Choosing the Right Paint Color for your Home

Choosing the right color to paint the interior or exterior of your house can often seem impossible, with so many colors, shades and brands on offer, picking the best fit for your home will be very important in both the long and short-term. There are several factors to take into account before making your final selection which is important to think about before moving forward with your color.

The main fear that people have is picking the wrong color and having to repaint everything all over again. As residential and commercial painters Sydney, we have worked with many clients who have faced this problem and have found that by outlining some of the elements that will affect the way your paint looks can easily solve this problem. To help you avoid some of the biggest pitfalls of repainting, below is a list of key points to keep in mind :

 Lighting

The different lighting you have in your home can vastly affect the way your paint looks on your walls. Bright red walls could look fantastic in natural sunlight but can feel claustrophobic with a dimmer lamp or ceiling light, conversely, a fantastic grey colour could end up too dark in an already dim room. To properly select the correct colour, bring a swatch into the room and see how it looks with the lighting there. 

 Surrounds

It’s important to have a coherent look and feel to your house, rather than feeling like one room after another has a completely different mood. Consider how your paint will work with the other rooms of your house - how will it integrate with the colour scheme you have already implemented in other rooms.

Furniture

A big mistake people sometimes make is to not consider what kind and colour of furniture will be in your room. Furniture is a huge part of creating the feeling of a room. If you have big, dark pieces of furniture it’s often a good idea to opt for a light wall colour which will give the room more light and make it look more spacious.

Mood

Everyone knows that white walls will create a feeling of more space and darker colours will give you the feeling of being in a smaller, enclosed space, but it’s also important to think about how the various other colours will make your room feel. Reds and pinks will lend warmth to the room while blues will give a calm, cool feeling. Greens are said to give a feeling of tranquillity and health while purples are relaxing and yellows are energising.

Regardless of the colour and shade, you end up settling on for your walls if you keep these factors in mind you are much more likely to end up with something that you love. It’s always a great idea to swatch a little bit of the colour on your wall and live with it for a time before you finally go ahead and paint the whole room, and when in doubt, you can, of course, hire a professional who will be glad to guide you through the color selection process.

Image Sources: psychefacts.com

5 of The Most Distinctive Painting And Decorations Styles For Inspiration

When painting and decorating your home one of the hardest parts in achieving your goal is finding the inspiration to create a stunning finish. There are wealth of styles to choose from in the world of interior décor, so finding a style that suits the room you wish to paint is vital to achieving the desired look. Let us take a look at some of the most distinctive painting and décor from around the world to inspire your renovation.

The Traditional Classic Look

If you have an older home, look for the original features and architecture to inspire your interior décor. Many older home features stunning wood work finishing on doorways and windows, so take advantage of your home existing features to bring out its natural character.

Choosing a traditional look for your interior painting and decorating doesn’t have to mean you will be bombarded with kitsch and tweed. Choose a subtle colour palate of richer hues and tones and the modern features of the average home will fit in nicely. Furnish your home with an eye for classic furniture pieces and you will be able to create a contemporary classic.

  Modern Minimal Chic

The minimalist movement took over many household a few years back and it seems that there is no stopping it. This modern classic is a great choice for larger rooms in which traditional furniture pieces would seem a little out of place. The choice of colour doesn’t have to be white, as is most associated with a minimal interior, grey; beige and subtle blues and browns are becoming more and more popular.

Minimal doesn’t have to mean bare, so choose your furniture and other interior furnishings accordingly. Creating a focal point in one part of the room is a great way to make larger spaces feel more cosy, so adding a splash of colour such as a deep red to a single wall can have the effect of
warming the room and making it look less like a hospital.

  Warm And Homely Textures

Nothing makes a house feel more homely and lived in than painting rooms with warm colours. Perfect for a house with a large happy family, creating living spaces that bring out the personality of its inhabitants can actually help to create a nice atmosphere around the home.

Use textures to bring out the best features in and around your home by pairing them with furniture pieces. Create a warm colour palate that suits the personality of your family and you will be able to create distinctive living quarters for parents and kids alike.

  Exteriors And Outside Decor

Choosing to paint the exterior of your home has its benefits. You can not only bring out the character of your home, be it traditional, modern or one in a row of many. Exterior painting can be done by yourself or with the help of a professional painting services team.

Look for the traditional features of your home and allow them to stand out. Choose a two tone colour scheme that differs from other houses in your area to add a little more character to your property. With a professional painting service finish to your home, you may even be able to achieve a higher selling price in the future.

