Product Review: FROGTAPE

I finally had enough of my kitchen last week and decided to paint the wood trim above the cabinets white (which of course led to painting the backsplash and walls!). It's no secret how much I dislike painting (and how awful I am at it). Clients often ask me if I paint as well, and I always tell them I would have to pay them to let me paint, that's how bad I am... I especially hate taping - it never seems to help me anyway, and I end up with rough edges and with paint everywhere. This time we used Frogtape ("the only tape treated with Paintblock", according to the package)...and I have to say, I love it (well, as much as someone can love painter's tape...). Peels off easily and leaves a nice, straight edge - it's like someone else painted :)

Accent Walls

What's one of the most common things clients ask me about? Accent walls! The main thing when deciding to do an accent wall is to use it as an actual "accent" and not "just because". Many people go to accent walls when they can't decide between 2 colours. You want your accent wall to be an area that should be highlighted, so the choice of wall is as important as the colour. To make your accent wall work, follow these tips: The accent wall needs to relate to something in the room. Carry the colour and tone of the accent wall into other elements. If there is nothing else in the room that coordinates with the accent wall, it will look out of place. Bring the accent colour through with throw pillows, area rugs, upholstery, drapery, floral arrangements, etc. Avoid leaving the other 3 walls white. The most effective way to do an accent wall is to paint the accent wall in a darker colour and paint the remaining walls a light or medium neutral tone that either relates or contrasts. Leaving the other walls stark white makes the accent wall less effective. Accent walls can also be used to change a room's shape. An accent wall can visually shorten a long room or widen a long one. One place accent walls tend to be used incorrectly is in a long hallway - painting the end wall of a hallway a darker colour doesn't have the same effect as it does in a long room - because you only see the one wall, the dark colour recedes and can make the hall seem even longer. A better option is to paint one long wall one colour, and the other long wall a slightly darker version of that colour. Accent walls can be great when used correctly. Because it's only one wall, you can change the colour easily when you tire of it, and it's easy to be more adventurous with colour when it's only one wall and not the bigger commitment of all 4 walls!

Using Colour to Fix Problems

It's probably not a big surprise that I love colour - it's the easiest way to update worn out rooms and furniture, and really helps when creating a mood for a room. It's also a great way to fix little design problems!

This homeowner had a bit of repair work to do after a picture frame fell off the wall. Once the holes were fixed, another problem popped up - the walls had been painted by a previous homeowner, so they didn't know the colour or brand to get more. The home is a somewhat open concept, so the wall continued down the hallway, into the living and dining areas as well as the entrance - and there were no suitable corners to make a colour change - which meant the homeowner would have had to paint all the walls toavoid a choppy look. They really didn't want to paint more than necessary, so we needed to come up with something that would cover the repair job and only involve minimal painting.

The solution? Colour to the rescue! I had previously specified a dark brown accent wall in the adjoining living room to fix a sofa/undertone issue (I wrote about it in a post last year)...so we took the rest of that paint and used it to createa colour block in the hallway. This allowed the homeowner to cover the repair, accent their photos, and only paint a few square feet.

Where Do I Stop Paint Colour?

One question I get asked a lot is where to stop paint colour. Here are a few guidelines for a couple of different scenarios:

If the ceiling in your room goes up on an angle from a low wall, continue the wall colour upwards – otherwise it brings the ceiling too far down and makes the room look oddly proportioned.

When it comes to rounded corners, stopping the colour would create an odd line, so colour should be continued. Only stop at straight corners/edges.

A common scenario is the living/dining room combo. When both rooms share one long wall, that wall should be one colour - stopping anywhere along that wall will look choppy. If you choose, you can paint the entire wall a different colour from the other walls in the room to define space – but that wall needs to be all one colour along its whole length.

Quick Painting Tips

As much as I love choosing colours, I really dislike painting. I end up with paint in my hair, on my clothes, in the middle of the ceiling...

Here are a few painting tips to help the job go more smoothly:

When you remove your outlet covers and light switch covers for painting, tape the screws to the backs of the covers so you don’t have to look for them when you’re ready to put them back on.

Alternatively, you can use Ziploc storage bags - just put each switch plate and its screws into a small Ziploc bag, marking its location on the bag. (This also works well for curtain hardware.)

When painting a room, if you don't finish all in one day, just cover your roller with a tightly wrapped plastic bag or saran wrap, and put it in the fridge. When you take it out the next day it will still be wet and ready to go.