Being able to hit refresh on your home with a new paint job is the best feeling. Open your mind to using colors you’ve never considered before and explore your interior design style. However, if you are looking to repaint your home’s interior, you first need to prep the space. If you want to know more about how to prep for an interior house painting job, follow this guide to understand the process.

Why Is Prep Work Important Before Painting?

For any remodeling job, big or small, homeowners must do prep work to avoid frequent disruptions during the process. This concept also applies to painting projects. It’s critical to prep your walls beforehand, which a practice the pros call surface preparation. Delays in projects like painting can make the process more frustrating than fun.

Reasons To Prep Your Interior Walls for Painting

Getting the interior ready for a renovation is essential for several reasons. However, if you haven’t ever tried to paint your walls before, you may wonder what the point of surface preparation is. The primary purpose is to ensure the paint adheres to the wall; if it doesn’t, you will need to go back over a second or third time. Find out the other reasons below.

Professional Painters Appreciate Prepping

If you hire a professional painting company to come and paint for you, they’ll appreciate you prepping ahead of time. Most of the time, professionals don’t clean the walls unless they’re painting the exterior, so they recommend performing surface preparations before they arrive.

You Finish Your Project Earlier Than Expected

You can sometimes complete your project earlier than expected by prepping the walls, even if you have more than one wall to coat. Additionally, early prep work protects your belongings and floors, safeguarding you from having to replace any valuable items.

Things You Should Do Before Painting Your Home’s Interior

Now that you understand the importance of prep work, you might feel stoked to start the process. Here are the things you should do to make the process easier for the professionals, protect your belongings, and ensure fantastic results.

Remove Rugs and Mats

Firstly, you will want to remove rugs and mats from the room. While they’re pretty and help stop dirt from smudging the floors, these items are vulnerable to dripping paint. Here’s something to remember: paint is a liquid, and as careful as your professional painter might be, paint can still splatter, staining rugs and mats. Store fabric items in the basement or a closet until the paint dries.

Take Down Your Pictures and Wall Decorations

Unfortunately, there is no way to paint underneath wall decorations or framed pictures without getting anything on the back, sides, or front. Before doing any work, remove your photos, clocks, posters, candle holders, and mirrors. You will want to set aside anything that can get in the way.

Cover Your Furniture

Your furniture is also susceptible to damage, and the painting crew will have difficulty navigating everything. The painting process is an excellent opportunity to rearrange your furniture. You should focus on moving larger furniture, such as the couch, coffee table, and TV stand. Move the furnishings to a storage unit or another room in the house. Relocating furniture creates fewer mazes and more walking room for the painting team.

Store Any Small Items

Don’t forget the smaller details! If you have knick-knacks lying about, pick them up and move them. If you leave small things around, someone will likely step on them by accident. Evade the chance of replacing broken heirlooms or novelty and decorative items by putting them in a new location.

Get Your Walls Ready

After you’ve gone through and cleared out the space, it’s time to wash your walls. This step can be easy and fast, but it might take time if you have to go through multiple floors. Start by using a duster or dry rag to remove cobwebs, dirt, and dust.

Next, use a mix of water and detergent with a sponge or rag to remove stains and other blemishes. This step is essential if you want to ensure your walls can hold the primer, paint, and finisher. Make sure to clean the walls 24 hours before your scheduled time to ensure they have time to dry.

Things To Avoid Doing Before Painting Interior Walls

While you might think you’re doing all you can to prepare your walls, you may be doing a few things wrong. Avoid catastrophic mistakes by learning what not to do before painting your home’s walls.

Don’t Remove Your Lighting

Lighting is essential. Unless it comes from a small table lamp, you should ensure there is ample lighting in the room. If you have a room with poor natural light, use floor lamps. Floor lamps help you see what you’re doing and make sure you’re painting in the right place.

Don’t Rush the Project

Don’t rush through a project if you’re painting the walls yourself; it might feel great to accomplish a painting job in under three hours, but rushing can affect your results. You also want to avoid rushing the cleaning process, as remaining dirt or moisture can complicate the painting process.

Don’t Just Pick a Color

It’s best not to pick a color on a whim. Randomly choosing a color may lead you to accidentally pick a shade that looks different in your room’s light or is out of stock. Work with a professional interior painter in Alpharetta, GA to find the best set of colors for each room. They’ll be the experts you can go to for paint color advice.

Tips for Prepping Your Home’s Interior for Painting

If you still struggle to rearrange your furniture to make room for the painting crew, you might need additional tips on prepping your home’s interior walls.

Ask a Professional Painter How Much of the Floor You Should Cover

It’s always best to ask the professional any questions you may have about protecting the floors. Compared to other renovations, painting is more likely to ruin the floorboards if you aren’t careful. They will recommend what type of masking to use on the surface, such as a plastic tarp.

