How To Achieve the Modern Farmhouse Aesthetic in Your Home

How To Achieve the Modern Farmhouse Aesthetic in Your Home

You grew up learning a lot about your style and often wondered what it would look like on the inside of your dream house. You probably know many interior design styles. But today, you’re going to discover so much more about your house style, starting with learning how you can transform your home into a modern farmhouse. 

Paint the Walls With Neutral Tones

The starting point is the walls. The walls can tell visitors about your style—everything from the wall art to the colors. You should first go to the store to find sample swatches, then place them against your wall.

However, you want to avoid bright colors to achieve the farmhouse aesthetic. As much as you may love a bright kitchen, it will throw the entire theme off. Instead, stick with soft tones like beige, cream, gray, or lavender. If the color doesn’t go, then you need to try another.

Light tones brighten up a room without overwhelming others. Keep the colors simple, and see how quickly the farmhouse theme appears.

Add Dimension to Your Walls

You could paint or put up wall coverings. Whatever you choose, ensure that it fits the style, such as shiplap or beadboard. Beadboard and shiplap are two wood styles that add rustic charm due to their two-dimensional appearance.

Additionally, they work in every room of the house. However, if you desire only one room with one of the materials, consider placing beadboard in the bathroom and shiplap in the living room. Planks add a personal touch to every farmhouse-inspired home.

Have a Little Old Sprinkled With New

Rustic-style homes mean you have many ways to customize with old, vintage items and new appealing stuff. For example, a small wooden table can be perfect for adding to your kitchen, but one with a pop of color can send the rustic appeal into the modern age.

Also, get crafty with your windows. Many farmhouses have double-hung windows to pour in more natural light. For your dream farmhouse, hire an Cumming, GA window replacement contractor to put in your dream windows. Sprinkle your home with new amenities to enhance your home’s rustic style.

Hang Up Wire Baskets

In every craft store that you go to, you have seen many aisles filled with wire basket wall hangs—and they’re not even seasonal (most of the time)! Hang up black wicker baskets to make your home feel more rustic.

They’re convenient for increasing storage, and they become addictive. Moreover, wire baskets add a touch of southern charm even without a ton of decorative pieces. There’s so much you can add as you seek to achieve this aesthetic you never knew could be modern. The farmhouse style is one to try in your home.

At Bear Mountain Custom Painting, we can help you achieve anything. We love the farmhouse aesthetic as much as the next designer. Team up with our painting and window installation teams to design your version of the farmhouse aesthetic.

5 Common Culprits of Gutter Damage in Georgia

5 Common Culprits of Gutter Damage in Georgia

Summer is the time to inspect your home for any problems. Things like the roof, windows, and doors should go through an annual inspection—other areas like the draining system, foundation, and landscaping are worth examining often. Since we’re focusing on draining systems, let’s look at the five common culprits of gutter damage in Georgia.

Bad Insulation

When construction teams install a gutter, they must screw it in well to prevent water leaks. When perspiration leaks, it builds up on the roof and eventually leaks into the home’s interior. Bring in a specialist to look at the setup before mounting the spouts to your home.

Clogged Gutters

Crumbled-up leaves, makeshift nests, and dirt or grime can cause severe clogging, resulting in water overflow. Since the water can’t travel out from the top of your home, it spills out on the sides, eventually flooding the sides of your home. When the sides flood, the excess moisture creates foundation issues.

Meet with a gutter specialist or a roofer with experience in unclogging drains to unclog the pipes so that you have a way to drain excess water again.

Uneven Gutter Slopes

If you find your gutters still clog after routine cleaning, it’s possible that they’re uneven. The best way to check is by contacting a gutter specialist. The pros utilize the tools necessary to test the slope’s ability to run water. If the slopes have a slant, the expert can fix them for you.

Bad Installation

When installing your downspouts, you need to consider the size of your home. If your pipes don’t curve once they meet the bottom, or they don’t reach down at all, you will have severe flooding problems.

Bad installation even occurs with a dislodged or crooked joint. A crooked pipe can trap water and lead to draining issues.

Bad Weather

The weather’s unpredictable. You need to ensure the gutter system is secure when you’re anticipating a storm. Before installing the gutters, hire a professional to do the mounting. Ask questions so that you can learn how to clean and maintain your spouts properly between each heavy rain or snowstorm.

If you’re unsure how to properly install your gutter system, it’s OK to ask a professional Cumming, GA gutter installation contractor to come in and ensure the system looks right.

