Author Archives: Dan Hansen

Little Changes, Big Impact: ABC Blocks on the Wall

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OK, for the last little bit, we’ve been talking about small projects you can tackle in your home that will have a big impact on your decorating.  We understand that the idea of repainting a couple rooms in the home isn’t always the most exciting thought to everybody out there. Some of us just don’t feel like going nuts on a paint job–we don’t have the time or the energy right now.

Others of us like the color of our rooms already.  We think they look nice, but still feel they’re missing something.  They’re a little plain or boring and we’re not sure what we can do to spruce them up, to infuse some life into them, without completely overhauling them.

That’s been the point for the last few entries: small projects that will hopefully  infuse some life into your home without giving you a project that’s going to take you weeks to accomplish.

Well, today I’ve got one that’s really suited for a kids room  or maybe a back entry–some small room where you can branch away from the norm for a little bit without throwing off the decorating scheme of your whole home. Anyway, if you’ve got a room like that, think about this: what if you’d paint some shapes onto the wall?

Now, I know (I know, I know) that sounds boring.  But I’m not just talking about basic squares or circles or geometric shapes.  I’m talking about being a little more creative than that (though I’d still argue that geometric shapes on walls can be tremendously creative and interesting if done right!)

Anyway, even though those basic shapes can be creative, that’s not exactly what I’m talking about today.  See, I’ve never had the right room to do this in, but I’ve imagined a cool kids rooms where you take some stencils of letters and combine them with some square shapes to create letter blocks on the wall–you know those little wood ABC blocks kids play with and chew on? Anyway, paint the blocks in a corner–make them large (1-2 foot square)–and stack them. Stagger the stack or paint them in a tumbled heap in a corner. You could spell out ABC’s on the letters or a child’s name. You could craft some other message:  Family or Faith or pretty much anything you want.

All it takes is a little time, a small amount of paint, and a helping of creativity.

Little Changes, Big Impact: Wall Shapes

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If you’re looking for simple ways to give a room in your home some appeal, what about painting some shapes onto the walls?  Now, you could accomplish this by painting just a few geometrical shapes all over the walls, randomly placing squares and circles, but don’t limit yourself to that.

For example, think about your laundry room.  What if you’d paint the walls a sky blue color and then paint a clothesline on one wall?  And don’t quit there, go ahead and paint some “cartoony” clothes on that line.  You could use bright colors in the clothes you “hang” on that line and those bright colors would infuse your room with a sense of fun and interest without overpowering it.

If you’re looking for a twist on this idea, go ahead and hang a “real” clothesline on your wall and fill it with “clothes” that you cut out of extra wallpaper that you may have lying around.

This is a simple project and a fun way to use up excess wallpaper.  Just glue two sheets of wallpaper together (same pattern on the front and back or different patterns–it doesn’t matter).  Glue the two sheets together and, when they’re dry, cut shirt, dress and pants shapes out.  Then, using real clothes pins, hang these items on your line.

Whether you paint the clothes shapes onto the wall or cut them out of wallpaper, this is a great way to infuse your room with color and interest (and a sense of whimsical fun) without having to completely overhaul the entire space.

Little Changes, Big Impact: Paint Some Second Hand Furniture

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bigstock-Classic-Wooden-Dresser-6102291_smallerContinuing in our series about small paint projects that will have a big payoff, we’re going to talk today about painting furniture. But before we start by throwing out some examples, I want to first take a second and acquaint (or reacquaint) you with the creative home decorator’s greatest friend: the junk shop.

Lining the shelves in countless junk shops and mission stores throughout the country are treasures: unique dressers, end tables, lamps, flower stands . . . you name it. Sure, they’re not in the best condition all the time, but that’s the beauty of paint: it doesn’t matter what it looks like now; it only matters what it WILL look like with a coat of paint.

So, find the junk shops, the flea markets, the mission stores in your area and make a habit of swinging through them from time to time. Look for bargains and look with a vision for what’s possible. Remember that the piece doesn’t need to be flawless. Paint will cover over a multitude of sins. Look for interesting pieces, unique pieces, unusual pieces. And look for bargains.

And once you find them . . . snatch them up and start getting creative. To give you some food for thought, consider the following examples:

DISTRESSED TABLE

Here’s little table that’s easy to duplicate. It’s just a matter of stripping and staining the table top with a standard wood stain. After that, just apply a water based paint in your color of choice to the rest of the piece. Once it’s dry, do a little scuff-sanding to distress it and bring out the wood beneath the paint and you’re set. It’s easy to do and you end up with a furniture piece that could be a highlight in any room.

OLD DESK

Finding a piece like this at a junk shop is exciting as it gets. But putting the right colors on it and turning it into an interesting, exciting piece in your home is even better.  The desk in this example illustrates the point that you don’t need bold, bright colors to make an impact. The colors used on this are very neutral, very natural tones. The highlights on the rings of the legs are simply a slightly darker paint than the rest. Remember: it’s not always about being bold and daring. It’s about choosing the right piece and the right colors–whether they’re bold . . . or muted and neutral.