Make the Most of Your Professional Painting Experience

Always make the most of your professional painting team. Ask questions, be hospitable, and communicate. Open communication makes the process easier for both parties.

Some things you can do to make your experience better:

• If the crew is small, consider running errands while they work, and give them a timeframe of when you’ll return.
• Give the crewmembers a restroom to use, offer them water, and be welcoming.
• Make sure your pets and children are out of the way while the painters work.

If you’re planning to give your home’s interior a fresh coat of paint, ensure you hire the best team of interior paint contractors in Cumming, GA area from Bear Mountain Custom Painting. Our painting crew is knowledgeable about all aspects of the painting process. Reach out to us with questions about scheduling your interior home painting job.

You can pick your dream home, but you might need extra help selecting the right siding. If refreshing your home is at the top of your list, you might want to update your home’s siding. Don’t start ripping the cladding off yet—find out what you need to consider before getting new siding.

Look for Signs of Damage

Before making any changes to your home, it’s essential to look for signs of damage. Doing so will give more reasons to get something new or replaced. If you don’t know the tell-tale signs of siding damage, here’s a brief overview of what to look for:

• Holes
• Wood rot
• Warping or cracking
• Poor insulation

These issues are essential to know so you can take care of your home’s siding. The exterior walls do more than boost your curb appeal—they keep the home safe from outdoor elements. Keep yourself safe from the outdoors by scheduling an inspection with a professional siding specialist.

Understand Your Siding Choices

Updating your home is exciting, but you need to know your options before making a decision. This includes the benefits of each siding choice. Just because your home needs new siding doesn’t mean you can’t pick something that fits your style.

How To Pick the Right Siding for Your House

The right siding for your home starts with your vision. Pay attention to the cost per square foot, weather resistance, and maintenance needs when evaluating your choices. These factors can alter your options.

We recommend the following siding types:

• Brick
• Vinyl
• Stucco
• Shiplap

It’s okay if you don’t know what to pick—your concern could be choosing the best color. To find the right cladding shade for your home, here’s what you should do:

• Explore the neighborhood and see what colors are popular.
• Observe your home’s exterior elements, such as the roof and front door.
• Learn about your home’s style. A Victorian home looks great with bold colors and textures.

Know the Cost of New Siding

It’s essential to know how much new siding costs. If you pick something that is too high-maintenance, you’re going to need to put more money aside for frequent upkeep. Make a list of the cladding you’d like and write out the different benefits of each one, their drawbacks, and how much they cost per square foot.

Here are tips to follow for budgeting new siding:

• Sort through your options.
• Seek financial advice.
• Always work with a professional.

Whether you’re updating your home for fun or to boost resale value, a guide filled with things to consider before getting new siding can help you make the right choices. If you need siding professionally installed, contact Bear Mountain Custom Painting. We offer homeowners high-quality home siding installation services in Cumming, GA. We can’t wait to assist your home improvement journey!

With the New Year quickly approaching, now’s the time to look over the most popular exterior house colors and create a list of what to consider next year. Take a look at our favorite picks for paint colors and siding styles you should think about trying on your home’s exterior.

Wood-Style

Regular wood attracts termites and other gross insects—ditch wood for something similar, such as siding that resembles authentic wood. You can still pull off your mid-century style home or cabin with siding that looks close to wood.

Wood-style paneling is better than normal wood, as it doesn’t warp, and there are no insects to fret over. Add in stainless steel metal banister systems to accentuate the wood look more. Stainless steel makes a home feel more modern.

Caramelized Pear

You don’t want your home to look like an orange, but you don’t like the lemon look either, so what warm tone do you pick? Go for caramelized pear paint! Caramelized pear is the most neutral tone between yellow and orange—it highlights your home’s most necessary parts, including youthfulness, joy, and energy—which every homeowner loves.

You can balance this color with white windowpanes and gray or brown roof tiles. These small changes will give your home the “main street” look.

Combined Colors

The earthier, the better! Between now and next year, there will be a significant rise in two-toned combos, such as green and brown. The best way to achieve this look—without sacrificing style—is to divide it up geometrically.

You can use separations to help balance the colors out well. Vertical parts could pull the entire house together even more by providing a better balance between the two-toned colors.

Burgundy Red

Consider taking the traditional red many people use on barns and splashing it onto your home in a different hue. Give your home a bold statement by choosing burgundy red as your next exterior color to enter the New Year with.

Burgundy red is a beautiful color that fits into any season, home style, and general mood a homeowner is trying to portray. Burgundy red is a fantastic color choice because it represents strength, longevity, and durability—which a home buyer would want to invest in. Like the other popular exterior house colors to consider next year, we think burgundy red is one of the best choices for homeowners looking for something refreshing.