  Get Personal

Nothing says more about the inhabitants of your home by the way it is painted. Whether you hold dinner parties, reunions or have guests staying on a regular basis, creating the atmosphere you desire around you home can be achieved with a lick of paint.

Your home is your castle and is, therefore, a reflection of you, so choose a colour palate that suits the type of property you have and doesn’t stand out too much from the surrounding houses in your neighbourhood. Making sure that you take the time to enlist the services of a local professional painter and decorator if you think the task is too big, and create a redecoration plan that may even inspire others to pick up a tin of paint and a brush.

The Psychology of Graffiti - Gang Signs to Street Art

Graffiti has been around for thousands of years, since cavemen painted on walls to tell of tales of yesteryear. The majority of people have a natural dislike of graffiti, especially when it’s sprawled all over their neighbourhood. But it is also very popular and can be seen as street art, which is most likely intended to interest people in a similar way that a painting does, rather than to disgust and annoy like standard graffiti does.

As a Part of Gang Culture

Graffiti has come a long way since the days when it was a defining feature of a derelict or rundown part of the neighbourhood. With many young adults wishing to make their mark by tagging their territory, it became an inner city map of gang signs and a visual cue to other people of the neighbourhood that this was their territory. The gang culture of the 70s and 80s only heightened the use of graffiti, as part of a sub culture amongst teenagers and young adults.

Many cities around the globe have tried to tackle the problem of graffiti by allowing dedicated walls to be left to the streets as a place to allow graffiti to be sprayed. This alternative method of controlling graffiti has only helped in a few instances, and overlooked the whole mind-set of why graffiti exists. In its original form, graffiti was a territorial thing; it is intended to mark a territory and allow those who enter it either a welcome or a warning sign.

Street Art

Those young adults who dabbled in graffiti are now part of the second generation of graffiti sprayers; the graffiti artists, who focus less on territories on more on art. With a distinct change in mind-set amongst many people in society, graffiti is now seen as part of an art culture of the streets, and one that can be celebrated. More places than ever have been dedicated to allowing graffiti artists to show their work, and with those young adults that have now grown into accomplished artists, an adult look on the culture and messages that can be conveyed through graffiti has exploded into a new wave of intelligent-thinking street artists.

If anyone knows one thing about graffiti and the term graffiti artists, then the name Banksy will ring a bell. This celebrated artist who prefers to create thoughtful street art in graffiti form is leading a new wave of cultured graffiti artists into becoming the main stream. With his iconic stencilled designs, Banksy has toured the world looking for meaningful places to adorn his work. From occupied Palestine to New York and Sydney, Banksy has changed much about how we think about graffiti and what it means to be a graffiti artist.

It seems that for now, graffiti is here to stay. With iconic symbols of street culture and inspirational artists such as Banksy, graffiti artists have just awoken to a world of partial acceptance in the art world, with the possibility of creating true pieces of art on the buildings and cities that they call home. But while there are a number of artist that are truly talented and deserve to be celebrated, a lot of graffiti has a single purpose - to vandalise people’s property. This is ultimately how graffiti artist can come to have a bad name, despite their undeniable artistic skills.

Unwanted Graffiti Can Actually Be Removed Without Much Fuss

Long before the rise of more sophisticated means of advertising and public campaign, one of the fastest ways of public campaign was through graffiti. Graffiti involves writing or painting some images and letters on properties such as building, trains etc.

For many building owners and private property owners, graffiti can be a very annoying thing that not only defaces and devalues properties but also serve as a type of imposed vandalism. They are now trying to hire professional painting service to get rid of this problem.

Meanwhile, it even gets more bothersome to think of the amount of effort and time that needs to be expended trying to remove these unwanted paintings and drawings on one’s wall and building.

Interestingly, not only has private building owners become more concerned about this nuisance value, government and regulators are now more vociferous against the defacing of public facilities and properties because such usually takes a toll on tourism as well as environmental planning.

Graffiti removal technique has, therefore, become very important in recent times, especially when it takes little time and effort to do. There are various safe methods of removing graffiti that would leave the building or structure as good as before.

Some of the best graffiti removal method includes sandblasting, pressure washing and some other safe chemical processes that will completely dissolve the spray paint that was used.

In order to complete the process of graffiti removal, it is very imperative to use a protective coating that will allow an easier removal process if any other graffiti is done in the future. 

Fortunately, there are many graffiti removal specialists that offer to professionally remove graffiti at a very affordable price, so it shouldn't be much of a headache.