day in the mail, you get a letter from your HOA. It appears that you have 30 days at most to paint your home back to a selected range of colors.

All of this could have been avoided. Remember that was looks good in Portofino may not look good on the outside of a home here. And remember, you want to get a expert in to help you. Call a professional house painter in Gilbert.

For more information on exterior painting and colors, be sure to read part two and part three  as well.

Ameripro of Gilbert
3038 East Des Moines St
Mesa, AZ 85213
(480) 232-5474 
See Our Work

House Painting: Why You Should Hire a Pro Pt 2

Painting your home is a lot more than just color.  There is also finish.

Call your Professional House Painter | (480) 232-5474

Interior Painting Project:  The Kitchen

Want to paint your kitchen?  Let's say you want your kitchen to be cheery and festive.  That would indicate a brighter color palette.  As for what finish you should go for, here's an excerpt from DIYNETWORK.COM: "The glossier the paint, the easier it is to clean up. If you have small children and the room you are painting has high traffic, like in a playroom, or tends to get grease on the wall such as in a kitchen, opt for high gloss sheen as you can easily wipe the wall down with a damp sponge. This will however make blemishes and imperfections in your wall more apparent and in rooms such as living rooms, could give off an unpleasant shine. High gloss is also great for trim and will give the trim a nice finished look, complementing the flatter sheen of your walls. Semi-gloss would also be a good choice for kitchens and baths as well as trim providing you with ease of wash-ability and less shine than the gloss. It is also slightly cheaper than the gloss finish and is a very common alternative. Satin sheens have a satiny smooth finish to them and could also be used in kitchens, baths and hallways. This may be a good choice if you really want some gloss and paint that can clean easily without the shine of a gloss.

If you have walls with lots of imperfections, select a flat or matte paint. You can usually get away with one coat of paint with a flat. The downside to this paint is that it does not stand up well to a good cleaning and does tend to show dirt more so choose this for rooms that will not get lots of fingerprints and dirt on them. Probably the most popular sheen is eggshell, which hides imperfections like a flat does but is easier to wash, so more durable and smoother to the touch. I recommend this for most rooms as it seems to have the best of both the flat and glossy worlds. [READ MORE]

When in Doubt, Call a Professional House Painter

When you're stumped, that's when you ask a professional house painter for help.  He will be able to work with you on both your color scheme as well as your finish.

So what is better? Painting your kitchen yourself, or hiring a professional to do it instead.  Well, let us ask you this.  Do you have all the equipment to pain your kitchen? How about all the paint?  We do.  That's why we are professional house painters.

Be sure to read this article as well on professional house painting.

Ameripro of Gilbert
3038 East Des Moines St
Mesa, AZ 85213
(480) 232-5474
See Our Work

House Painting: Why You Should Hire a Pro

House painting is more than just picking paint and slapping it on your house.  Why?  Well, we've found that customers have a lot of questions about the process.

Red is a Great Color in a Entryway | Call Your House Painter for more Advice | (480) 232-5474

House Painting Questions

Should you sand before painting?  Absolutely.  Make sure that you use the right grit sand paper.  You also want to get a pole sander, a dust mask and other equipment that a professional house painter already has.   Sanding a surface helps to remove old paint as well as any raised areas that will interfere with an even coat of paint being applied.  As to why removing old paint is important, is that unless it is in the same shade family, the coat of paint you put on top of the old paint will show the old paint underneath.  So if you have a light color going over a darker color, the lighter color will pick up a hint of the darker color.
For example, we had a customer who tried to paint his master bedroom himself. The original color was kind of a bright lilac color. He wanted something a bit more toned down, so he went with a kind of aqua color. The only problem is he didn't sand the paint off, and just tried to put a new coat of paint on top of the old color. He tried a couple of coats, but the lilac was just to strong, and his bedroom looked a very bizarre color. He also didn't paint the molding right, and it had the tiniest line of lilac on top, which only made the paint job way too busy. Which is a perfect introduction to our next question.

What Color Should I Paint My Bedroom?

What color should I paint my bedroom? Color has a profound physiological and psychological effect on us. Reds have a tendency to make us more alert, blues have a tendency to make us more restful, earth tones are neutral, and darker colors have a tendency to make us more serious. One of our customers wanted to paint her bedroom bright scarlet red. The only problem is that paint job would be ideal in say an entry foyer, or in a family room, but in a bedroom, it made it rather hard to relax much less sleep.
So remember, if you have questions about painting, you want to probably considering hiring someone to do it for you. That way, your interior painting can be perfect every time.

For more information on professional house painting, be sure to read part two as well.

Ameripro of Gilbert
3038 East Des Moines St
Mesa, AZ 85213
(480) 232-5474
ipainthomes.com