The Fifth Wall

Posted on November 1, 2012August 6, 2019

bigstock-Happy-Woman-Painting-The-Ceili-7960216_smaller_curl3 Has this ever happened to you: you walk into the paint store for paint and then spend the next three days or a week or more agonizing over the color chips you brought home? You hold them up to every piece of furniture in the room. You lay them on your carpet, on your end table. You try to picture them large scale–covering your walls. You debate between one shade and a slightly darker shade. And then, finally, after all the debate and analysis and agony, you pick the perfect colors.

You make your way to the paint store, order a gallon of one and two gallons of the other and then, almost as a side note, you grab a gallon or two of ceiling white and call it good.

Do you see the problem here? The mistake? It may not be obvious, but it’s this: we put huge amounts of energy and thought into our wall colors and don’t give our ceilings the time of day.

Next time you paint–change that line of thinking. Your ceiling isn’t just a ceiling–it’s a fifth wall. And, as such, you shouldn’t necessarily just roll white paint up there.

If you’re looking to make an impact in your home, putting color on a ceiling is a surefire way to do that. And the reason is simple: it’s extremely rare. apt-therapy_shadow_curl Most folks forget about their ceilings when it comes time to paint and as a result, most ceilings are forgettable.

Change that in your home by rolling a color up there. Just keep this in mind: the darker the color you put on the ceiling, the lower it will make those ceilings feel. This can be great in big, high-ceilinged rooms. Rolling a color on your ceiling that’s a shade or two darker than your wall color can go a long ways toward making your room feel cozier, warmer, more inviting. A darker color on your ceiling will draw your eyes downward, bring down those big open spaces, and create settings that feel more personal, more intimate.

Lighter colors on the ceiling will make the room feel a little more expansive, a little more open.

white_ceiling_curl However, there’s something very interesting to realize here: many folks understand this concept and they figure that painting those ceilings white will really serve to open the room up. However, think about this: if you’ve got a medium toned color on your walls, no matter what shade, a white on the ceiling can often produce a very sharp distinction between the walls and the ceiling. This sharp distinction, this high contrast between walls and ceiling, can often lead people to conclude that their wall color doesn’t work–that it needs to be repainted.

Look at the picture above. The green on those walls is a strong color. However, the room works because the ceiling is a soft tan. It’s not a dark ceiling–definitely not dark in comparison with the walls–but it’s dark enough to create a nice balance in the space.

tan_ceiling_curl Imagine the same room with a white ceiling. In fact, you don’t have to imagine it, look at the picture below. That’s the same room with a standard white on the ceiling and the whole mood of the room changes. The stark white on the ceiling makes the green on the walls feel harsh. Many times, folks would paint a room like this, think they love that green, only to be back later for new paint because the color’s just too strong on the walls.

Now, I admit, the green truly is a strong color–but you can minimize it’s strength, tone it done, control it a little better, by putting a color other than white on the ceiling.

All that to say: don’t forget about the fifth wall in every room–your ceilings. You can put some color up there to make a room feel more inviting, to make it feel cozier, or even to tone down the visual power of a wall color you really love. Keep it in mind.

12 Screwdrivers for $1: What Could Go Wrong?

Posted on October 26, 2012August 6, 2019

I’m cheap. I’ve probably written that before, but that doesn’t matter. I’m so cheap, it’s legitimate to write it again. But that cheapness has it’s limits.

Several months ago, I learned a tough lesson in the world of Cheapness. I was working on a project in my kitchen and I needed a small screwdriver to unscrew and remove about 12 tiny screws. After scrounging in my basement work room and coming up empty, I decided I needed to travel to the tool store.

Reluctantly I did. My little wad of crinkled dollar bills was in my pocket and I planned to run in, grab the screwdriver and get back home to finish the project so I could go outside and play and have fun with the kids.

However, something happened: on my way to the tool store, I drove past a dollar store, and my wife announced that we needed to stop there so she could pick up some this or that. So we stopped. And as she made a beeline for the different items she needed, I wandered.

And do you know what happened? I wandered into the tool section. (I hesitate to call it a “department” because we were, after all, in a dollar store). Anyway, we wandered into the tool section and I found, sitting on the shelf in a bright, shiny plastic package, a set of 12 screwdrivers. The price tag? Exactly 1 U.S. Dollar. Plus tax.

