The most stressful decision made about the exterior of your home is the color. A color isn’t just there to blend well with your trim or to make the neighbors jealous, but rather to express your personality and to channel what kind of energy you want out of your home. Recently in Nashville, Textbook Painting has been producing drastic color changes to better suit the wants and personalities of our customers. With a drastic color change, there are three very important steps to be taken to ensure a long lasting, well covering, and suitable paint job. I will take you through these steps, and tell you how we went through these with our latest happy customer, Ms. Green.

Ms. Green had become unsatisfied with the color of her brick, and was ready for something different. It had previously been painted a grayish-white, which gave the house a cool, sleepy feeling. Ms. Green was looking for something warmer and brighter. This brings us to our first step: determine the number of coats needed to properly cover the existing color. Since Ms. Green’s house was a light color, and she was looking for a darker one, it was no problem for Duration to cover it in one coat. Had the colors been reversed, we would have needed the option of a second coat. It is pretty safe to assume that Duration will cover in one coat, but with drastic color changes, especially dark to light, an option for a second coat is never a bad idea.

The second step is simple: be sure to know what color you are painting your house. Ms. Green had made it clear that she wanted a goldish-brown color from the beginning, but had no specific color in mind. My first step was to give her my color-wheel, and let her pick out some colors she liked. Next, I gathered those colors in sample sizes from Sherwin Williams. Upon painting them on a small portion of her brick, Ms. Green decided that she did not like any of them. This is a great thing. A simple trip to Sherwin Williams saved the headache and heartache of having an unsatisfactory color on your house. I again had her pick out another color, and this time we had a winner: Hopsack.

Bringing us to our final step, Ms. Green’s house had two very different surfaces: brick and vinyl. The key to painting each is to make sure you have the appropriate product. In this case, Duration was the product for the brick, and SuperPaint was used on the vinyl. This assured that not only the coverage would be correct, but also that the paint would bond like it was supposed to.

These steps are not hard, nor time intensive, but they do assure that your home will be painted to your satisfaction. They are all standard here at Textbook Painting, because we understand that we have nothing without happy customers. Ms. Green’s home changed drastically, but it was a wanted and well-planned change. Don’t make the mistake of not taking these steps when repainting your home. If you have any questions about this article, or you are interested in getting an estimate, please call me directly at (931) 492-6033