1. Blending. This is used when you’d like a soft transition from one color to another or for a gradual blend through multiple colors. An example might be blue to green to yellow.

2. Distressed. This technique is used frequently on small objects such as chairs, dressers or frames to give a character and aged look. It can also be used on full walls or rooms, however, it can be very time consuming as it typically uses layers.

3. Faux fabrics. Faux leather and strie styles give the appearance of a fabric adhered to a wall or piece of furniture. Faux stone work is also growing in popularity, adding dimension to columns, back splashes and otherwise uninteresting walls.

4. Stripes. Whether one horizontal line that divides a wall, or many vertical stripes to add texture and dimensions, lines are a well defined, bold and structured look.

5. Stencils and Rub-ons. These are now available in retail stores or online with a variety of styles. If you are a renter, rub on’s are a great, removable way to add some design to those plain white walls.

6. Murals. Murals aren’t just for children’s rooms. People are painting the ceilings in entryways or even having inspiring quotes painted on bedroom or office walls. Many of these are left to professionals, as a poorly done mural does indeed look like a toddler got a hold of markers and crayons.

All these techniques have examples and can be found online. If the do-it-yourself videos are too intimidating, keep in mind Stellar Painting and Remodeling can help you with any of these painting projects. Have fun, be creative and love your space!

Here are some tips on how to do them well so you do indeed update, add value and meet your needs.
1. Check out the value of homes in your neighborhood and their amenities. For example, if your house has one bathroom but other houses have two, adding a bathroom is going to add value. If the houses in your neighborhood are selling for 200,000, investing 50,000 in a kitchen remodel may not increase your home value enough to recoup that expense.
2. Do pay attention to maintenance. There is little value in a great kitchen if there is a bad roof or damp basement. Make sure roof repairs, siding, windows and exterior painting are in good shape before spending money on remodel. Remember structure before luxury.
3. Stick to traditional, natural and neutral changes. If you go with trends, you may need to change those things before you will be able to sell your home. (Remember the colors of decades past?) Upgrades will serve both you and your potential buyer one day, saving you time and money.
4. Don’t do it yourself. Large home improvement projects should be left to pros. Simple updates are fine, but quality workmanship is admired while poor workmanship can lead to a quick loss in value and may sacrifice safety. How many times do you want to remodel the same project?
All remodels aren’t for the better, however a good remodel will add value, save you money and bring more joy and/or efficiency to your life. If you your remodeling project needs the help of professionals, give Stellar Painting and Remodeling a call at 720-981-7827. We can improve the value of your house inside and out!

Let’s start with the color wheel, which basically puts colors into groups, referred to as hues. The colors next to each other are called analogous and they work well with each other. They provide a soft contrast as in red with orange or blue with purple. Additionally, those straight across from each other on the color wheel are called complimentary, and in fact they are. These colors, when used together on a project make a high contrast.

Value refers to saturation of the color. For example if you have a dark velvety red, you have a high value color, versus an orange with less value as a pastel peach. Typically, you want to match colors with the similar values. If you use the same hue, you can use multiple values to create a nice range of colors- this is called a monochromatic color scheme. It is like a black and white photo with a great variety of range, but within one hue. An example might be a romantic rosy pink and red color scheme.

Warmth refers to a broader category of the hues. Except in the case of complimentary color combinations, schemes that stick within one warmth, are very appealing. Warm colors are typically reds, oranges and yellows. They tend to be playful, inviting, and cozy. Cool colors are purples, blues and greens. These colors are refreshing, soothing, and meditative.
Color theory simply is the way to determine where colors sit and how they look together. Best bet, go with same value complimentary colors, analogous colors or with a monochromatic scheme. And if you still just can’t develop that sense, Stellar Painting and Remodeling offers free color consultation with all of our interior painting or exterior painting projects. So feel free to give us a call at 720.981.7827

#1 Mildew
Very often mildew will set in on a North or East side of a house or on a deck. This is caused by moisture not evaporating therefore creating mildew. Mildew is dark black or has gray spots and paint will not adhere properly to it. It first must be removed with 50/50 mix of bleach and water thru a garden sprayer and then power washed. The bleach and water kills the mildew on contact. This condition is common after a particularly wet winter or a wet summer.

