|
Written by Joe Adami
|
|
Sunday, 22 August 2010 19:01 |
Who in the world would ever paint plastic? The paint chips off and almost melts if it gets wet. Who needs another thing to feel bad about? On the other hand, if you are someone who delights in all the colors of our corner of the visible world this might be your ticket. Lawn furniture, electric switch plates, indestructible little corner tables-these all come in basically three colors, blah, blah and blah. As a committed soldier in the war on beige I ask, what are you going to do about that? Here’s what you do. Regular house paint has a hard time sticking to many plastics. What you need is primer, specifically, a bonding primer. They stick to just about anything. I am convinced that they would bond to bad memories: roll four or five coats of black paint over that and voila. All gone. X.I.M. makes a good bonding primer that is easy to find in paint and some hardware stores. Clean whatever it is you want to paint then give it a light sanding with 150 grit sandpaper. The sanding thing might be old painter habits but it won’t hurt. Brush on a coat of primer and by the next day it ought to be on there like white on a lima bean.
Caution: If by the next day you can scrape the primer off with your fingernail something is wrong. There might have been oil or wax or who knows what on the plastic. Nothing sticks to wax except more wax.
Once primed, every hue forged in the big bang is yours to play with. The primer will stick to the plastic and the paint will stick to the primer. A turquoise patio table with ethereal aqua chairs: Be bold. If only love were so simple.
Have fun painting. Email any questions to
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
|
|
Written by Joe Adami, Local Painter
|
|
Saturday, 19 June 2010 08:01 |
I handed a fan deck to a client of mine who was ready to begin considering colors for her home. She lookled at me like I was offering her an angry tarantula. "What am I supposed to do with that," she asked in horror? Fan decks can be terrifying. Every color in the world is in there-or so you might think. The fact is that the many hundreds or colors in a typical deck represent less than the dusting of snow that falls on the tip of an iceberg.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Written by Katherine Stern K+L HOME STAGERS
|
|
Thursday, 18 March 2010 17:02 |
|
I have been noticing how many people do not display art work in their homes. Unless you live in a spare, minimalist white box, bare walls leave the impression that the occupants have never really settled in.
It’s true that the decision of what, where and how to hang can be intimidating. However, you do not have to own an original Picasso to qualify for space on a wall. A framed reproduction or poster can be just as impressive. Whatever you hang on your wall should bring you pleasure. It doesn't matter if it is worth a million dollars or 50 cents. If it makes you feel good, then it is good.
 
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Written by Katherine Stern, K+L HOME STAGERS
|
|
Friday, 19 February 2010 14:30 |
|
You know that old stuffed chair in the garage underneath the lawn furniture? Or maybe its the sofa downstairs in the family room, with the duct tape holding it together that the dog sleeps on? Take another look at those wrecks. With a little thinking outside the box and some elbow grease, an old chair, sofa or table can be recycled into a surprisingly trendy, stunning (and cheap) addition to your home.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Written by Joe Adami, Local Painter
|
|
Friday, 18 December 2009 13:28 |
|
A client of mine called me for help choosing a color for her livingroom ceiling. She wanted something really "wow," she said. The ceiling was high and vaulted with a fantastic crown molding that took six pieces to construct. I gave her one idea, her decorator had a different idea and, as it turned out, her eight friends had eight other ideas.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Written by Administrator
|
|
Monday, 19 July 2010 11:52 |
Paint brushes aren’t designed to be deadly weapons but that is all they are good for if you don’t clean them. If I loan out a brush it almost invariably comes back to me stiff as a blackjack. Latex paint can be harder to clean than oil based paint because it dries so much faster. Good brushes are expensive so here’s what you do to make them last.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Written by Joe Adami, Local Painter
|
|
Tuesday, 18 May 2010 14:53 |
|
Nothing scares people like a garage full of old paint. They imagine their house festering into a kind of Love Canal. A good friend of mine left a can of lime green primer on her stoop the other night knowing that I was going to stop by. “You know what to do with this don’t you,” she asked? Some people hate recycling and are fine about pouring their mess into the ground-or down a sewer-for the earth to soak up. “It’s only water based,” one guy told me. So is hemlock tea and look what happened to Socrates. As an old buddy who liked crossword puzzles once told me , “Don’t defecate where you habitate.” I agree. Here’s what you do with old paint.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Written by Joe Adami, Local Painter
|
|
Friday, 19 February 2010 15:32 |
Varnish and polyurthane are great products to use to finish and protect unpainted woodwork. Here are a couple of points that will help you get the look and "feel" that you want.
First off, you have oil based and water based varnishes to chose from. Oil based products dry slowly and smell horrible. They also have a bit of color to them-and amber quality that is very beautiful but can alter the color of very light woods in ways that you might not want.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Written by Joe Adami, Local Painter
|
|
Tuesday, 19 January 2010 15:58 |
|
All it takes is one slip of the hand. At some point during the storied life of an old house a painter carelessly slops paint onto beautifull bronze hinges. Once breeched by paint the frontiers of a doors mortises mean less and less to subsequent painters. The result is that sooner or later someone just paints them over-and badly, to boot.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Written by Katherine Stern, Home Stager & Interior Designer
|
|
Saturday, 12 December 2009 09:29 |
|
As a Home Stager and Interior Designer, one of the most important aspects of my work is dealing with the existing furnishings. Achieving a fresh new decor by rearranging, editing or even taking an item from one room and using it for something completely different in another offers exciting possibilities.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
