The colors that you choose for a room have a significant effect on the mood and feeling of that room.  Many homeowners choose cheery, bright colors for the kitchen, and warm, welcoming hues for a cozy family room.  But what hues and tones do you bring into a bedroom?

We believe that the bedroom walls should be a color that invites you to rest and relax.  Pale blues, cool greys, and softer tones encourage a calm feeling and can help you to relax, unwind, and rest.

Here are a few of our current favorite paint colors for the bedroom:

• Pale gray tones such as “Misty” by Sherwin-Williams can encourage a sense of calm.
• If you’re looking for a darker tone, deeper, warm grays, such as “Sparrow” by Benjamin Moore will create a warm and inviting feel for your master bedroom. Olive green hues, such as “Sap Green” by Farrow & Ball can have the same effect.
• Lavender tones such as “Spring Lilac” by Benjamin Moore, are a way to create a calm feeling in your bedroom. The lavender herb is associated with stress relief, and you may find that the color itself can have a similar effect.
• Pale green colors like “Sea Salt” by Sherwin-Williams can emulate the feel of a spa and turn your bedroom into an oasis.
• A warm white, such as “White Tie” by Farrow & Ball looks great in nearly any type of room, including a bedroom.

Other tips for deciding on a paint for your bedroom:

• We recommend choosing a matte, satin, or low luster sheen rather than a high gloss sheen.
• Avoid using extremely bright colors, which can overstimulate your senses, and think carefully before painting your bedroom walls deep red, bold orange, or other colors that may represent alarm or caution. These colors can have the opposite effect and can hinder your ability to relax.
• Black and extremely dark hues can make your bedroom feel more like a cave than a relaxing place to retire at the end of the day.

Once you decide on the perfect paint color for your bedroom, a highly rated professional painting company can provide a smooth, even coating and crisp lines throughout your bedroom, and in any other room in the house.  If you’re looking for a highly rated painting contractor in Northeast Florida, The Painting Craftsmen is the best painting company Jacksonville FL homeowners call on for their homes.  Our technicians are trained and experienced, with an eye for detail and a passion for customer service.  Ponte Vedra Beach, Ortega, Southside, and Riverside homeowners rely on our expertise to keep their homes beautiful, and we’d love the opportunity to do the same for you!

An accent wall is a great way to bring in a splash of color, particularly a bright or bold color.  Use our list of “dos and don’ts” to help you plan the best way to incorporate additional color in your home!

1. DO consider an accent wall even if the rest of the house is primarily neutral. Countless homeowners prefer to cover their walls in grays, beiges, and whites, and the effect is lovely.  However, don’t be afraid to add a splash of color to an otherwise neutral home!  It may be exactly what the room needed!
2. DON’T avoid bold and vibrant colors. Bright, bold, vivid hues make some of the best accent walls!  Don’t be afraid to take risks where accent color is involved. Instead, see a potential accent wall as an opportunity to display a few of your favorite wild colors or patterns.
3. DO take into account the color of the other walls.Though you should feel encouraged to go bold and select bright, fun patterns or colors, you do need to take into account the other colors in the room.  For example, if the walls are a pale green hue, think carefully before choosing bright orange for an accent wall.  It can be done, but you’ll want to look at a variety of samples first and may want to solicit the advice of a color specialist or highly rated painting contractor.
4. DON’T think you’re limited to solid paint for an accent wall.You can paint stripes, ombre, or faux finish.  Wallpaper is a valid choice as well!  A great professional painting company will be able to create the look you want for your accent wall, regardless of the color or material.

Accent walls can be tricky to paint.  Often the area is small, cumbersome to get to, and you have to be sure you don’t get the accent color onto the neighboring walls. Straight, crisp lines are critical, and you’ll either need sharp skills or extreme patience (or, most likely, both)! Most homeowners call on a great Jacksonville painting company to do the work for them!

The Painting Craftsmen is the best house painting company Jacksonville FL homeowners trust with their homes and painting projects.  Painting is our passion, and it shows – just ask our hundreds of clients throughout Jacksonville, San Marco, Ortega, Avondale, along the Beaches and beyond.  If you’re dreaming of a new look for your home’s exterior or for any room in the house, call on us and let our craftsmen make your dream a reality!

