Choosing the Perfect Colour for your Toronto House

Trying to decide what color to paint your house? Whether your home is looking a little worn out or you just want a change, picking an exterior paint color is big decision. Not only should you consider your own personal taste, your neighbors prefer that you chose a color with them in mind too.

How do I know which paint colors will look good on my house?

In general, there are three main colors in a home’s exterior paint scheme: main, accent, and trim. The main color is the predominant color, accent colors are usually on shutters or front doors, and trim colors are reserved for window or door casings. When picking exterior paint colors, here are three things to keep in mind.

1. The style of a home can encourage a paint scheme.

Paint can highlight the beautiful design details of your home’s architecture. Depending on the style, your home may look best in soft, muted colors or big and bold.

Victorian: Pastel colors work well and are period-appropriate. Choosing several different colors will differentiate and highlight the elaborate and ornate details in the design.

Craftsman: Neutral earth tones with bright accents bring attention to architectural details while providing a warm, welcoming, cozy appearance.

Midcentury Modern: Neutrals with bold accents and traditional arts and crafts colors complement the abundance of windows and natural light.

Spanish Colonial: White, off-white, and light cream goes well with the terra cotta roofs, hand painted tiles, ornamental iron work, and graceful archways.

Cottage: This whimsical, fairytale style home can handle more unusual colors that really bring out the charm.

Cape Cod: Light and airy neutrals with contrasting window casings look great with the classic lines of these English homes.

2. Paint colors should coordinate with your roof, landscape and hardscapes.

The color of your home should enhance the parts of your property that cannot be easily changed like the roof, driveway or landscaping.

Roof: What color is your roof? Whether you have dark gray or black shingles, terra cotta or slate tiles, or traditional cedar shakes, your house color can contrast the roof color or blend with it, depending on the affect you want.

Landscape: If your home is surrounded by a natural flowering landscape, lighter shades can make the colors in your blooming foliage really stand out.

Hardscape: Consider the stonework in your driveway, walkways, porch, patio, or walls. Try to pick up on the underlying tones to create a cohesive look.

What are the underlying tones in paint color?

Tones are the dull or bright variations of a color. When you add gray to a color it makes the color less intense, thus creating a different tone of that color. For example, some blues have undertones of purple while others have more green. In general, there are warm, cool and neutral tones.

• Warm Tones: Red, orange, yellow
• Cool Tones: Blue, green, purple
• Neutral Tones: Black, white, gray, brown, beige

Using various paint colors with the same underlying tone creates harmony. If you live in a wooded area, earth tones will help your home blend in with the surrounding nature. Beach houses can be bright saturated colors, like turquoise, while Victorians look great in pastels.

3. Paint color can visually alter the appearance of your house.

Certain color combinations can make a house seem larger, smaller, taller or shorter. Paint color can also make your home appear to come forward or fall back. Lighter and brighter homes stand out while darker ones recede.

Can paint color make my house look bigger or smaller?

Yes. If you have a small house, one way to make it seem larger is to use a medium shade of blue for the main color and a crisp white for the trim. Why does this work? The blue makes the home look more substantial while the white brightens it. Another example is a classic white house with black trim.

If you have a large house that sits on a small lot, avoid light colors or your house will look even bigger. If you have a tall house, paint the top a darker color to scale it down.

Does the color of my house affect the resale value?

If you want to sell your home in the future, consider how your paint color may affect the resale value. You may love Flamingo Pink, but how many other people will too? If you want to be bold without scaring off potential buyers, highlight an accent piece, like the front door, or paint window panes, shutters or trim with a contrasting color.

Call Emerald Professional Painters or Pro Painters Toronto at 647-909-3946 or at 647-703-5594. YOu can also visit our websites at www.emeraldpainting.ca or at www.propainterstoronto.com.

Pro Painters Toronto and Emerald Professional Painters specialize in interior, exterior, residential, commercial and industrial painting and decorating services in Toronto (Scarborough, Mississauga, Downtown), Durham Region (Whitby, Ajax, Oshawa, Pickering, Uxbridge, Bowmanville, Courtice, Port Perry, Port Hope) and York Region (Markham, Whitchurch-Stouffville, Aurora, Richmond Hill, Vaughan, Newmarket). Hire a painting company you can trust to paint your house, condo, office, warehouse or other project. Our trained professional and friendly painting contractors near you will use green products and paint with quality, respect and integrity for your living space. We have WSIB and Liability Insurance. Call for a free estimate, coupons and discounts.

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Guide to Interior Residential House Painting

There are lots of things to consider when painting a room. You have much more to think about than just what color to choose. Have you thought about the following?