#2 Warped Siding
The condition of Warping to siding is common for south and west exposures. This is caused from moisture content accumulating in the boards naturally and the sun baking the siding causing a warping effect. This cannot be nailed or screwed down to flatten out these areas. This just causes additional damage and warping. Very often this condition can be arrested by proper application of paint to the bottom edge or lip of the siding board. This condition is even commonly seen with James Hardy concrete board siding as well, especially at higher altitudes. The only way to cosmetically improve the look of warped siding is to replace it. Otherwise, proper prep and quality Paint will suffice.

#3 Swollen Siding
Most often to North and sometimes East exposures to homes you will see siding swell and delaminate as these elevations accumulate moisture, ice dam and just generally have issues with water not evaporating naturally. This causes more swelling; nail pop and dry rot in general. As moisture wicks up into the siding it will swell, warp and delaminate. Proper scraping, primer and paint to these areas is key to avoiding further damage and having to replace the siding. Once the siding splits badly to the middle, you will have no choice but to replace the siding as a split cannot be effectively caulked. The freeze, thaw cycles will just cause the caulk to twist, turn, become unsightly and again expose this area to more moisture

#4 Nail Pop
Nail pop is caused from moisture getting behind a countersunk nail and the freeze; thaw cycles causing the nail to eventually protrude out from the house. This is why appreciably countersunk nails greater than a ¼” need to be caulked in. In addition, nails that are re-set and there is nothing for the nail to re-set into need to be pulled and the hole should be caulked. You should never over caulk Nail Heads however as they will flash thru the paint and cause an unsightly final finished product. We would advise to never be talked into caulking all of the nail heads on your home or intentionally counter sinking the nails.

#5 Wax Bleed
Wax Bleed is a condition of which arises when the sun bakes on Masonite or press board type siding where the paint has weathered away, leaving just color or pigmentation to the face of the board and the wax content on the board is drawn to the surface. This is most common to the West and Southern exposures but can be seen on the East depending on the intensity of morning sun. It will most often have the appearance of oil or look greasy to the Siding. Dirt and dust will stick to it and it will be spotty and unsightly. If unattended, it will only get worse. While caused from weathering, this condition is not fading. It must be cleaned/power washed and encapsulated with an “oil base” primer. Once primed, the surface is now in proper condition to have the finish paint applied. If wax bleed is left unattended or not primed when the house is painted, the paint will not adhere properly and will fail. It’s like painting wax paper; paint naturally does not want to stick to wax.

#6 Dry Rot
This condition arises to often unimpeded infiltration of water to a Board where moisture is trapped and causes a fungus to set in, cultivate and grow side to side or behind the affected area. It must be removed or it could cause substantial structural damage. You can often just push your finger right thru this type of damage and just patching over or caulking in dry rot will only cause further damage and do so in an accelerated way. This is why a good quality elastomeric caulk should always be used to open voids that will flex with temperatures and keep moisture out of points of entry to surfaces to be painted.

#7 Chalking Paint
This is again most common on the West and South facing elevations of your property. Your layer of protection or the paint again has weathered away and you can just run your hand across the surface and the pigment or color will simply wipe off and remain on your hand.

#8 Fading Paint
The UV in Colorado is severe and will damage most any color over time. All elevations to a property will fade differently making touching up after even a year or so nearly impossible. All Surfaces including metal or vinyl siding, stucco and Hardi-board surfaces will be need to be re-painted at some point because of this naturally occurring condition.

#9 Cracking & Staining Stucco
Cracks to stucco must be bridged with a quality elastomeric coating that will expand and contract over this surface. Once the crack opens up to the point where it cannot be bridged then it must be re-finished with stucco aggregate corner to corner and this can be very costly. A good quality elastomeric coating will also resist further staining from pollution and run-off that if so common with stucco. Standard exterior acrylic paints do not bridge cracks to stucco!