BOLD, CRAZY FLOWER STANDS

Now, while bold, bright colors aren’t always necessary to make an impact, they sure do get the job done!

Maybe these are too bright for your particular taste . . . but don’t write the idea immediately off. The value of painting bright colors on something like this is that it gives you an easy way to bring a certain color into your decorating that you’d otherwise struggle to use. For example, look at the reddish orange on the stands. It’s not an easy color to work with. It’s hard to paint an entire wall that color and get away with it. But if the rest of the room is painted in a washed-out yellow or a chalky blue . . . introducing that orange in small doses–as is the case with these pedestals–can be a great way to use it in the room without overpowering the room.

The basic point is this: look for ways to bring some color and interest into your rooms via furniture you may have purchased at a discount or at a mission store or junk shop. It’s the perfect way to infuse your home with color, without going overboard or biting off too big a project. And, when you need a change, it’s as easy as a quick repaint . . . or moving the piece to your basement!

Little Changes, Big Impact: Paint Behind a Vase

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You don’t always need to completely overhaul a room to infuse some interest and excitement into your decorating. Sometimes you can make a huge impact with less than a quart of paint and in less than 20 minutes.

In this little blog-series, we’ll explore some simple ways you can add some “pop” to your decorating without taking a “hit” in your bank account.

Today, we’re going to talk about a simple concept: painting behind vases, pots or other art pieces you might have sitting in a corner or against a wall. These items sit in our rooms day in and day out and they usually add some color and some visual interest. However, over time, they fade into the background.

Well, an easy way to bring them back into the foreground is to paint an area behind them. Simply mimic the shape of the art piece, or paint a simple oval behind it in a complimentary or coordinating color.

It’s a quick project, will take you no more than a few “brush-fulls” of paint, and will usually take you all of 20 minutes (including clean-up!). But the impact and visual appeal it brings to your home is boundless.

Get creative . . . start thinking outside the box . . . and see what you can come up with. Next time, we’ll talk about another quick project.

8 Easy Ways to Increase Curb Appeal

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curb_appeal_test2Increasing the curb appeal of your home doesn’t need to be a paint project that lasts all summer long–you don’t need to paint your entire home in order to bump up it’s appearance. Oh, that always helps–and really, nothing will accomplish a complete renewal of your home than a new paint job–but it’s not always necessary. Here are 8 sure-fire ways–easy ways–to increase the visual “pop” of your home:

FRONT DOORS: Your front doors can offer you a great opportunity to say something unique and interesting about your home. Many folks fall back on a safe standard–a maroon or a forest green–but don’t let that be the case with your home. Branch out a little. Be a little daring. Go with a bright green, a bold red, a warm yellow. It’s a small area in the grand scheme of things–after all, a front door is basically 21 square feet. So, it’s a drop in the bucket when you think about the entire exterior of your home. But this little drop can have some impact if you pick the right color!f

GARAGE DOORS: Another surface that gives you a great opportunity when it comes to exterior decorating are your garage doors. Take a look at yours and see if there’s a way to infuse some color into that surface. And really, don’t feel you have to paint the whole thing one big, bright, bold color. You could paint it a slightly darker color than the rest of your trim and then use either a lighter or darker color yet to accent the different raised panels in the door. There are any number of creative things you could try–our point here is to just open your mind to the possibilities. Don’t look at that door as just a big hunk of metal that hides the opening of your garage! Look at it as a canvas–a place to throw some color and increase the visual appeal of your home.

SHUTTERS: Most of our homes have shutters. And most of us have painted those shutters the same color as we’ve painted our front doors. And really, that’s not necessarily bad. But, don’t always assume that there are no other options. Look at your shutters and try to imagine what a color darker or lighter than your door color would do. What would another color altogether add? Shutters don’t take up a lot of space and so a bright, bold color that WORKS with your other colors can infuse some significant life into a boring exterior.

LIGHT POSTS and RAILINGS: This is one of my favorite ideas–mainly because its just something I’ve never really given much thought to before. See, most of us spend time thinking about the colors we’ll put on our doors or our siding that we never really give much thought to extraneous things like railings and light posts. Oh, we figure we’ll just accent them in white or maybe black depending on the rest of the color scheme, but rarely do we ever give them much consideration on their own. So break out of that mindset. Give some thought to your railings and your lightposts. What colors could you put on those surfaces that would really infuse your home with interest?

LAWN FURNITURE: The fifth item we’re going to talk about is something that’s not permanently affixed to your home: lawn furniture. Many of us have Adirondack chairs or other items like this that take up a place of prominence on our yards. They are usually more practical than decorative–they’re the places we hang out and relax over the summer months. But just because they’re practical doesn’t mean that they can’t be decorative as well. Rather than rely on the standard white, why not branch out into some bold colors, some bright colors . . . some fun colors? Because these aren’t permanent items, you can move them, put them away for the winter, etc. So, don’t be afraid to go bold with your colors.