Well, if you’re me, that 12-pack-for-just-1-dollar-deal is just too good to refuse. So I snatched it up, dropped it on the counter and promptly paid my $1.06. All the way home, I bragged up my find to my wife. Oh, I knew the tools weren’t the best, but all I needed to do was remove 12 screws. And I had 12 screwdrivers. It’s impossible that I could fail, right?

Riding on cloud nine, I pulled into the driveway and marched into the house ready to tackle my project. And of course, you already know what happened. The first screwdriver broke on the third twist–the shaft separated from the handle. No problem. I had 11 more. And I’d planned on this. No Sweat.

But then the second and third screwdriver broke before I’d removed that first screw. And I started to get nervous. I mean really? Could I possibly break every single screwdriver in a 12 pack before I’d unscrewed 12 screws? Could such a think happen? Surely, no!

Sadly, yes. They all broke. I still had 6 or so screws to go when I threw the last screwdriver into the garbage. Frustrated, I drove to the tool store, dropped $6, came back home, and about 2 hours after I’d started, I finally had everything done.

A project that should have taken 10 minutes max ended up taking a couple of hours (when you add in all the driving and waiting in line and so on).

In the end, it taught me a good lesson: there’s a time and a place for cheapness. But there’s also a time and place for purchasing quality materials. Dropping the extra money right up front is sometimes the best money-and-time-saving decision you can make. It was that way with those screwdrivers and it’s also that way with paint.

See, so often people think paint is paint. Good paint isn’t any different from cheap paint. At least that’s the thinking. And when people who think there’s no real difference in quality see that quality paint is about $8 more per gallon, well, their decision is basically made for them. They buy the cheapest paint they can find and then work their way through the project. In the end, they get the walls covered, but they usually put the brushes and rollers away heaving a sigh of relief that the terrible, horrible job is finally done and they walk away assuming that painting is a pain.

However, it’s not the painting that’s the pain. It’s the paint. When you use a cheap paint product, you may not realize there’s a difference between it and a quality product, but that doesn’t change the fact that there is. High quality materials roll onto your walls easier, with less work. They don’t drip and spatter all over the place. They cover and hide much better. They go farther. They wash up and hold up better and they don’t need to be touched up as often.

A good paint versus a cheap paint can often take at least 1 less coat and will usually still be looking great on your walls when the cheaper paint is begging for a repaint.

And that’s the point to think about: buying the better paint right in the beginning is, by far, the better value. Sure, it may (in an average living room that takes 2 gallons of paint) cost about $16 total dollars more than the cheap paint, but think of the benefits: the paint will apply easier, cover better, hide more, drip less and last longer. You’ll apply fewer coats, spend less time, and won’t need to deal with drips and spills.

$16 more on an average room will save you at least an hour or two of work and will provide you with a better product that will wash up, resist wear and need less touch-ups than a cheaper paint.

With the screwdrivers, I assumed there was no way to make a bad screwdriver. I thought a screwdriver was a screwdriver–why pay $5 for 1 when I could get 12 for $1? I learned the hard way that all screwdrivers aren’t created equal. The same is true with paint. Good paint will make a difference. Sure, it will cost more up front, but the value in the long run will be worth it. Try it. Just once. Pick up a high quality paint (RepcoLite, of course) for your next project and see what a difference it makes!

3M Delicate Surface Tape

Posted on September 13, 2012August 6, 2019

Every now and again, a new product enters the home decorating field and changes the way everything is done. Today I want to very briefly highlight one such product: 3M’s Delicate Surface Masking Tape.

Now hold on, don’t click away just yet. I know the very words “masking tape” don’t necessarily instill a feeling of raw, unchecked excitement even in the hardiest home decorating gurus, but this tape is different. It’s worth a quick read. Trust me. You’ll thank me later.

See, 3M’s Delicate Surface tape will give you razor sharp, crisp lines when you paint. Oh, it can be used on all sorts of delicate surfaces including wallpaper and recently painted walls, but for me, the biggest, most important aspect of the tape is the sharp lines it leaves behind.

After all, I hate taping a room off. I cannot stress this enough. I hate it. It’s time consuming. It’s no fun (I just want to put paint on, not spend this time taping). And then, usually, after all that work of taping, I roll my paint on, pull the tape off and discover that there are many areas where the paint leaked under the tape. My lines aren’t crisp. It’s depressing.