Room Painting Considerations

• Mood of the room:

  What do you want the room to feel like? Do you want it to be loud or quiet? Relaxed or formal? If you’d like a quieter feeling in the room, chose a soft, cool or neutral color. If you’ll be doing a lot of entertaining in the room, a brighter color can help make the room feel inviting. For a more formal atmosphere, a deep blue or neutral color will do the trick. One word of caution: be careful about picking a bright color in a room you want to relax in. Bright colors can actually lead to restlessness.

• Lighting:

  The color you paint on the walls will be impacted by the lighting in the room. Natural light will put the color in its truest form. Incandescent lighting will make warmer colors look great. If you have fluorescent lighting, be wary of the “blueness” that comes from the bulbs. This can alter the color you think you’re getting.

• Testing the color choice:

  Don’t jump right into painting unless you are completely sure you like the color! The paint on the wall may slightly differ from what’s on the swatch. The smart strategy is to try a few different colors in small areas before making a final decision. You might discover the color you like isn’t great on the wall.

• Accenting colors:

  Who says your room has to be one color? A great way to change the look and feel of a room is to choose multiple colors. A painted ceiling can change how paint on the walls looks. Whites and neutrals can have sharp appearances as accents. You can even use a different shade of your primary color as an accent. Experimenting with different accents is recommended for optimal results and satisfaction.

• Walk into another room:

  Your room doesn’t exist in a vacuum. You’ll likely be able to see it through at least one other room. Take a look at the new paint from a different room. Does it look good? Does it mesh well? Or is it unappealing? This kind of perspective can help you choose the perfect color.

• Use monochromatic schemes:

  Like accenting, using various shades of the same color can add a new dimension to a room. If the main color will be light green, try a dark green accent wall. You might be pleased with the results.

• Choose different paint finishes:

  Not all paint finishes need to be the same. You can use satin finish on trim and eggshell on the actual wall, for instance, to vary the appearance.

When it comes time to decide on the color, you should be aware of the effects various colors can have on your mood. You might be surprised to learn how certain colors can make you feel.

Room Colors and Mood

• Red: Red raises a room’s energy level. It can be good for stimulating conversation. That is why the color is so popular in restaurants. Because of the stimulating effects, it is best to avoid red in bedrooms and other spaces where you’d like to relax.
• Yellow: Yellow communicates happiness. In small spaces, it can feel warm and welcoming.
• Blue: Blue can have a variety of effects. Lighter blues are calming and relaxing. These shades are good for bedrooms and bathrooms. However, choosing a blue that is too dark can feel depressing, especially in the winter. Some blues can even feel chilling in the cold months.
• Green: Green is an excellent all-around color. It is the color of nature and is considered restful and calming. Use it in a kitchen, bedroom, living room, bathroom and more!
• Orange: Orange conveys enthusiasm, excitement and energy. It is great for an exercise room. Keep in mind, though, that orange can also increase your appetite. This color also goes well in kitchens or dining rooms.
• Brown: Brown can convey a feeling of coziness or intimacy. It can be ideal for a den or bedroom.
• Neutrals: Neutrals can impact your moods based on the colors they are mixed well. All-neutral schemes tend to fall in and out of fashion. If you base a room around neutral colors, you can add more colors to liven the mood, or remove them to calm the room down.

Once you a pick a color (or colors), you need to choose what finish you want. Each finish is slightly different.

Paint Finishes

• Flat: Flat is also known as matte. Flat provides the best looking finish.  Flat finishes are hard to clean. In high traffic areas, choose a different finish.
• Eggshell: Eggshell has a bit more shine than a flat finish, but you won’t have shiny walls. Cleaning eggshell finish is as simple as using a wet rag or towel.
• Semi-gloss paint: For an option more shiny than eggshell, choose semi-gloss paint. Water can be used for cleaning.  Mainly used for woodwork.
• Gloss: Gloss is a shiny finish. It is best-used for high-traffic areas, windows and furniture.  Mainly used for woodwork.

It is not enough to just paint the walls. You need to make sure the painting stays sharp with regular maintenance.

Cleaning Painted Walls

• Dusting: The good thing about cleaning walls is that it doesn’t need to be done too often. You can get away with dusting every few months. Spend 10-15 minutes dusting the walls.
• Wash kitchen and bath walls: In bathrooms and kitchens, residue builds up on walls from hot showers and cooking. At least once a year, you should take a sponge and water to clean the walls. Begin with the gentlest materials possible to avoid damaging the walls.
• Wash high-traffic areas: Washing every square inch of every wall in a room may not be necessary, but be sure to wash around switches and thermostats.
• Computer-matching paint color: If the paint gets damaged for any reason, you should take a knife and chip off some paint. Take this chip of paint to a painting shop with computer-match software to ensure you get the right paint color for re-painting.  You will still need to paint the entire wall.

