Blog

The kitchen is where you prepare meals; the living room is where you entertain guests; the home office is where you work; but at the end of a busy day, the bedroom is where you retreat and recharge. This is why most people want a relaxing bedroom paint color.

Before you start comparing paint swatches, we recommend selecting your bedroom paint from the Benjamin Moore Natura® line. You’ll find many stylish color options along with the peace of mind that comes from choosing certified asthma and allergy friendly paint.

Now, consider these tips for choosing a relaxing bedroom paint color.

Keep your cool.
Color has the power to change the mood of a room. The cool half of the color wheel – which consists of blue, green and purple – is known for its calming effects. Blue reminds us of the sky and ocean while green bedroom walls create the impression of being in a forest. Purple is less associated with nature, but it still creates a serene, calming atmosphere.

Consider that more saturated colors – such as Benjamin Moore’s Clearest Ocean Blue, Tropical Green and Purplicious – elicit stimulating feelings, while paler shades – such as Polar Sky, Sweet Honeydew Melon and Misty Lilac – keep things airy and light.

Stay neutral.
Along with cool colors, neutrals also help you unwind after a long, busy day. Benjamin Moore’s Caramel Apple, Feather Gray and Sandy White all serve as quiet backdrops for a relaxing bedroom atmosphere. Sticking with a neutral paint color may be especially beneficial if you like switching out your bedding or accessories often.

Consider your décor.
You can also use bedroom furnishings to inspire the paint color you select. Take a photo of your bedroom and bring it to the paint store. Select a few swatches that appear to closely match the hues in the rug, quilt or lampshade. Remember, photos don’t accurately convey colors, so you’ll want to bring the swatches home and compare them with your furnishings in person to discover which ones really match.

Once you have a few favorites picked out, return to the store and buy some sample paint cans. Paint 12-inch-square patches on the wall in each of your top color choices and see what they look like at different times of day in natural and artificial light. This will help you make your final selection with confidence.

Don’t forget the ceiling.
Sometimes referred to as “the fifth wall,” your bedroom ceiling needn’t remain the standard white. After all, the ceiling is the final thing you see before drifting off to sleep and the first thing to greet you when you wake up in the morning. Consider painting the ceiling a lighter shade of the wall color you choose to help the room feel put together without creating a stark contrast.

For more information about painting your bedroom the perfect relaxing color, visit the Paint Centers website or stop by one of our Michigan locations today.

A fresh coat of paint is a great way to spruce up a room. Whether you choose creamy white, dark purple or light gray, changing up your walls introduces a whole new design element to the space. Now the question is whether to paint the walls yourself or hire a professional to complete the job. There are pros and cons to both options.

Reasons to Hire a Professional Painter

• Save time: Painting a room takes more time than you might think. Even with two people, it could easily take an entire afternoon to paint a single 100-square-foot room, including removing the furniture, laying down the drop cloth and painter’s tape, and putting everything back once the paint is dry. With a professional to complete the job on your behalf, you can go about your normal routine while your home gets painted.
• Avoid the effort: Painting is an arduous task that often results in aching arms, a stiff back and a kinked neck. You get to skip these sore muscles when you hand off the chore of painting to a professional.
• Stay safe: Climbing a ladder to paint a vaulted ceiling could prove dangerous, especially without a second person to spot you. Even paint fumes can be hazardous if you don’t ventilate the space properly. A professional knows how to be safe while painting a room, and you get to stay out of harm’s way.
• End up with professionally painted walls: If you have never painted a room before, you could easily make beginner’s mistakes, such as neglecting to use painter’s tape. A professional is sure to leave clean lines and neat edges on every wall for a beautiful finished product.

Benefits of DIY Painting

• Save money: The biggest reason people consider DIY painting is to save money. However, a DIY job requires you to purchase paint and accessories – including brushes, rollers, extension poles, paint trays and liners, drop cloths, painter’s tape, ladders, and more – costs that may be included in the price to hire a professional. Plus, think of all the time you save! In the end, hiring a professional is usually worth the cost.
• Maintain full control: When you’re in charge, you decide when and how to do the job. You select the grade of paint, determine the best time to work based on your schedule, and choose how many coats to use. Having full control is especially important if you have a specific plan in mind for painting stripes or other geometric patterns on the wall.

Combining industry knowledge, expertise and premium products, the Paint Centers is the place to turn for all your interior and exterior painting needs. Whether you’re looking for high-quality Benjamin Moore paint or you want to hire a painter for the job, our employees can assist with your next big project. Visit the Paint Centers website or stop by one of our Michigan locations for all the help you need.

Is it time to brighten up your bathroom with some fresh paint on the walls? Follow these 10 tips for the best possible outcome.

