Category Archives: Interior Painting

Painting is the most cost effective way to increase the beauty and value of your home or business

New construction painting

Here’s a few pictures of some new construction projects I painted. Unfortunately, I don’t always take pictures of the jobs I do… but here’s a few pics for you to look at.

Whether it’s a brand new building or an addition to an existing structure, it’s not finished until it’s painted.

Before and After pictures

Refinishing a basement adds living space and value to your home

Nice rustic sitting room in a new home (before and after)

This new addition made a huge impact on the value of this home

This next one was from years ago, before I owned a digital camera. (ah, memories :))

new construction painting archived photo

I’ll try to add some more pictures for you to look at when I get a chance, but I’m really more of a painter than a web guy and right now I need to get back to work.

Serving Southern New Hampshire since 1995

For A Quality Interior House Painter Call

(603) 864-9783

 

When to hire a professional

Painting a room in your home can be a rewarding experience.

If everything goes right, you not only get a freshly painted room that looks great, but you may also get a feeling of pride knowing that you did it yourself.

But before you start, here’s a small checklist of things you’ll need…

√ Paint (obviously)
√ Primer (if needed for any unpainted surfaces)
√ Brushes (1 for each different type of paint)
√ Paint bucket
√ Roller pan / Roller frame / Roller nap
√ Drop cloths
√ Ladder(s)
√ Painters masking tape
√ Patience (lots and lots of patience)
√ Spackle
√ Drywall tape and mud (if needed)
√ Spackling tools
√ Caulking and caulking gun
√ Sand paper
√ A steady hand
√ Clothes that you don’t mind getting paint on
√ A free day or two with nothing else to do

If you already have these things, then you’ve probably painted a room or two in your time.
If not, then this could represent a significant investment in time and money.

Even if you usually do your own painting, perhaps you’re just too busy to paint a room, but you still want, or need, to have it done.

Whether you’ve done all of your own painting, or have never painted a room, there may come a time when you’ll want to hire a professional. But whom do you hire?

Here are a few guidelines to use when choosing a painter.

Ask them about their work experience.

How many years have they been painting? Perhaps they have some pictures of past jobs.

Inexperienced painters may be a little cheaper in price, but you’ll probably find out you get what you pay for. Think about it this way – If you pay a little more than you think you should… your talking about pennies. But if you pay less than you ought to, and the quality of the work is crappy… then you’ve lost it all.

Don’t necessarily go for the highest price either, thinking the quality must be better. I’ve met painters that charge $50 or more per hour, and won’t do any better of a job than one who’s much less expensive. Your best bet is to find someone who’s competitively priced and who has a proven track record.

When it comes to price, keep in mind that the prep work is usually the most time consuming and labor intensive part of any job. Therefore, it’s usually the most expensive part of any job. So if the cost seems a little high or unusually low, ask specifically what’s going to be done before the paintbrush comes out. This may help you to determine the value for your dollar.

Are they professional in appearance?

Are they wearing painter’s clothes that are reasonably clean? (Not counting paint of course)

If someone shows up for an estimate looking like a total slob, then you may not want him or her swinging a paintbrush in your home. This type of standard should apply to all professionals, not just painters or other tradesmen.

On the other hand, don’t judge your painter on the basis of dirty clothes alone. They may have just come from another job, and believed that showing up for your estimate on time was more important than going home and changing clothes.

Be sure they have references.

Multiple references are better. Anyone can have a couple of references from a family member or a friend, so ask for 4 or 5 and don’t be shy about calling a few. You can never tell how qualified someone is from their own advertising, but you can get a pretty good idea from the people who have done business with them in the past.

Serving Southern New Hampshire and surrounding areas since 1995

For A Quality Interior House Painter Call

(603) 864-9783

 

 

References

Here’s just a few of the comments some of my customers have sent me over the years…

I was going to type up all the thank you notes I’ve received and add them here as testimonials, but every website does that, and how do you know if they’re for real or just made up?