If you follow these suggestions, we trust you’ll enjoy your newly painted walls.

Call Emerald Professional Painters or Pro Painters Toronto at 647-909-3946 or at 647-703-5594. YOu can also visit our websites at www.emeraldpainting.ca or at www.propainterstoronto.com.

Pro Painters Toronto and Emerald Professional Painters specialize in interior, exterior, residential, commercial and industrial painting and decorating services in Toronto (Scarborough, Mississauga, Downtown), Durham Region (Whitby, Ajax, Oshawa, Pickering, Uxbridge, Bowmanville, Courtice, Port Perry, Port Hope) and York Region (Markham, Whitchurch-Stouffville, Aurora, Richmond Hill, Vaughan, Newmarket). HIre a painting company you can trust to paint your house, condo, office, warehouse or other project. Our trained professional and friendly painting contractors near you will use green products and paint with quality, respect and integrity for your living space. We have WSIB and Liability Insurance. Call for a free estimate, coupons and discounts.

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Painting Your Kitchen Cabinets as an Alternative to Remodeling!

If your kitchen looks drab, outdated or just old, you might be tempted to call a renovator and break out the hammers and power tools. Not so fast! You could save thousands of dollars and weeks of construction by painting your kitchen cabinets instead.

Over time, your cabinets will get worn down, no matter how well you treat them. What the cabinets looked like on day one is not how they will look on day one of year five or beyond.

Reasons to Paint Your Kitchen Cabinets Rather than Remodel

• Save money: It almost goes without saying that you’ll save potentially thousands of dollars by painting the kitchen cabinets.
• Same effects as a remodel: You can achieve the same effect as a remodel with kitchen cabinet paintings. That is, a fresh, attractive kitchen.
• Less disruption: Remodeling can create havoc in your house for weeks at a time. Kitchen cabinet painting is a much quicker process. In most cases, we can complete the entire process in fewer than 2 weeks.

Painting your cabinets is a great alternative to replacement or re-facing. Even the most dated cabinets are still fully-functioning. Why spend more money than you need to do when you can get a great result for less? Most kitchen cabinet painting projects can be completed for less than $3000.

Kitchen Cabinet Painting Process

We will first remove the kitchen cabinet doors and drawer fronts to be sprayed off-site. What does this mean for you? It means less time in your home—and less disruptions for you and your family. For the rest of the cabinets, we will paint them by hand with advanced tools to ensure the cabinets do not look like painted cabinets. We use a special kind of paint that dries in a hard, enamel finish. This paint will give your cabinets a great finish and they will be washable.

We think it is an easy decision. In the majority of cases, it is a better option to paint your kitchen cabinets than remodel your kitchen, reface or replace the cabinets. To get started on your kitchen cabinet painting project, call Emerald Professional Painters or Pro Painters Toronto at 647-909-3946 or at 647-703-5594. You can also visit their websites at https://www.emeraldpainting.ca/ or https://www.propainterstoronto.com

Pro Painters Toronto specialize in interior, exterior, residential, commercial and industrial painting & decorating services in Toronto (Scarborough, Mississauga, Downtown), Durham Region (Whitby, Ajax, Oshawa, Pickering, Uxbridge, Bowmanville, Courtice, Port Perry, Port Hope) and York Region (Markham, Whitchurch-Stouffville, Aurora, Richmond Hill, Vaughan, Newmarket). Hire a painting company you can trust to paint your house, condo, office, warehouse or other project. Our trained professional and friendly painting contractors near you will operate using green products and painting with quality, respect and integrity for your living space. WSIB and liability insurance. Call for a free estimate. Coupons & discounts available.

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Prepare Rooms: Move Furniture!

Most of the information I have seen about painting around furniture while working on your interior house painting project tells you to move all of the furniture to the center of the room. This really is not very helpful. Think about a bedroom or living room. If you move all of the furniture to the middle of the room, you have created a huge obstacle to paint around. Even with the proper extension pole for your paint roller, such an obstacle in the center of the room is hard to work around. it is hard to reach over this obstacle to paint the ceiling.

What Interior House Painting Blog recommends is that you move the furniture away from the walls and arrange it with a few pieces in different areas of the room. This makes it easier to work around. Think of a chain of islands spread around the room rather than a huge continent in the center. Just make sure that you leave enough room between islands and walls to place a ladder next to them.