A homeowner needs to install a gutter correctly to ensure there aren’t further problems with draining. Keep these things that cause drain problems in your downspouts in mind when scheduling a gutter inspection and cleanout.

Trying to fix your gutters on your own can get messy. When you work with Bear Mountain Custom Painting, you’re in the best of hands. We diligently check the gutters and assist homeowners with installation. Keep us in mind for your next gutter maintenance check. We’re happy to help make your home a better place with fewer drainage problems.

When Is It Actually OK To Paint Over Wallpaper?

When Is It Actually OK To Paint Over Wallpaper?

The wallpaper adorning your walls has come to its end. You’ve spent hours searching for ways to update your walls, and you may be wondering whether it’s OK to paint over wallpaper. The answer is as long as you’ve cleaned, repaired, and primed the area, you can go ahead and paint over the wallpaper. Some wallpaper is harder to peel off. If that’s the case for you, it’s better to learn how to paint over it instead of removing it.

Prep With the Right Gear

Grab the right gear before you start prepping. You’re going to work around different things, so it’s best to have the right tools to help protect yourself and your home. While at the store, make sure to pick up goggles to avoid getting paint into your eyes, and get a pack of good-quality face masks to prevent inhaling fumes. Make sure to wear long sleeves.

Find the Correct Primer

Shopping for the primer will be tricky, so inspect the wallpaper first to get an idea of what primer to buy. If you notice that the wallpaper is older, there may be a dangerous chemical hidden underneath called “sizing.”

Contractors used the sizing compound to block moisture from adhesives that touched the plaster. Once contractors used the sizing compound with the paint, it created creases, and the wallpaper fell off. If you paint right away, keep in mind that the glue shows through the paint. When glue shows through the wallpaper, this indicates that you need an oil or shellac-based primer.

Prepare the Walls

When prepping any space, ensure that you don’t get water on the surface, as it can create more problems later. Instead, use a damp cloth to remove dust and dirt from the wallpaper. Don’t forget to clear away cobwebs when working on corners.

Fix the Walls

If you find holes, cracks, or anything else wrong with the walls, get them fixed. By repairing things before painting, you avoid the home looking destroyed. If there are any loose pieces of wallpaper, trim them away to prevent them from looking like peeled paint.

Always Prime Before Painting

Now, you can prime your walls—or sit back and hire an interior house painting contractor Cumming, GA to prime everything for you. If you want to learn more about when to paint over wallpaper, contact your local painting servicer—they’re enthusiastic about every renovation project and want to team up with you. Questions like these are always welcome, and you should never shy away from asking.

It’s hard to believe, but you can paint over wallpaper, as long as you prime it correctly first. For additional help on painting your walls, hire Bear Mountain Custom Painting. Our painting team is a gold mine of knowledge waiting for your questions. Contact us and learn if you can paint over your wallpaper. 

How the High Humidity in Georgia Can Damage Your Home

How the High Humidity in Georgia Can Damage Your Home

Living in Georgia, homeowners experience humidity daily until the end of autumn. Moisture can hang around in your home even longer if you don’t take care of the problems soon enough. If you don’t know what to look for, it’s good to reach out to a professional to learn how the high humidity in Georgia can damage your home.

For information about our various services like window replacement in Alpharetta, roof replacement in Alpharetta, exterior painters in Roswell, and more, please get in touch.

Insects

Since we’re in the northern tip of Georgia, we do occasionally get some snow. However, the snow doesn’t keep creepy crawlers away. Since Georgia is warm most of the year, the day-to-day dampness gets trapped in windows, walls, and foundations.

These areas attract insects like cockroaches, beetles, and termites. Once you find the first unwanted bug in your home, the infestations start. To tackle this, get your home professionally exterminated, and then find solutions to reduce the possibility of more bugs moving into your home.

Sometimes water collects and becomes trapped in cracks and holes, leading to a great bug migration. The best solution is to first find any gaps and holes in the foundation and walls. Then, drain the holes and fill them with insulation.

Repairs

Repairs are a must for every home to prevent energy and insulation problems. However, some repairs can go awry, including improper repairs by uncertified workers. If you don’t do enough research, such as looking over the contractor’s work history and reviews, you may accidentally hire a subpar service.

A certified contractor has a strong background in their field and a list of references for you to contact to get an idea of their work ethic and job quality. You should hire a licensed company offering house painting in Cumming, GA if your siding warps or corrodes from the humidity.