A great paint job is the result of great planning, hard work, a lot of prep work, and high-quality tools and materials.  However, there are a few tools that are essential in giving your home a good looking and long-lasting paint job.  Here’s our list of the tools you need to paint like a pro:

1. Good Quality Paint Sprayer– If you’re painting your home’s exterior, you’ll wear yourself out if you try to paint the entire surface with a brush or even with a roller. Instead, a good quality paint sprayer will make the job go smoothly and efficiently.
2. Good Quality Brushes– For interior and exterior jobs alike, a high-quality brush makes a huge difference in how the paint goes on, and how the results look.Trim is neater and lines are cleaner when you have the control of a good brush, and a great brush will hold more paint and won’t leave bristles sticking to your newly coated walls.
3. Good Quality Roller Covers– A high quality roller cover will ensure your walls get coated evenly and efficiently. Just be sure to select the appropriate nap on the roller cover for the type of paint you’re using and the type of surface you’re needing to cover.
4. Extension Pole– By attaching your roller to the end of a good extension pole, you’ll be able to reach those high areas and may be able to get the job done without hauling ladders all around your house.
5. Painters Tape– Don’t just use masking tape when you tape off your work area.Paint will seep underneath general masking tape.  Instead, use painter’s tape that is specifically formulated to keep a crisp line and prevent paint from bleeding through.
6. High Quality Paint– Low quality paint is thin, runs down surfaces, spatters off your roller, and requires numerous coats. High quality paint is thicker, levels well as it’s applied, hides uneven surfaces and patched areas better, and covers primer generally in a single coat or in two coats at the most.

Skip the prep altogether and avoid spending hours of your precious time on a painting project by calling on a great professional painting company to take care of everything for you!  Homeowners in Riverside, Ponte Vedra Beach, Atlantic Beach, Mandarin, and throughout Jacksonville call on The Painting Craftsmen. We’re the best painting company Jacksonville FL homeowners trust for their painting projects, and we’re the best choice for your interior and exterior painting projects too!  Call our office to get started!

A new coat of paint or stain adds tremendous appeal to your home and goes a long way in helping you create the home of your dreams, boost the curb appeal, or simply provide protection against the elements.  Many homeowners don’t fully realize the size and intensity of an outdoor painting project until it’s already underway.  Here are a few reasons you should leave your exterior house painting project to a great Jacksonville FL painting company:

1. Prep– Exterior painting projects require extensive prep work. The house must be pressure washed with a chlorinated mixture in order to kill bacteria and mold, remove debris and insect infestations, and create the cleanest surface possible for sanding and scraping.  Even houses that are well maintained need to be sanded and scraped in areas, caulked, repaired, and more.  Areas must be taped off, dropcloths must be arranged, and all surrounding landscape must be properly protected.  The prep work alone could take an unexperienced homeowner multiple days of labor before the first can of paint is even opened!  It’s best to leave the prep work to experienced and trusted painting contractors who specialize in exterior painting.
2. Skill– It’s easy enough to hold a brush or roller, but only trained and experienced painters know how to hold the tools in order to achieve maximum efficiency and coverage with minimal drips and spatter.Even a homeowner who is relatively “handy” does not have the skill to move through a large exterior house painting project with the efficiency that a skilled painting contractor has.  If you want the house painted fast and well, you’ll need to hire the best Jacksonville FL painting company.
3. Dangers– Certain dangers befall nearly any type of exterior home painting job. The job may require you to climb extension ladders, walk along a hot rooftop, work in and around thick vegetation, insect infestations, and worse.  Surfaces can become slick and dangers, fumes can be noxious, and there is a host of other dangers, risks, and general annoyances that come standard with exterior painting.
4. Weather– Jacksonville FL is beautiful, but it is hot, humid, prone to thunderstorms, muggy and unbearable in the middle of summer, and oddly chilly in winter months. It’s easy to see why countless homeowners choose to call on a highly rated painting company rather than do the work themselves!

The Painting Craftsmen is the best house painting company Jacksonville FL homeowners trust with their homes!  We’ve spent years perfecting the skills needed for exterior house painting, and we offer the highest level of professional painting services in Jacksonville, Ponte Vedra Beach, Atlantic Beach, Mandarin, San Marco, and throughout the region.  Each of our painters has been specifically trained for the job and will provide expert craftsmanship from the prep work all the way through to the final coat of paint. Call today for your free estimate and let our team of professional exterior house painters give your home a fresh coat of paint.

