Painting Tips, Tricks, & Help

There are people out there that can pick out a paint color in 2 seconds flat and they can brush it on their walls themselves and their home will look spectacular. I am not one of those people. I agonize over the color itself for months, then make 5 trips to home depot just prepping alone. Once I begin painting it's another 10 trips to buy extra paint, extra supplies, then 5 more gallons of a new color because the first didn't look quite right. Well, I'm here to take some of the guesswork out with these helpful tools

1) HGTV's Find Your Color Page
Here you can find a ton of references to help you pick just the right color with Create a Perfect Palette, A Gildden Expert Color Guide, Color Personality Quizzes, and sooooo much more. They have photo galleries, videos, and tons of article to give your home the color you crave.

photo via HGTV.com

2) Pottery Barn's Benjamin Moore Colors
If you're like me, you've flipped through the Pottery Barn catalog a million times and thought "I want my ______ to look just like this". Well, now you can find out the exact paint color they use in their catalogs and replicate their gorgeous rooms in your own homes! This is a tried and true system-my living room is their Santorini Blue and I love love love it.

image via Pottery Barn

3) Behr's Color Smart Website
Here you can check out examples of the hundreds of Behr colors, and pick the exact shade that's right for you. You can order color samples (always a good idea to give the color a test drive on one wall to make sure you love it) and learn about the different products Behr has to offer. They have an idea gallery filled with photos of their gorgeous colors and a project center so you can the right paint for the job at hand. Their color trends for 2010 article is awesome too, my favorites are the Soft Structure and Farmhouse Craft Palettes.



4) And last but not least, you'll want a professional painter to help you with your work. I cannot tell you how many times I've walked into a home and thought, "Well, it's ok, but the paint job in here is a mess. They didn't cut in well, there's a huge gap between the ceiling and wall, or there's streaks or brush strokes visible, or they got paint on the window trim or baseboards". These things are extremely noticeable and are very distracting to the overall look of the home. Good painting is hard to achieve, a great paint job is rarely possible without the care and dedication of a professional. If you are looking for a pro that you can trust and know will do a great job, call Watson & Co Painting who is offering a special right now-get the details here!

image via Pottery Barn