A painting company should go through a process to ensure each customer receives a paint job that protects their home’s integrity while looking nice. A painting company with the proper certifications knows that bubbling paint is an obvious sign your wall siding needs to be repaired.

Mold

Mold is another risk that comes with high humidity. Mold grows in wet, damp spaces, mainly in corners of rooms or windows. Mold is preventable, and if spotted early on, you can remove it with a short trip to the hardware store for supplies.

It’s essential to know how high humidity damages your Georgia home—no matter if you’re a new resident or you’ve lived here for years, you need to know what to expect. It’s easy to forget how fast humidity hurts your home.

You can protect your interior and exterior by hiring a professional painting company in Alpharetta, GA from Bear Mountain Custom Painting. We have mended many homes by providing finishes and primers to sidings that need protection from Georgia’s high moisture levels. Contact us  for insight on our professional painting services.

It can also be tricky to keep your home or retail space clean in areas with high humidity. Even a commercial cleaning business in Westchester will tell you that high humidity can lead to the proliferation of mold and mildew, making it crucial for these businesses to incorporate anti-mold strategies and products into their routine. This might include using mold-resistant cleaning solutions and ensuring thorough drying of cleaned areas. Humidity can also cause traditional cleaning solutions to evaporate more slowly, potentially leaving residues that attract dirt or become slippery hazards. Therefore, choosing fast-drying products and employing dehumidifiers during and after the cleaning process can be beneficial.

Additionally, high humidity can warp or damage sensitive materials. Cleaning protocols must therefore be adjusted to prevent moisture accumulation on surfaces like hardwood floors or delicate upholstery. Ventilation plays a critical role in managing humidity levels; thus, ensuring that air circulation is optimized during cleaning tasks is essential. Lastly, staying informed about the local climate and adjusting schedules and techniques to accommodate sudden changes in humidity levels will help maintain high standards of cleanliness and safety.

9 Reasons To Hire a Professional Carpenter

9 Reasons To Hire a Professional Carpenter

It’s great to look for projects that will improve your home’s value and curb appeal, but you shouldn’t do it on your own if you’re inexperienced. Hiring professional help can present an opportunity to learn a new skill from others, especially experienced homebuilders. Here are nine reasons to hire a professional carpenter.

Better Time Management Skills

Home improvement makeovers can take months or even years to finish. While working on a project, life tends to take over and different events can interfere with the completion of your home remodel.

These events cause delays or even do-overs because the project might be left for so long that you no longer enjoy a particular style or have a purpose for the room as it was designed. The best way to ease into the home transition and ensure it’s finished on time is to hire an experienced builder.

Builders with many years of experience know how to manage their time and project commitments. There’s a good chance you want the remodel done before a big event, and luckily, many builders manage their time wisely and have a knack for finishing projects promptly.

They Have the Right Tools

As someone new to renovating, you most likely don’t have the right tools, including permits. A carpentry serviceman provides the right equipment and documents required to perform any work on your home. When it comes to finding good help, it’s the knowledgeable carpenter you want on the team restoring your house.

You Benefit From Experienced Workers

Experience, experience, experience. Without the proper knowledge or skills, you risk causing damage to your home, and there’s a good chance you could violate a few building codes you didn’t know existed.

Additionally, the workers you hire might scam you out of thousands of dollars for a partial remodel that should’ve been closer to $5,000. Avoid hiring anyone without performing background checks first and reading reviews about the individual and their company.

Remember, experienced carpenters will let you know if there are issues and what their next steps will be in finishing the project.

Carpenters Are Affordable

Costs are a concern for many, so you shouldn’t spend more than you’ve budgeted without knowing the reason for the amount, where the issue is, and what tools are needed. Your contractor shouldn’t make any changes far beyond what you can afford. Many work with you to find the best solutions so you can still get the remodel of your dreams.

When hiring a builder, ask about their knowledge of the industry and materials to buy—this could be beneficial down the road if you choose to complete another project on your own. While reviewing the market, they’ll look over the budget to find what works best for you.

The Structure’s Integrity Is Kept in Mind

One of the most important aspects of home renovations is ensuring there’s no damage to the structure. Since you don’t have prior experience working on homes, it’s better to delay demolition until you’ve had a chance to talk with a professional.

Many Cumming carpentry repair servicers have worked in and around homes for a long time; talking with them will help you learn about your project and develop a plan to tackle it. Builders work with you to find the best strategies for fixing up your property.

Carpenters Have Connections

If there are other services you might consider hiring to complete other tasks, reach out to your contractor. Contractors make connections with different trades at every job they complete. For instance, if you need a roof replaced, your carpenter likely has someone on speed dial who would be happy to take on your project.