Part of each painting project planning involves selecting the right sheen level for the room.  You wouldn’t want a high gloss paint on the walls of your bedroom, or would you?  Is matte paint alright for the bathroom?  These are questions that most homeowners struggle to answer, so we’ve put together a quick list of the ideal sheen levels for each room in your home.

The best sheens for interior rooms:

• Kitchen: Eggshell, Low Lustre, Satin, Pearl, or Semi-gloss
• Bathrooms: Eggshell, Low Lustre, Satin, Pearl, or Semi-gloss
• Bedrooms: Flat, Matte, Eggshell, Low Lustre, Satin, or Pearl (TIP: Avoid painting Flat paint in young kids’ rooms – you won’t be able to successfully scrub away crayon marks or other toddler “wall art.”)
• Living Room / Dining Room: Flat, Matte, Eggshell, Low Lustre, or Satin
• Ceilings: Flat or Matte
• Trim: Satin, Semi-gloss, Gloss, or High-gloss
• Doors: Satin, Semi-gloss, Gloss, or High-gloss

The best sheens for your home’s exterior:

• Doors & Windows: Low Lustre, Satin, Pearl, Semi-gloss, Medium Lustre, Gloss, or High-gloss
• Trim & Accents: Low Lustre, Satin, Pearl, Semi-gloss, Medium Lustre, Gloss, or High-gloss
• Siding: Flat, Low Lustre, or Satin

Once you’ve decided on the best choices of paint sheen for your painting project, invest in high quality paint, do the required prep work, schedule the time on your calendar, and let the painting project begin!  Or, of course, you can trust your painting project to the best painting contractor in your area instead!

The Painting Craftsmen is the best painting company Jacksonville FL homeowners trust with their house painting projects. We specialize in high quality paint jobs done right.  Our technicians are highly trained and have extensive experience painting all types of homes.  Our expert Project Coordinator will even help you decide on the perfect sheen, color, and material for your specific project. If your Mandarin, Riverside, Avondale, San Marco, or Atlantic Beach home needs a fresh coat of paint, The Painting Craftsmen is the best local painting company and the best company for the job!

Painting projects take a lot of work, and the idea of simplifying the process by using two materials in one is very tempting. This is where 2­-in­-1 paint and primer combination comes in. Nearly all paint manufacturers have come out with their versions of this combination, but to mixed reviews. So, how do you know if it’s right for you to use a paint primer combination on your own home?

Understanding Paint And Primer
To begin, it’s important to understand the difference between primer and paint. Primer is a specially­ formulated application meant to adhere to the substrate and create a smooth and uniform surface that is ready to be coated with paint. The substrate may be anything, including metal or raw wood, or a surface that has already been painted, whether the paint is fresh or beginning to peel. The substrate may also have issues with rust, mildew, or any number of other issues, and the primer may be formulated to alleviate any such problem. In short, the primer prepares the surface so that the paint will look and perform as well as possible.

Paint, of course, is the topcoat that you’ve selected in the perfect color for your home. The higher the quality of the paint, the richer its pigment, and the better it will look and perform. When the proper prep work has been done, and a good quality primer has been applied, a high quality paint will make the job complete, and will look great and last for a long time.

Paint and primer are unique, and they are formulated to do entirely different things. If you were to try to create your own paint and primer combination, you could not simply pour a can of primer and a can of paint into a bucket and begin applying the mixture with good results. Chemically, this is just not possible. Paint manufacturers, therefore, formulate their own 2­in­1 paint primer combinations, which usually consist of a thicker than usual coating, designed to cover the substrate in a single coat.

When should I use 2­-in-­1 paint primer?
● Similar paint types ­- If you are painting a surface that has already been painted, you can use a paint primer combination product and expect good results. There are several caveats to this situation. First, the existing paint must be in good shape. It can’t be chipped or peeling, and there certainly cannot be any issues such as rust or mildew present. Second, the existing paint must be the same type as your 2­-in-­1 product. For example, if the existing paint is latex­ based, and the paint primer combination is latex based, then the product should work. You cannot, however, coat oil ­based paint with a latex­ based product.

When should I use traditional primer and paint?
● Dissimilar paint types -­ If you are covering a previously painted surface, and will be using the opposite type of paint, you’ll need to use traditional paint and primer. Using the example above, if you are covering latex paint will oil­ based paint, only a high quality primer formulated for oil­ based paint, followed by oil­ based paint will do. Dissimilar paint may also refer to color. If your walls are white, but you’d like to paint them a deep shade of blue, only traditional primer and traditional paint ­ and perhaps several coats of each ­ will give you the results you want.