Bear Mountain Custom Painting is all about the latest painting trends, and we want to help you find a color that matches your personality and mood. Contact us to learn more about the best paint colors for your home from our professional exterior house painters.

For most homeowners, a home renovation project is a necessity to improve their overall home value and catch up on renovations they didn’t have time to complete before. These necessary repairs can help make the house a better place for the entire family, and to make it even more comfortable, homeowners should replace their windows. Don’t let your windows fall into disrepair! Become more aware of the six signs it’s time to replace your windows.

The Furniture Around the Window’s Fading

When sunlight hits your wall decor, furniture, and carpeting, it can cause the fabric colors, paint colors, and other decoration pigments to fade over time. This typically happens when windows have little to no low-E.

Low-E glass is great to have because it reduces the harm UV rays have on furniture, flooring, and wall art. Switching out your old glass panes for something with low-E film can create a better environment. Additionally, the low-E glass is microscopic, meaning the film will keep heat and UV rays out of the house, so it remains cooler.

There’s Visible Damage

It’s hard to get past the look of your windows’ apparent cracks and breaks. When the damage on a window becomes more apparent, you need to worry about potential access for breaks ins, rodents, and damage from the weather.

A broken window also becomes a safety hazard to kids and pets. Without realizing a window’s broken, children or animals could hurt themselves. Make sure to get your windows fixed to prevent intruders from breaking in and avoid injuries in your household.

Every Day Feels Drafty

How do you know if you have a drafty room? First, let’s explain how a drafty room works. When you’re heating or cooling a room, it can sometimes seep out, and the hot or cold air outside replaces it. When this happens, the space becomes uncomfortable.

Now, how do you determine if the room is drafty? Maybe you just left the ceiling fan on for too long, or you turned the heat up too high. Here are a few signs you have drafty windows and how to find the air leaks.

Signs You Have a Drafty Room

The most common signs of a drafty home are sudden cold breezes and electrical issues. While you might assume it’s a ghost haunting your home, it’s most likely the windows. These indicators prove that your windows have damage, don’t fit well, or are old. Even so, you should inspect the entire house for air leaks.

How To Find Air Leaks

Any time you feel a draft, you should seek out the source. If the source is nowhere in sight, it may be that the ceiling fans are going for too long or the heat’s too high. If these aren’t the causes, you might have an air leak.

You can spot an air leak by checking your chimney, weather stripping, windows, or attic. The attic’s the best place to check first, and then your chimney and windows. If everything else looks fine, but the weather stripping along the windows has damage, you need to change it immediately.

You could easily replace weather stripping at an affordable cost—put additional stripping on the sides of windows and other moveable pieces to keep air from slipping through different parts of the house. If the weather stripping still doesn’t help, you should replace your windows.

There’s No Soundproofing

Some nights, you want a quieter house, but if your windows can’t drown out most of the outside noise, it might be time for an upgrade. It can put a damper on fun gatherings with friends or alone time if you constantly hear neighbors arguing and cars speeding down the street.

If you have one thing that could filter out unwanted noise, let it be soundproof windows. Double and triple-paned windows have enough glass glued together to create additional insulation for your home. Why else should you have soundproof windows? Find out about the other soundproof window benefits below.

Soundproof Windows Save Energy

All you want to do is save a little more on energy consumption; thankfully, soundproof windows can do that. Because of the double and triple glass layer options, the noise reduction reduces by up to 95 percent. Additionally, soundproof panes provide extra insulation for the home to keep the interior temperature consistent throughout the year.

There Are Different Glass Options

Your choice of glass options could never be better. From double-paned glass to mixed millimeter glass, these styles provide enough thickness to keep exterior noise from disturbing the ambience inside your house.

How do you pick a glass style? Since there are many different choices, you need to look at how many materials each uses. A single-paned window will use less material because it’s a cheaper glass to make. The other types, like triple-paned, have more materials, giving the glass more thickness to prevent noise from traveling indoors.

The Style Is Completely Outdated

Windows are the eyes of the home. Sometimes, those eyes may look unpleasant, but having them redone is possible. Fix up your curb appeal by updating the style. Choose a new grille pattern, find a new window sill color, or add shutters to revamp the style, but ensure that you replace your panes.

New windows bring a refreshed look to your home’s exterior and become the envy of every neighbor. If you’re looking for a way to increase your home’s value, get new windows.

The Electric Bills Seem Higher Than Usual

If you’ve raised both eyebrows at your electric bill recently, you’re probably searching for a reason why. One could be the window panes. Sometimes the windows are so damaged or old that they change the temperature of a room quickly, making the HVAC system work harder than usual.

At this point, you should be on the phone talking with a professional Alpharetta window installation service and talking about the signs that you need to replace your windows. After discussing the signs, schedule a time for a worker to inspect your windows and replace them.