But that’s where this particular tape changes the game entirely. The lines are absolutely razor sharp. They’re perfect. You can go through all the work of taping your room (which still isn’t fun–even with this tape), but the end results make it all worthwhile–no paint leaking under the tape, no wallpaper or wall paint peeling off when you remove the tape. Nothing but sharp lines and perfect walls.

Now, of course, the tape is more expensive than regular masking tape–probably a couple bucks a roll more. But think about it this way: you’re going to spend all that time masking a room with good tape or with cheap tape. You’re going to do all that work painting that room. You’re going to spend all that time pulling the tape off when you’re done. Isn’t it worth it to do all of that and end up with perfect results? Isn’t that worth an extra $2?

OK, that’s enough said. Instead of reading, do a little viewing. Here’s a video that will give you crystal clear proof that this tape’s worth the money! Check it out:

Paint Colors, Light Bulbs and John Boomsma

Posted on September 4, 2012August 6, 2019

The other day, I received a call from the Manager at our Jenison RepcoLite, John Boomsma (see inset). He had just run into a crazy situation in the store and figured I could make use of the information on our blog.

John explained that he had received a phone call earlier in the week from a customer who was extremely frustrated. She was at a loss–didn’t know what to do. See, she had just painted two rooms in her home. As most people do when getting ready to paint, she had agonized for a few days or weeks over colors.

Finally, after much effort and after asking her family 100 times which color they liked the most (and then opting for the color she liked the best despite what they said), she painted both rooms.

And that’s when things got weird.

In room 1, she loved the color. It was perfect. It blended with the fabrics, the carpet, the trim and so on. It was exactly the look she had wanted.

However, she was shocked to discover that she hated room 2. The color looked terrible with the fabrics, the carpet, the trim, and so on.

The weird thing? The color was the same in both rooms. So was the fabric. And the carpet. And the trim. Identical rooms painted with the exact same color out of the exact same gallon and room 1 looked beautiful and room 2 looked terrible.

So she called RepcoLite in Jenison where she bought the paint, wanting to know what was going on.

Now, I’ll admit that while John was telling me this story, I was a little intrigued. These things are sometimes like mysteries and it can be fun and rewarding to puzzle them out and find a solution. However, I have to be honest: I wasn’t sure, from what I was hearing, what the problem could possibly be.

I assumed maybe a paint color problem. Maybe the roller she used had paint in it from another job. Maybe the previous color on the wall was showing through, making the color in room 2 look different.

I had a number of different theories, but then John said “you know what the problem was? You know what went wrong?”

I waited. He waited. (Turns out he wanted me to say “no, I don’t know what the problem was” before he’d continue.) So I admitted ignorance (which made him happy), and he explained, in a single, compound word: “lightbulbs!”

He went on to explain that the customer had an incandescent lightbulb in room 1–the room she loved. In room 2, the lightbulb was one of those fluorescent, energy-saving bulbs. The tone of the light coming from each of those bulbs was enough to visually alter the color on her walls.

The fix? Simple: change bulbs.

The customer tried the fix and was back in the store a day or so later to report that everything turned out well. Instead of repainting a room–going through all that work and spending that extra money–all she had to do was change a lightbulb.

So the point of the story, if it’s not obvious, is this: lighting matters! Check out your colors in your room, in your lighting before you buy and before you paint. And likewise, before you give up on a color that you thought you liked but find that you really hate when you see it on your wall, give some thought to the lighting in your room. Could a simple changing of a lightbulb make all the difference? It’s at least worth a try!

Basketball and Decorating

Posted on August 30, 2012August 6, 2019

Not too long ago, we purchased a portable basketball hoop for the kids. We figured we’d all have fun shooting hoops and doing all that “basketball stuff” in our driveway. I assumed it would be a great bonding time, would provide some excercise, and, above all, give us something to do outside.

Well, shortly after we installed the hoop in its place, I realized that it was very likely one of the greatest gifts anybody has ever given to his or her neighbors. In the history of mankind. Allow me to explain:

See, I’m short. Let’s just get that out on the table. And it’s not just me. It’s my whole family. We’re all short. And when we set up that basketball hoop and extended the rim of the basket until it was regulation height, I realized just how short we really were. We just stood there and watched it go up and up and up until it finally clicked into place. I wish I had a snapshot of that moment–all of us looking straight up from our humble little positions on earth, some of us squinting. You would have thought we were watching a comet. Nope. Just trying to see the basketball hoop.

Well, the insane height of the basket only frightened me for a minute or two before I steeled my nerves, grabbed the ball and started dribbling it. It made a satisfying “thump” on the cement. Made me feel like a man.

