From the category archives:

Chevy Chase DC

Reading time: 3 – 5 minutes

Specialty Painting – Textures
To add beautiful and unique effect, add a little texture to your next home paint project. Texture is the latest home painting trend that can spruce up your home’s aesthetic appeal without a major investment. Keep in mind that texturized accents are good and add interest, but should be used sparingly, not all over a room. Consider the following de rigueur texturing techniques:

Sponging
Sponge a contrasting color over the base coat after it has time to dry. The more the dissimilar color you choose, the more striking the effect will appear. This texture is easy to maintain over time by sponging on fresh color over marred areas and scuffmarks.

Sanding
Adding silica sand to latex paint for texture creates a fine textured surface that gives your walls a velvety appearance. Use a ratio of about 8 to 1 paint / sand by volume. You can add sand to any level of sheen paint. Some designer brands already have said in the paint. Sandy paint is thick enough to hide minor flaws, enables you to create the effect of plaster or stucco

Paint Color Tips
Color makes more than a fashion statement

Think blue for the new millennium.

Every year, Color Marketing Group, an Alexandria, Va., international, not-for-profit organization, forecasts the colors that will be introduced in products two years in the future.

Forecasters are color and design experts from industries that use color to sell products. These experts brainstorm with others in their industries about events (a presidential election), demographics such as the influx of Latino and Asian immigrants and Baby Boomers reaching middle age, the 2000 Olympics and intuitions that make them believe certain hues will be hot in two years.

Christine Dickey, a member who represents Toyota Motor Sales, USA, predicts colors in the first couple of years of the new millennium will be influenced by people’s desire for authenticity and heritage. “This trend is led by Generations X & Y, but is quickly being adopted by Baby Boomers seeking a slower pace of life filled with more tradition and spirituality,” she says.

These color theorists say blue will be the dominant color for the first half of the decade, with a variety of blues emerging in product categories from automobiles to house paint. Those shades will be supported by an array of neutral colors in cool and warm gray, clay, taupe and pale brown. Color forecasters also predict a new wave of soft pale colors led by aqua and true lavender, representing consumers’ desire for serenity in their environments. For those of us in need of a little energy, color experts offer spicy oranges, reds and gold browns from Morocco and Australia.

New colors first appear in fashion, then in home furnishings, and finally in exterior building materials. While fashion colors change with the seasons, building products are replaced by homeowners far less frequently, so they change color more slowly. Roofing, for instance, changes colors only once every 10 years, while interior colors shift every six to eight years.

How do these predictions affect home remodelers? Color experts say paying attention will keep your decor

From Home Remodeling Frederick Md

301 253-1068

Maryland Home Remodeling by BT Martin Contractors serving Bethesda, Potomac and Howard County for 30 yrs. We are fully licensed and insured, with excellent references available upon request. Our team of quality-conscious professionals will address all of your home improvement concerns, treating your home and property with high regards.

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Reading time: 4 – 6 minutes

BT Martin Contractors serving Chevy Chase DC and Bethesda Maryland luxury home owners for 30 years with Maryland Home Remodeling Services.
Articles on remodeling:
You ve loved living in your apartment; it s convenient to your job, and it’s easy to maintain. However, your bachelor/bachelorette days are gone, you have a family, and you re finally financially ready for something bigger – meaning a house.
You ve notified your landlord that you ll be moving out on such and such date, and in the meantime you re actively looking for your dream home.

After an extensive search, you ve finally found the perfect house for you and your family regardless of home improvement needs. You ve now moved out of that apartment (funny how it seems so cramped now in comparison to your new home!) and are in the process of getting settled.

You’ve never had to do much work on a home before, or any place that you lived. At your old place, if you noticed a sink was leaking, or there was a crack in the wall, it was up to your landlord to fix it. Now, you want to experience what you think is the thrilling challenge of home improvement.

As a result, you and your wife agreed to buy a real fixer upper. What could
be better than accomplishing your own home improvement projects? You
envision yourself pointing to some pristine tiling work and proudly
declaring, I did that!

Well, before you get started on any of the many home improvement projects you want to accomplish, you should first consult people who actually know what they re doing. For example, for that painting project you have in the living room, why not talk to your nephew? After all, he recently completed a College Home Painting Class, and is well on his way to establishing a
successful painting career!

Once you ve consulted the professionals, you can then start thinking about tackling a few projects yourself. However, it s important that you stick to smaller projects – ones that don t have a high probability of getting injured.

A perfect way to start is actually not inside the home, but outside of it.
The yard looks awful, and the gazebo needs to be painted. Start by getting yourself a really good lawnmower and mowing that lawn! You might even want to add some extra color to the lawn too, but adding various flowers and decorative plants.

Then, there s the gazebo. The white paint is chipping off in clumps, and mold is growing on the side. No need to panic, this is a great job for you “Oh Home Improvement Man!” Lay a tarp down around the gazebo area. Get some clean rags, and dip them in basic household cleaning solution. Vigorously rub away any signs of mold. That step was pretty easy, right?

Next, take a paint chipper (if you have to idea what that is, just go to your local hardware store and ask for one) and scrape off as much of the flaking paint that you can. By this time, the area around the gazebo probably looks very, very messy. Thank goodness for that tarp! Gently gather the corners of the tarp, drag it over to a trash can, and dump in the bits and pieces of trash. Just think, after all that hard work, you can actually start painting.

Who said house projects were time consuming and not much fun?

Now if you’d rather hire an experience professional that’s worked in your Upper Northwest DC or Bethesda Maryland area for 30 years and you can walk to the homes of people who have previously hired:
From Maryland Home Remodeling

 

Maryland Home Remodeling by BT Martin Contractors
7130 Rock Creek Dr Frederick, MD 21702-3646
(301) 253-1068

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