Replacing your windows is one of the best things you could do to improve your home’s appearance and increase its value. If you ever need window replacement services in Cumming, GA, Bear Mountain Custom Painting can help you. Contact us whenever you’re ready to hire a professional home improvement company.

Paint trends have come and gone over the last century. From the jewel-obsessed 1920s to the neon shades of the 1980s to the mood-setting colors of 2022, there have been heavy influences on how society decides on trend colors. Let’s explore how paint trends have changed over the years.

A Brief History of Paint Trends

You’re not the only one to think about trending paint colors and themes. Unbelievably, these trends come from everyday influences, like the economy, popular culture, and social media.

The Economy

From the 1920s to now, the economy has dramatically influenced paint trends. Paint colors in homes during the Great Depression were darker tones of yellow, red, blue, and green. They helped saturate a gloomy world with something fun and reminiscent of times before the economy’s collapse when life was normal.

In the 1950s, pastel colors were the trend when new life was pouring into the States post-war. In the mid-2000s, earthy tones responded to the environment. In the 2020s, we’re seeing more bohemian colors—muted tones that encourage adventure and positive experiences for the new millennium.

Modern Color Trends

At the beginning of the 21st century, before Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook existed, trends spread on the Home and Garden channel and through magazines. The first decade of the 21st century saw an insurgence in paint color trends. During the early 2000’s, many people relied on colors from movies that best represented the earlier millennium, including:

• Soft gold
• Blazing orange
• Hot pink
• Lime green
• Animal print (zebra and cheetah were all the rage)

From there, we swing into the now and consider the trends of today. Since 2020, TikTokhas been the go-to for keeping up with trends. Many amateur and professional interior designers share their favorite shades and even predict what color Pantone would choose for the color of the year.

So far in 2022, we’ve seen colors like cream and green come onto the scene. They remind us of renewal and a better way to start anew every day.

Looking Toward the Future

What do the colors of the future tell us? The future is uncertain, but we’re excited to learn how paint trends change over the next few years. As trendy colors continue to grace our walls, we’ll keep relying on social media to tell us what’s in store.

It’s possible that color psychology will influence future trends. Color psychology defines color hues as a way to determine human behavior. In other words, if you paint your walls lavender, the room will feel relaxing. Color psychology is the next big influencer that greatly helps with mood setting.

How do you envision your walls in the future? If you want to find out, hire interior home painters from Bear Mountain Custom Painting to learn the best shades for your home. Even if you aren’t sure what colors you’d like, we’re happy to lend advice to help steer your decision!

Various parts of the house need specialized care, such as the roof needing a roofer and the walls needing a painter. Home improvement specialists, such as contractors and carpenters, can fulfill certain tasks. However, these two professionals are often confused for doing the same job. So, what’s the difference between a carpenter and a contractor?

Defining Carpenter and Contractor

Carpentry and contracting professions seem to have some correlation, but they are two different jobs entirely. While both are hands-on, you should first know that carpenters are traditionally woodworkers. A contractor is a general servicer who does a little bit of everything.

Carpenter

A carpenter typically works with wood but also hones skills in cutting, shaping, and installing all sorts of materials in buildings. Whether it’s residential or commercial work, a carpenter must ensure the building’s materials are stable enough to withstand the climate and the structure.

Contractor

Typically, the contractor runs the entire construction operation. Many of the hands-on tasks you’d expect a contractor to do fall onto other more specified workers, such as painting and roofing.

What Are the Qualifications of a Contractor?

A contractor needs to know what each trade does before they call themself a contractor. Aside from that, contractors also need experience, so hiring someone with at least ten years of experience is ideal rather than finding an amateur who just graduated high school.

From their experience, you can tell how well contractors manage their team, ensure good performance, and follow the proper rules and regulations. Additionally, a competent, trustworthy contractor should know building codes and have the right licensure.

Do Carpenters Only Work With Wood?

Everyone knows carpenters as woodworkers, but they do so much more. Carpenters work with several types of materials and collaborate with contractors to ensure their workers install things correctly, cut the proper dimensions, and use the right equipment.

A carpenter does more difficult tasks than a general contractor who knows the trades, such as installing a roof, flooring, and siding. Hiring a carpenter is ideal if you need a specific home improvement task done.

Should I Hire a Carpenter or a Contractor?

Should you hire a carpenter or a contractor? That’s up to what your project entails. If you have a new build, you will want a contractor to help you out. For specific needs, you’ll need a carpenter. Every project requires either a carpenter or a contractor, and it’s important to know the difference before hiring someone.

If your home needs a new roof, siding, or flooring, contact Bear Mountain Custom Painting. Our carpenters in Cumming, GA are focused on the specific needs of your residence. We’re happy to replace anything in your home, from the roof to the floors. Call or email us for more information.