So instead I photocopied some of them for you to read.

There’s a whole lot more where these came from, but I didn’t want this page to take 20 minutes just to load, so I grabbed a dozen off the top and scanned them to this page for you…

painting references-1painting references-2painting references-3

If you’d like to see more, just let me know. I’ve got another hundred or so I can show you.

Serving Southern New Hampshire and surrounding areas since 1995

For A Quality Interior House Painter Call

(603) 864-9783

 

Hire me for a day

Do you want to paint a room by yourself, but don’t know where to start? Or perhaps you’ve already started your project and ran into something you didn’t count on?

Help is on the way!

Whether it’s crumbling horsehair plaster, water damage, smoke damage, basic drywall repair, or many other situations that require a professional… if you don’t want to pay someone else to do the entire job, or you simply want to take pride in doing it yourself, and just need a little help, give me a call.

For a low, low fee, I’ll come to you and give you step-by-step instructions on how to repair your ceilings, walls, and/or trim. And I’ll work with you for a half day, or a full day to get your job moving along in the right direction.

Once your project is professionally finished, you’ll be able to take pride in honestly telling everyone “you had a little help from a friend, but did most of the work yourself.”

It will only cost you $175 for a half day (up to 4 hours),
In return you’ll get…
– A professional craftsman with an eye for detail and nearly 3 decades of experience…
– A half day of professional labor to get your job moving along in the right direction…
– Step-by-step instructions to finish the job once I’m gone…
– My personal cell phone number so you can call me if you run into something else you didn’t count on.

That price is dirt cheap for having an expert come to you… show you, teach you, and work with you… to get the best possible results for your interior home project.

Why would a professional like myself offer to do all that for such a low price, 
when I could easily charge more (and usually do charge more) for my services?

- Because I really like what I do, and I really like helping people 
turn their houses into homes. And you'll be doing much of the work.

So if you want to save money by doing it yourself, or if you’re just a real do-it-yourselfer and simply need a little help getting high quality results, give me a call or use the contact us form and drop me a line.

If your project is something I can help you with, then for just a few dollars you’ll get high quality results that will last for years, and pride in knowing that you did it yourself (with a little help from a friend).

Serving Southern New Hampshire and surrounding areas since 1995

Hillsborough, NH – Peterborough, NH – Greenfield, NH – Jaffrey, NH – Hancock, NH – Amherst, NH – New Ipswich, NH – Brookline, NH – Milford, NH – Dublin, NH – Antrim, NH – Manchester, NH – and more…

For A Quality Interior House Painter Call

(603) 864-9783

 

Choosing paint colors

Choosing colors for your home   choose paint colors

Color is a very important decorating tool. It is one of the first things you notice about a room. Color has the power to change the shape and size of furnishings as well as the shape and size of the room itself.

To have a beautiful home, you do not have to worry about trends. Color trends will come and go. The people who live in a home make it beautiful by choosing colors that reflect their likes and their personalities. The trick is to blend those colors you like into a pleasing combination.

Because of its versatility, paint is ideal for introducing color into your home — it’s economical and available in practically limitless shades. You can paint frequently to update the appearance of a room, suit a season or express a personality. Although, most people prefer to paint a room only once every several years, so choosing the right colors can be an important decision.

Selecting colors is not difficult if you equip yourself with some basic information about color and its effects.
The first step in choosing colors for your home is to select an overall color scheme.

  • What type of mood do you want to create?

  • What furniture, architectural features, or artwork are going to remain in the room that you may want to accentuate.

  • Remember, color may appear differently depending on how large the painted area is, whether a glossy or flat finish is used, what other colors are nearby and the type of lighting used in the room. Also, because of the number of pigments that can go into creating some paint colors, the actual color you see may change 4 or 5 shades during the day depending on the lighting in the room.

Tips for Choosing Color

• Consider the function of the room being painted and choose an appropriate color.