Even if you’re not looking to replace your roof, knowing someone who knows individuals with other skills will help you plan and complete tasks. From painters to landscapers, a carpenter’s contact list has every connection you’ll ever need.

Every carpenter can recommend different services, including:

Additionally, if your friends need a project completed, you should refer them to your carpenter.

They Overcome Many Obstacles

Projects run into problems often; what matters is how you tackle the issue. Although you’re inexperienced, hiring a professional can help resolve the most common issues, including budgeting concerns and painting over darker colors.

If there’s something they don’t know or understand, as mentioned above, they can reach out to their network to find a solution. Even the most experienced carpenter needs help tackling a problem now and then, so don’t be afraid to contact others yourself.

They Have Amazing Strength

Carpenters experience a lot mentally and physically. They handle stress well, but it’s their physical strength that sets them apart. Their roles require a lot of heavy lifting and strategic thinking. Carpentry involves more than picking a room to build or remodel—it requires someone who can keep track of a schedule and be able to rearrange events at a moment’s notice.

As you learn more about the reasons to hire a carpenter for your home remodel, start thinking about the rewarding benefits of a professional renovation. A carpenter will provide a strong knowledge of everyday tools, a remodel that fits your budget, and superb construction quality.

Carpenters Know Their Measurements

Some homeowners might overestimate their square footage, even if they have the right measuring tools. It’s always better to get a second opinion from a professional. When a contractor measures, they are able to find the correct dimensions of a room and proceed to calculate the amount of materials needed.

The math is a lot more complicated than it sounds. Carpenters spend a lot of time practicing to ensure their measurements are correct—some use different technologies to ensure the math is exact.

Many owners struggle to find help when they need to finish their projects. Sometimes, they proceed with tasks independently without realizing they’re making an error. Before that happens to you, call a carpenter to get the job done right.

Homeowners will greatly benefit from hiring a professional to finish their project on time and with care. Bear Mountain Custom Painting is ready to help you complete your home improvement project in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The entire project starts and ends with you in mind—feel free to contact us for information on our Atlanta carpentry services. 

9 Reasons To Hire a Professional Carpenter
5 Mistakes That Can Make House Flipping a Flop

5 Mistakes That Can Make House Flipping a Flop

There’s a lot that rides on a house flip. From the home inspection to assembling teams, you’re bound to make mistakes and learn from them. Before biting off more than you can chew, learn from a rookie-turned-professional with these five mistakes that can make house flipping a flop.

Not Researching Residential Properties

The real estate market is booming and dying—without knowing the current trends, you could buy into a place you don’t know anything about. When searching your state’s residential real estate, specifically around Atlanta’s metropolitan area, aim for low ROIs. Additionally, research your ideal location by visiting the surrounding area. It’s also good to investigate the length of time it takes to sell a house in that area.

You Aren’t Realistic About Budgeting

Budgeting is the hardest part of investing in a flipping project. It’s great to dream big, but as a newbie, you should stick to homes that won’t cost a fortune to fix. Ideally, you’ll find something that fits your budget, rather than escalating because you have bigger investment dreams.

Also, when bringing on specialist crews, don’t pick the most expensive services. Select ones that fit your budget and timeline.

You Think Too Highly of Your Renovation Skills

When renovating a home, don’t overcompensate your skills. You must be professional and personable to get good reviews. No one enjoys working or buying from someone who is full of themselves.

If there’s something you know you’re not good at, such as electrical work, don’t try to do it yourself. You’ll make more mistakes if you do things outside of your skillset. This is an instance where you should include specialist crews. Not only will you broaden your reach between businesses, but you’ll also increase the likelihood of a successful flip.

The Home Fits You Too Much

A house-flipping mistake is when the designer puts too much of their own taste into the home. It’s great to add style, but lacking vision for prospective buyers is a big setback. They will feel like they’re merely visiting, rather than potentially buying. Stick with themes that are simple and easy to change if necessary.

You Put “I” in “Team”

There’s no “I” in “team,” and you can’t do a house flip without a team of professionals. From an interior designer to professional home renovation contractors in Atlanta, you’ll need a diverse team to get each job done.

It’s fun to flip houses, but it takes time and dedication to see it through. Bear Mountain Custom Painting helps many home renovators by offering services to each house flipper. Now that you know how to avoid mistakes that can make house flipping a flop, contact us to learn more about our home renovation services. 

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