In our Colorado climate, homes need to be re-painted or experience significant fading every 5-7 years. Don’t buy into long warranty programs. You will be disappointed. Your painting contractor should take the time to talk to you about your house’s real needs. Hopefully this article has educated you and next time you speak to a painting contractor you’ll have the upper hand on negotiation! We hope these tips will assist you in your quest to have your home painted by a quality contractor and make a solid purchasing decision. Most often, the lower priced bids will lack details and will most often not address what we just discussed above significantly impacting the life of the project and your return on investment. Choose the right contractor who cares, gives you comfort, provide a sensible fair price and have a history of doing things the right way. Consider these things when reviewing the cost and expectations of any painting project. It is important to note that no matter the condition a building, good prep, good paint and great people will make all the difference!

Please call Stellar Painting & Remodeling at 720-981-7827 for additional info or visit www.StellarPaintingandRemodeling.com to schedule a free estimate.

A good thing to keep in mind and to level the playing field is that you, the client, picked the contractor in the first place. In some way, you trusted him and thought he would be a good fit for you. This is where choosing a contractor based strictly on price may come to pass as a bad decision. But let’s not dwell on the obvious and for the purpose of this article our contractors today will have good intent and best practices!

Number One: Give your contractor a chance to attend to your needs and concerns in a good way. Don’t assume the worse! Even though you may be frustrated, be patient and kind. Express yourself in such a way that would lend the person on the other end a real opportunity to make something right. Good contractors and their support staff are very driven to please their clients and most will do whatever it takes to do so. Give them that chance before anger or frustration takes hold. There should never be good cause to yell or create high levels of stress.

Number Two: Address your questions/concerns with the on-site crew leader. Often time, being proactive and addressing questions as soon as they arise is the best way to eliminate miss-communication and improve service level.

Number Three: Are you being reasonable with your demand? For example, some surface cannot be made to look perfect especially if they were compromised to start with. At Stellar Painting and Remodeling we take pride in educating our clients, we let them know if they need to replace something rotten for example. If something is not being done to your liking, express it kindly and I can assure you that really good contractors will take care of your concern.

Number Four: Make sure to review your proposal to ensure that you understand what was agreed upon to begin with. What is agreed between you and your contractor in the proposal is key. A successful project completion is a two way street, both client and contractor are needed. The contractor needs his client to take the time to conduct his final walk tru. Make your appointment as soon as possible because your crew leader is anxious to take care of any touch-ups or concerns on the spot. Take advantage of the fact that everything is already on-site; people, tools, supplies!

Contractors enjoy immediate gratification and need their projects to be completed as soon as possible. It is a real inconvenience to have them fester and been addressed days or weeks later. If you are happy, reward your contractor by paying him promptly or as agreed upon. Remember, quality and hard working painting contractors live and die to make their clients happy. Lend them that opportunity and you will always reap the benefits.

When considering painting your house, several options are presented to you. You may have to make a decision between Spray Painting your house versus a Spay/Hand Paint Application Combo. At Stellar Painting and Remodeling our goal is to educate our clients. So today, with more that 20 years of painting experience – here’s my humble opinion:

1. What is the real goal of applying paint to any surface, no matter what the technique?

Answer- The even and consistent application of mil’s/thickness of the coating to especially large surface areas such as Lap Siding to the Perimeter of your Home. This is especially important to the bottom edge or lip of your siding as the mission here is to seal the porosity and prevent any further moisture from wicking up into the board which causes the swelling, delaminating and warping you will often see.

2. What affects the ability to apply paint evenly?

Answer- It is very difficult to apply Paint evenly by hand across a large surface area for the following reasons:
• The back and forth action of going to the paint bucket to re-load the brush or roller. It would be impossible to load the brush or roller the same each time.

• Different amounts of Hand Pressure when applying the paint. This would just be a natural occurrence, as it would take a perfect robotic stroke to maintain the same hand pressure.

• Basic Human Fatigue- Again, this would also contribute to the difficulty in applying paint at a consistent pace, pressure or thickness.

• Up and down / Side-to-Side Ladder Work and all the movement required here would also make even distribution of a coating by hand very difficult.