Bouncing the ball, feeling cool, I stepped back a ways, gave myself some space for a good running start, and I took off. My tongue was hanging out in concentration, the ball was thumping against the concrete, my child-like hands were slapping it down, perfectly in-sync with each pattering footstep. It felt just like what I’ve seen on TV: real basketball players, running down the court getting ready to impress.

My little heart was pounding as I reached that point when I had to jump. My muscles tensed, my legs coiled and I launched myself into the air. Flight: it’s a truly amazing thing. I felt the air whipping through my thinning hair. My ears popped as I reached heights heretofore never reached. I felt like superman. Unstoppable. And, best of all, it happened in slow-mo.

Well, in what felt like a long instant replay, I felt myself going up, up, up and I saw the basket get closer and closer and closer. I reached up with the ball, prepared for the “slam”, prepared for the cheering, prepared for the moment of release… and then, suddenly, I was back on the ground again. The basket was barely visible way up in the sky. The ball was still in my hand. My right leg hurt and I had drool on my shirt. I was sweating.

Standing there, unsure what to do, I threw the ball as hard as I could into the air and pulled a muscle in my side as I did so. The ball sailed skyward until it hit the bottom of the net–nuzzling it like a soft breeze–and then it fell back to earth, making an eery, hollow thump on the cement.

And then the kids started laughing. I was told that in my amazing moment of jumping and “slamming”, I had never once been more than 3 inches off the ground. Never once. I thought I had been soaring, but I’d actually only been skidding along.

Needless to say, the laughter went on for a while–until they started playing. Then it quit abruptly because they realized they were no better.

And from that point on, we’ve spent many a day running beneath that insanely high (regulation-height) basket, dribbling big basketballs that look oversized in our small, child-like hands. We run and jump and not a single one of us gets more than 3 inches off the ground. It’s as if we’ve got invisible rubber bands strapped around our ankles and anchored into the ground.

And that’s why I say this was one of the greatest gifts a neighbor has given another neighbor ever. It’s comic relief. Whenever my neighbors are feeling down or are having a bad day, they just need to look out the window and watch the Hansen family running around the 10 foot tall basket, leaping and jumping and for all that hard work, never once getting more than a few inches off the ground. It’s absolutely hilarious. We’re that bad.

And it’s all because we’re not basketball people. We’re just not cut out for it. But even though we stink at it and even though we don’t have very many skills and even though we’re physically not capable of playing the sport competitively (or even casually) . . . we still do it and we still have fun.

And that’s the decorating point today. So many times, I’ve talked to customers at RepcoLite who are picking out a color to go on their walls that’s the same color as the color already there. It’s just a new coat–a clean coat–but it’s nothing different.

And they’re bored with it–I can tell that–it’s the same old thing they’ve always done. But when you ask them and try to get them to step out and try something new, we often hear the same old excuse: I’m no good at decorating. It’s not my thing. I don’t know how to do it.

Well, I’m not good at basketball. I stink. And so does my entire family. And yet, we’ve already made some great memories running around the hoop trying to throw a ball high enough that it has a chance to go in.

Just because you don’t think you’re good at decorating, don’t let that stop you from trying. When you step outside of your comfort zone and start trying new things, you’ll discover how much fun it can be to take those plain walls in your home and start turning them into something that reflects who you are, who your family is. So get going and give it a try. And if you don’t know where to start, stop out at RepcoLite and let our decorators give you some advice. You’ll be amazed how much fun the process can be.

Making “Big Red” Red Again

Posted on August 24, 2012August 6, 2019

Holland’s Big Red Lighthouse, a landmark of the Holland area for years has recently been fading from the bright red icon we’re used to seeing at the entrance to the harbor to something more, how shall we put it…pink.

The last paint job on the lighthouse was in 2009 when, according to John Gronberg, secretary and commissioner of the Holland Harbor Historical Lighthouse Commission, “the most expensive paint we’ve ever used” (not supplied by RepcoLite, for the record!) was brushed and rolled onto the structure. It wasn’t long, the harsh weather conditions began to take effect. In the end, that high end and promising coating failed much quicker than expected and the “pinking” of Big Red was well underway.

Three short years later, in 2012, the members Holland Harbor Historical Lighthouse Commission found themselves actively looking for solutions to turn Big Red red again. Happily, working with Lamar Construction, we were able to step in and help.

Check out some photos showing the process and results!

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