FLOWER BOXES: Not every house has flower boxes attached beneath the windows anymore. But for those of you who have these, don’t forget that they can be used not just to carry a bunch of color in the form of flowers! They can also be painted with interesting colors to add a little excitement to the big blank exterior of your home. Because these are small, you can paint them easily and, if you put some time and thought into the color selection AND the flowers you plant in them . . . you could have an amazing summer result! So don’t overlook them.

WINDOW TRIM: This one’s an obvious choice, but again, so often, we overlook it on our own homes. So many times, we assume that trim needs to be either dark brown or white. But that’s not the case. Oh, you want to be a little careful with your color choices because painting window trim isn’t the most exciting or pleasant project out there . . . but don’t be afraid to stretch your boundaries a little. Sometimes a slightly darker or lighter version of your siding or your front door accents can really “class-up” an exterior. So don’t just settle on the standards–think bigger!

OUT BUILDINGS: One last area that we’re going to cover in this article is your outbuildings. You know, those little sheds we’ve all got crammed full of lawnmowers and kids toys. Most of us paint them very conservatively. We turn them into little tiny duplicates of our homes–same colors, same look. Or, we branch out a little and coat them with a nice, safe white. Or, maybe a wood-colored stain. Well, I’m not saying it’s the right answer for everybody, but for some of us, a bold color on a building like this can create a huge splash of visual interest for the exterior of your home. And by “bold”, I don’t mean it has to be red or bright green. It could be a deep, navy blue. It could be a charcoal building with lime-green highlights. It could be anything. Think about it!

Well, you get the idea. The point is this: think big! Be bold with your color choices and be creative with the surfaces you decide to paint. Small surfaces on and around your home can be painted quickly and easily for very little money. But these same surfaces, when coated with the perfect color, will slow traffic and walkers as they pass your house. They’ll take a look. And they’ll go home and they’ll start looking for ways to add interest to their exteriors!

So You’re Keeping Your Couch: Decorating With “Leftovers”

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couch_testLeftovers. We all usually have them when we do some new decorating in our homes. Typically, it’s a rare occurrence when someone gets to decorate a room without such limitations. What I mean is this: normally, there’s always something that’s going to “carry over” into your new decorating. Not often are you completely removing and replacing everything: carpet, bedding, wall hangings, furniture. Usually, some of these items remain and these things, in a sense, tie your hands. They limit your creativity. They limit you. Or do they?

In reality, (and against what seems like common sense), these limitations usually make it easier for you to come up with a decorating scheme. And the reason is simple: when you’ve got no limitations, no boundaries, then that means that everything, every color, is fair game. And many times, this utter freedom results in a paralysis. There are so many colors we could choose that many folks have no idea where to start. Nothing is off the table and so, as a result, we’ve got thousands of options that leave us spinning our wheels.

However, when you’ve got limitations–when you have furniture you need to work around, or carpeting–you find yourself with a starting point. Suddenly, there aren’t 3,000 colors available to you. Instead, you’re down to a few hundred at most. This makes choosing much, much easier.

Here’s an example to prove the point:

Imagine two scenarios. In the first one, let’s say that you have a blank slate. You are remodeling a bedroom and you’re replacing everything. No color is off limits. You can pick and choose any combination you want. So you walk into RepcoLite and immediately you’re confronted with a display of over 3000 colors. However, before you pick even one of those colors, remember something: the colors need to match the bedspread you haven’t purchased yet. Also, they need to work with the furniture you don’t own yet. And the carpet you haven’t even shopped for. Now, of course, you could start with the carpet and the furniture, but remember that these things are going to have to end up working well with paint colors you really like.

Now, even with this brief look at the complete room-remodel project, we can see that while it’d be fun to start from scratch, it would also be complicated. It’s not hard to see why some people get so frustrated and tense when they find themselves in this position: every decision impacts another and nobody wants to make any mistakes. So, often, what happens is a form of paralysis. A slow, tense process of decor and furniture and color and carpet selections.

OK, now imagine the second scenario: you’re remodeling a living room. But in this case, you absolutely HAVE to keep the hand-decorated, crazy throw pillows that your Great Aunt Mill hand-stitched for you. They have such sentimental value that while everything else can change, these pillows need to be incorporated in the new room.

Now, in this situation, you’re limited . . . but watch how this limitation helps you almost instantly narrow your color possibilities. When you bring the pillow to RepcoLite, we’ll look at it and we’ll start pulling colors that will work. Likely, we’ll present you with some options similar to these:

Rather than find yourself staring at a seemingly endless array of colors and color combinations (as you have in scenario 1), this time, you find yourself faced with a smaller palette of colors. You have purples, blues, tans, yellows, reds and greens to work with. And not just ANY purple or ANY green–no, the color options are very specific if they’re going to match your Aunt Mill’s pillow.

From here, it’s just a matter of sorting through the colors available and selecting the ideal scheme to coordinate in your home. No frustration . . . no painstaking hours spent staring at 1000’s of colors. Quick. Easy. Beautiful.

So, all that to say, don’t be depressed when you find yourself limited by furniture and carpet and even throw pillows from Aunt Mill that are going to remain in your newly redecorated room. Don’t worry that these “holdovers” are going to complicate your decorating and color selection process. They won’t. If anything, they’ll make it easier!