When moving furniture, practice safe lifting. Be careful not to injure your back. I would strongly suggest you follow this link to a tutorial on safe lifting practices:

http://www.cdc.gov/nasd/docs/d001601-d001700/d001607/d001607.html

Visit our website for more projects!

When moving furniture, take care not to damage it. Smaller light weight pieces of furniture can be picked up and moved. You may have to slide heavier pieces across the floor. Another thing to be very concerned about is the floor. Be careful not to scratch or cut any wooden or tile floors. Also, something that you may not think of is damage to carpet. Pushing or sliding heavy pieces of furniture across carpets can buckle the carpet, creating “hills and valleys” or lumps in carpet. What you need to do to avoid damage to any type of floor is to put large pieces of cardboard under the furniture and slide the furniture across the cardboard, thus protecting the floor. Visit a retail store to ask for some large, empty cardboard boxes and collapse the boxes to have a nice sheet of cardboard to slide the furniture over. Make sure the cardboard is thick enough, and be sure to remove any staples in the cardboard. Doing this at the beginning of your interior house painting project will avoid any damage to your floors.

You must also be very careful with any electrical outlets or switches in the room. You need to turn off the circuit breakers for the outlets in the room you are working on to avoid shock. Latex paint contains a lot of water, and everyone knows that water conducts electricity. Sometimes you may need to turn off more than one breaker for one room. A foolproof way to see if an outlet is off is to use a circuit tester. Inexpensive circuit testers may be purchased at any hardware store. Circuit testers consist of two wires or bars connected to a sealled light. If you plug the circuit tester into any outlet and it lights up, you will know you were not successful in turning off all electricity to the room you want to paint and you will have to to turn off the right breaker, perhaps several. After all of the electricity in the room is off, it is safe to remover the switch plates and outlet covers so as not to get any paint on them. Place all of the screws in a glass and be sure to place it somewhere that it will not be forgotten or knocked over.

You must cover all of your furniture with drop cloths. For this, use plastic sheets that you can buy at any paint or hardware store. Buy the thicker sheets. The thin sheets of plastic are hard to unfold and also tear easily. There are also drop cloths for your interior house painting job that are paper on one side and plastic on the other. These are also ideal for covering floors. You now know the best and the quickest way to set up a room to begin your interior house painting project.

Contact us by giving a call at 647.909.3946 https://www.emeraldpainting.ca

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Don't Paint Outside in the Fall!

Although this website is https://www.emeraldpainting.ca I feel compelled to warn against painting the exterior of a house or other structure in the fall. You might say “Why not? The weather is great for working outside, not hot and humid. It’s a great time to paint outside.” Although it is comfortable for the painter, it is not comfortable for the paint. A lot of exterior painting is done in the fall, and this is a bad mistake.

In my successful house painting business that I started in June 1970, I would not schedule any outside painting job after October 1. Some of my customers did not like this, and they hired another painter. I took quite a few years, but my customers soon found out that I was prudent in my decision not to paint outside after October 1.

Within a year or two, structures painted in the fall started to show signs of paint failure. There was cracking, peeling and flaking off of paint, and the paint job needed repair or repainting within a year or two. There is a scientific reason for this failure.

The scientific reason is in the drying and bonding of paint. Two things happen during this process. The vehicle (either latex or oil) dries up as the paint dries. The second thing that happens is that there is a chemical reaction within the paint. Both of these processes have to happen in a relatively warm environment. Paint cans will warn you not to apply paint when the temperature is below 50 or 55 degrees. Many fall days, it may be 70 in the daytime, but go down as low as 28 overnight. The fresh paint is still going through the chemical reaction necessary for proper adherence of the paint. This cannot occur in the lower temperatures, thus the paint does not adhere to the surface and peels off within a year or two.

There are some other reasons not to paint outside. Certain types of windows need putty (glazing compound.) Putty takes a very long time to dry, especially because a large amount of putty has to be used, making it thick. Putty also needs warmer temperatures to dry and cure properly, otherwise it will crack and have to be removed and replaced. For a good, tight paint job, you will also need to use a lot of latex caulk. Caulk also needs warmer temperatures to dry and cure. Primers need some warmth to dry.

By the way, fall is a perfect time for inside painting. Look for my upcoming article on this.

It really is simple when you understand the process. DON’T PAINT OUTSIDE IN THE FALL!

Do you need painters in the Durham Region? 