Airless Application
• If the Applicator is consistently more than 1 ft. from the surface making for inefficiency.

• If the wrong size tip is used as the tip dictates the volume and a tip that is too big can contribute to paint waste and unnecessary over-spray.

• A Poor Power Source can cause inconsistent performance.

• Lack of experience with the equipment can create some inconsistent results.

Stellar Painting and Remodeling conclusion- It takes skill to use either technique. However, properly used, an airless compressor that puts out up to 1 GPM at 3000 PSI can more evenly and consistently distribute the paint across a large surface area and most importantly to the bottom edge of the lap board.
This technology is a successful multi-million dollar industry that was developed to provide a more efficient and productive way to apply coatings versus the hand painting technique used by contractors for so many years. We are after all in the 21st century. Why not use the technology available today to produce a beautiful end result.

3. What are the best surfaces to hand paint?
Answer- Trim, gutters, down spouts, roof caps and to some degree some doors and shutters.
These are smaller surface areas that paint can be more evenly distributed across with an a more even application of thickness versus across a 30 ft. x 30 ft. side of your home.
By the way, for the best results most all-metal doors should be sprayed and not hand painted period.

4. What about spraying and back-rolling? Are they an Effective Combination?
Answer- These two techniques combined, are often practiced by novice contractors when painting siding. One important thing to consider when painting siding is that it is very difficult to roll as the paint has a tendency to drip and run as the roller is pushed across a very uneven and lapped surface. Altogether, this combination isn’t the one you want practiced on your home. Here’s why; imagine your contractor spraying a beautiful coat of paint on your siding while another painter is standing right behind him ‘back-rolling’. Essentially, removing thickness of paint that the first painter just applied or ultimately removing a layer of protection on your house!

5. Won’t more time and care be taken when my House is Hand Painted?
Answer- Not necessarily, No question it takes longer to apply paint the old fashioned way. However, many times this added having multiple painters on a home compensates time. Often 6-8 men at a time. This can make for inconsistent results as the job becomes difficult to manage.

6. Should Hand Painting a House Cost More?
Answer- Sure, it just takes longer to do it. However, we believe it is a niche in the market being tapped in order to charge more and just to be different.

Be careful, as no matter how paint is applied anybody can make a paint job look great for a couple of years or just after completion. The overall even application of paint will dictate the mid-term and long-term life. Other factors for life of a re-paint- Quality of prep, Quality of Paint, Non-dilution of Paint, Pre-existing condition of House, Exposure of House or Portions of House to Altitude and UV. A House in good condition when painted will last longer no matter how the paint is applied.

Make sure information being passed along as fact in regards to hand painting has some legitimate source to back it up. I.e. Hand application applies paint with more pressure or pushes the paint into the surface more versus 3000 psi and up to 1 gpm. Pretty hard to believe!

Volatile organic compounds are gases releases as material age and degrade over time. They are found in paint, caulk, cleaning supplies, carpet, wood and even items from the grocery store. Most importantly, VOC can be damaging to your health. It’s impossible to eliminate them completely from your daily life, but you can minimize their amount. At Stellar Painting and Remodeling we take precautions to ensure your family is safe and we minimize the amount of VOC your family comes in contact with. This is one way we differentiate ourselves from the competition! Read more…

VOCs can be serious, as they can cause allergic reactions such as asthma, headaches, upper respiratory infections and even cancer in acute cases.

At Stellar Painting and Remodeling we highly recommend reading labels if you will be the one painting. You can now find and purchase low-VOC products in most big box remodeling stores.

Now a day, water-based polyurethane that emits fewer gases than oil-based products gives you the same end result and is so much more pleasurable to be around! Anytime, you have the choice to pick between a low-VOC stain, sealant or varnish, why not pick the healthier choice?

One last tip to minimize VOC in your house and that we like to promote here at Stellar is to unroll very tightly rolled wallpaper outdoors as it allows gases to dissipate before hanging them inside. You see, the rolls trap VOCs and by letting them ‘breath’ outside we are not exposing your family to the gases.