● Raw substrate ­- If you are painting bare metal, raw wood, concrete, or any other substrate that has never been painted, you will need to stick to the traditional painting process and avoid 2­-in-­1 combination products. Only a
true, high quality primer will prepare such a substrate to accept and hold paint.

● Substrate with surface issues -­ If your substrate suffers from mold, mildew, rust, or any other problem, a 2­-in­-1 paint primer will not be able to properly coat it. You’ll need to find a high quality primer that is specially formulated to protect against the issue. Then, after properly ridding the substrate of the buildup, apply your primer, using more than one coat, if necessary, followed by the topcoat.

● Cost matters -­ If you are painting your home on a budget, you will most likely want to avoid using combination products. Contrary to what we want to believe, investing in high quality primer, and especially in high quality paint will save money in the long run. With quality products, you will apply fewer coats, and they will provide a finish that lasts longer and performs better.

● Quality and appearance matter ­- The traditional method of prep work, high quality primer, and high quality topcoat will always provide the most beautiful results.

After all the steps that go into proper prep work, it does sound nice to simplify the subsequent steps by using a paint primer combination. However, for the best results, stick to the traditional process of painting ­ including all prep work, 1-­2 coats of high quality primer, and then 1­-2 coats of the highest quality paint. Beautiful and long lasting paint jobs not only require the right materials, but also the right process!

The Best Jacksonville FL House Painters
At The Painting Craftsmen, we believe that painting is a process and an art form. We believe that in order to give our clients the best possible paint job, we need to complete each step of prep work, primer application, and topcoat application, using the eye of an artist, and the steady hand of a skilled technician with years of experience. We pride ourselves in offering only the highest quality coatings and products, and using the best equipment in the industry to paint your home. We specialize in providing durable coatings, in a high quality luxury finish that your neighbors will envy.

Homes throughout Jacksonville Beach, Ponte Vedra Beach, Sawgrass, Ortega, Mandarin, and beyond are looking beautiful, thanks to our award­ winning teams of expert painters. Let us do the same for your home!

Angie’s List has announced its first exclusive paint manufacturer relationship, selecting Benjamin Moore for this landmark alliance.  Angie’s List is the venerable source that homeowners turn to in order to find the best service providers for their homes, and this relationship identifies Benjamin Moore as its paint manufacturer of choice.

The drywall in your home is subjected to damages of all kinds. Our walls get bashed by doorknobs, scraped and gouged by furniture, and riddled with dents and gashes, especially if there are kids or pets in the house. The good news is that repairing damaged drywall is easier than you might think. Take a look at our tips, head to the hardware store, and your walls will be looking great in almost no time!

The Florida Times-Union has officially launched its “Bold City Best” 2015 contest!  The “Bold City Best” lets Jacksonville residents vote on their favorite restaurants, shopping spots, doctors, law firms, and more.  Best of all, there is a “Home & Professional Services” category, where you can vote for the best painting contractors in town – The Painting Craftsmen!

How Do I Vote?

Voting is easy!  Registration is simple, and you can vote for as few or as many categories as you want.  First, follow this link: http://contests.jacksonville.com/l/Bold-City-Best/Ballot/HomeampProfessionalServices.  That will open the ballot right to the “Home & Professional Services” category.  Click on “Best Painting Service,” and select The Painting Craftsmen, then click the red VOTE button and you’re done.  If you vote without registering first, you’ll be prompted on how to register, and then you’ll need to submit your vote after registering.

If you’ve ever used our sister company, First Coast Home Pros, then you know what a clean house looks like.  While you’re on the “Home & Professional Services” page, vote for them in the “Best Carpet Cleaning Company” category!

Vote as early as today, or anytime through August 16.  The “Bold City Best” winners will be announced on September 27 via Jacksonville.com and the Florida Times-Union.

The Painting Craftsmen – The Best Painting Company In Jacksonville, FL

The Painting Craftsmen is known for our commitment to high quality work as well as complete customer satisfaction.  Our painters are highly skilled with years of experience, and specialize in interior and exterior painting alike.  We use the best paint and material possible, and our level of work is unparalleled in Northeast Florida.  Homeowners throughout downtown Jacksonville and the surrounding suburbs and beaches all trust The Painting Craftsmen with painting projects large and small.  When it comes to painting, we are the “Bold City Best”!