• Limit the number of colors in a room to no more than three or four. Too many colors can make a room look busy or cluttered

• If you have already chosen the furnishings for the room bring swatches or samples and try to use 1 or more of these colors when choosing your paint colors. That way your paint colors will already have a relationship to some of the other colors in the room.

• If you want to manipulate the perceived size of the room with color, choose an appropriate palate; light colors and white ceilings to increase size, dark bold tones with a darker ceiling color to shrink.

warm and cool colors

Warm colors generally lean towards red, orange, and yellow. They speed up our perception of time and produce feelings that are warm, cozy, and inviting. These colors are associated with excitement, warmth, and happiness.

Cool Colors generally include violet, blue, light blue and green. Emotions associated with these colors range from calm and peace to sadness if the shades are too intense or overwhelming.

Colors also have different symbolic meanings in different cultures. For example, white is the color for weddings in western societies but for funerals in traditional Chinese culture; red is associated with rage and excitement in America but with happiness and good fortune in China.

Selecting a Color Scheme
The process of selecting a color scheme for your home is a personal matter. There are no strict rules governing the selection of a color scheme, but there are some harmonious combinations inspired by the color wheel.

primary colors          secondary colors          tertiary colors

The color wheel is basically a circle of color. At three triangulated points are the primary colors of red, blue, and yellow. From there we combine these colors to create the secondary colors of Purple, green, and orange. And finally we combine them further to create our tertiary colors of yellow-orange, red-orange, red-purple, blue-purple, blue-green and yellow-green. By blending shades of white or black with our colors, we can lighten or darken the values of any color even further, creating virtually endless possibilities.

    • The monochromatic color scheme is a popular one today because, by using various intensities of one color, it lends continuity and spaciousness to small or crowded spaces. It is one of the simplest schemes to use; yet it can produce very sophisticated results. Simply select a color you would love to surround yourself with and use it in different shades to decorate the room. Try not to use colors that are too close in value, or it may appear washed out

  • A complementary or contrasting color scheme combines colors opposite each other on the color wheel, such as green and red, or blue and orange. At its best, the complementary color scheme produces a lively effect. But color shades should be chosen carefully to avoid a jarring effect.

  • An analogous color scheme uses neighboring colors on the wheel, such as green, blue-green, and blue, for a particularly harmonious effect. To avoid a static effect, use more of one color than the other.
    You can get the inspiration for your color scheme from an Oriental rug or a favorite painting. Either may suggest a pleasing color combination and could then help tie together the colors in the room.

Whether you’re decorating your entire house or merely redoing one room, be sure to maintain a certain amount of color continuity throughout the home.

In some cases, you may want to make your wall treatment the focal point of the room. For instance, an accent wall that’s painted a different color than the other walls in the room, or perhaps a faux finish on one or more walls.

Selecting Paint Colors

    • Select several paint chips that you think will work well with your furnishings, keeping in mind that the color will be much more intense on a large wall than on a small paint chip.

  • Take the chips of several possible colors home and examine them in the room you will be painting — under both natural daylight and artificial night lighting. If you’re still unsure about your color choice, buy the color that seems best in the smallest available quantity. Brush out several 2 foot x 2 foot samples on different walls of the room you will be painting. After they’ve dried, study the samples in daylight and under artificial lighting.

The main thing to remember is to have some fun choosing your colors. Paint colors are not permanent; so don’t get stressed out about choosing the wrong colors, because if you really don’t like them, it’s a simple remedy to change the colors with a fresh coat of paint!

Update: I found this neat little paint color tool online at the Sherwin-Williams paint store website. You can upload a picture of your room and change the colors around to see what your rooms would look like with different colored walls.

Here’s the link… Sherwin-Williams color visualizer  – just keep in mind that while this color visualizer tool can help narrow down your paint choices, the colors won’t be 100% accurate because you’re looking at them on a computer monitor and not actually looking at genuinely painted walls.

Serving Southern New Hampshire and surrounding areas since 1995

For A Quality Interior House Painter Call

(603) 864-9783