Emerald Professional Painters Toronto provides professional residential painting services. We are Toronto Painting Contractors that paint the interior and exterior of your house. Visit our website at https://www.emeraldpainting.ca/ or Call us at 647.909.3946 for a free quote today!

https://www.emeraldpainting.ca/whitby-house-painters for Whitby interior exterior professional house painting services painting contractors

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https://www.emeraldpainting.ca/clarington-house-painters for Clarington interior exterior professional house painting services painting contractors

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Why Hire House Painters in Whitby

While talking to a customer in Whitby, I got the question "painting a house is easy, right?" I wanted to take a minute to address the concern I have with these type of questions.

Do it yourself, or more commonly known as DIY, interior and exterior house painting is definitely an option in Whitby. I have seen some amazing painting done by people who have minimal experience. With painting, a lot of time and effort is needed to learn how to paint a house. The reason I became a house painter is because with that time and effort, you could learn how to paint the interior and exterior of a whitby house and when you're an expert at anything, people are willing to spend a little extra money to get the job done right. Heck, painting is kinda fun! I won’t discourage anyone from painting their own home, but what I do recommend is that you get someone to do the job who has the intent and desire to do the job well. It can cause a nightmare to have a sloppy painting job done which lowers the value of your home and creates more time and money to fix.

Before you consider doing a house painting job yourself we always recommend asking yourself 3 simple questions

1. Do I have the ability/tools to paint my house?

There is no end of grief which follows trying to paint a house when you don’t have the skills or ability to paint a house. Without even mentioning the issues you will face by not having the right tools, there will just be a constant headache. I wouldn’t want my worst enemy to have to paint a house if they didn’t have the right tools.

2. Do I have the time to paint my house?

Many people are often surprised at how long it actually takes to paint a full home. Before you read this line, ask yourself how long you think it will take one person (you) to paint your house if you worked full time on it. As a house painter who has done a full job on my own, I can tell you it will take roughly 3-4 days to get the job done correctly. Do you have this much time to set aside for the job?

3. Can you afford mistakes?

The most common time we paint someone’s house is when they are about to move, or trying to increase the value of their home. In both these cases, there isn’t a lot of room for mistakes. If you had damage on your home because you wanted to paint it, would this cause a major crisis? Paint spills on the carpet or the roof can turn into major problems and you need to be prepared to deal with them.

If you reside in Whitby and you want to complete residential interior or exterior painting for your Whitby house, give Pro Painters Toronto a call or send us an email and we will provide you with a free estimate.

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3 Reasons to paint the interior of your Toronto house

The interior of a room in a Toronto house.
Freshly painted turquoise by Emerald Professional Painters

Painting the interior of a house is one of the most popular home improvement tasks for homeowners in Toronto. Using a reliable contractor is one of the most important means of having a home look fresh and clean when the job is finished. There are some things that you shouldn't do yourself, painting is one of them. The procedure is pretty simple. Choose house painters in Toronto with a solid reputation. Choose which rooms need to be painted. Pick the paint color and prepare the home. The Toronto painting contractor will do the rest. Here are three reasons to paint a home interior.

1. Inexpensive Upgrade with a huge ROI

Painting a home interior is one of the cheapest improvements you can make to sell a house when putting it on the real estate market. Today’s market is extremely competitive. Sellers need to gain whatever edge they can to make a home look beautiful and well-cared for. They may even be hesitant to put a house up for sale because of the hassles that go along with getting it ready for showings and open houses. The fact is, a freshly painted home helps a house to look inviting and move-in ready. It smells fresh. If everything else is equal, shoppers will choose the real estate that needs the least amount of work, making it an easier sale.

2. Visual Appeal

Interior painting in Toronto is just part of general maintenance routines that need to be performed around the house. In about five years, paint colors start to fade and get darker in the corners of the room. Older paint can make a house look dirty. Because paint is a porous material, odors can be absorbed by the paint and make the house smell. Adding a fresh coat of paint will not only brighten a room, it can make it smell like new, too.

3. Change

Some people paint rooms simply because they have grown tired of the existing room color. Others are changing the use for the room and what is in there now is inappropriate. They may have seen a picture in a designer magazine or in a friend’s decor. One thing to keep in mind when changing room colors is to consider how long the current homeowner will be living in this house. Going for the latest color trends can be the kiss of death when it comes to the real estate market, so be careful when choosing colors. Most Toronto homeowners paint their interior every 5 years. Generally speaking, the color chosen should be something that one can live with for the next five years.

If you are looking for an experienced Toronto painter then call Emerald Professional Painters at (647) 909 - 3946. You can also submit an online contact form HERE and we will call you with a quote within 30 minutes!

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