1. Clean the walls. A build-up of hairspray, soap scum and other deposits could mess up your paint job, so use trisodium phosphate (TSP) to clean the walls before painting.
2. Prepare the bathroom for painting. First, remove all shelving, picture frames, clocks, electrical outlet and light switch covers, towel bars, curtain rods and all other wall decorations. Then, surround all baseboards, windows, doors, cabinets, light fixtures, and tiles with two-inch-thick painter’s tape. Lay a drop cloth on the floor and over the vanity to protect these surfaces from dripping paint.
3. Remove the toilet tank. While this isn’t mandatory, it makes painting behind the toilet much easier. First, shut off the water supply behind the toilet and flush it to remove water from the tank. Then, unscrew the tank from the bowl and set it on an old towel on the drop cloth covering the bathroom floor.
4. Choose light, airy bathroom paint colors. While you can select any color you prefer, light blues, yellows and sandy neutral tones are great for small bathrooms. We recommend paint that resists mildew growth in humid conditions.
5. Ventilate the bathroom. Even with low-VOC paint, it’s recommended that you open a window or set up a fan in the bathroom doorway to ventilate the painting area as much as possible.
6. Paint the ceiling first (optional). Stand on a ladder and paint around the edges of the ceiling with a brush. Complete the job from the ground by using a roller attached to the end of an extension pole. Apply a second coat if needed.
7. Apply primer to the walls (optional). If you’re lightening the color of the bathroom walls, you must prime them first to prevent the darker shade from showing through.
8. Paint around the edges. Using a brush, paint around the taped areas of the wall. Start in one corner and work your way around the room until you have completely outlined every wall.
9. Paint the rest of the wall with a roller. Paint one section at a time with long vertical strokes. You may need an extension pole to reach all the way to the ceiling. After allowing the paint to dry and assessing the results, you may decide to apply a second coat.
10. Put the bathroom back together. Once the paint is completely dry, remove the drop cloth and painter’s tape, put the tank back on the toilet, and reinstall the wall decorations. Now stand back and admire the results!

Ready to pick out bathroom paint for your project? Visit the Paint Centers website for inspiration or stop by one of our Michigan locations to stock up on everything you need.

When the time comes to repaint the walls of your home, you probably take today’s broad paint selection for granted. However, it wasn’t always possible to choose expertly mixed paint with various finishes in every color under the sun. This brief history of paint will help you appreciate just how far the technology has come.

Prehistoric Paintings
Back up 40,000 years to the days of primitive humans. They may have lived in caves, but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t decorate! Cave paintings are the earliest evidence of mankind adorning a living space with art. Back then, paint was made from black soot, colored earth, and organic materials mixed with animal fat and blood.

Egyptian Hieroglyphs
The advanced Egyptian civilization dating back 2,000 years still used some of the same materials as ancient humans to devise paint colors, including soil and animal blood. They also used ground-up glass and semiprecious stones to create previously unavailable hues such as green and blue to adorn their homes, palaces and tombs.

Early House Painting
The house painting profession dates back to at least the 1200s. English house painters created guilds to help preserve their paint mixing and application techniques as well as ensure everyone in the industry was held to a certain standard of practice.

The house painting craze didn’t instantly transfer over to the American colonies. Most Puritans considered the practice to be an immoral display of wealth and vanity. In fact, in the 1600s, a Charleston preacher was charged with sacrilege for painting the interior of his home.

However, despite objections from the Puritan population, the demand for interior house paint grew. Oil and water became the base for mixing ground seashells, copper oxide, rice, eggs, coffee, berries and lead. These paints were thick and much more difficult to apply than modern paint.

The Dawn of the Modern Painting Era
Everything changed in 1718 with the invention of the “Machine for the Grinding of Colours.” This spurred the inception of paint mills, where pigment materials could be ground efficiently and mass produced for cheaper public use.

More changes occurred in the 1800s. First was the discovery that linseed oil made a more affordable binding agent. Then, ready-to-use paint started being manufactured by some of today’s most well-known paint companies, including Benjamin Moore, which began operations in 1883. This brand greatly emphasized paint chemistry and improving color mixing and production. Benjamin Moore also designed the first computer-based color-matching system in 1982.

With knowledge of this brief history of paint, now you won’t take high-quality paint and endless color varieties for granted. If you need help selecting the right Benjamin Moore paint color and finish for your next interior or exterior painting project, please visit the Paint Centers website for inspiration or stop by one of our Michigan locations to stock up on home painting supplies.

The plain white walls of your home are canvases just waiting to be filled with colors and shapes. If you’re looking for something more creative than a simple accent wall, consider these unique wall paint ideas for your home.

Color Blocking
Especially fun for nurseries or kids’ rooms, color blocking is when you apply painter’s tape to the wall, dividing it into squares or rectangles that you paint different colors. These shapes might be evenly spaced and sized, or you might opt for a more a freestyle look with parallelograms of various shapes and sizes. The colors you paint with should match the furnishings in the room to create a unified look, and you should choose high-quality Benjamin Moore paint for a beautiful finished product with fewer coats.

Murals
If you have some natural artistic talent, you might employ your skills to transform the walls of your home into gorgeous paintings. The designs you choose are completely up to you, from basic geometric shapes to silhouettes of mountains or pine trees to birds in flight. Benjamin Moore’s Aura® interior paint is perfect for murals due to its exclusive Color Lock technology, which allows for brilliant, rich, everlasting color.

Chalkboard Walls
Why not let the kids get creative by drawing on the wall? This suggestion might initially make you gasp in horror, but with Benjamin Moore’s ben® chalkboard paint, wall drawings aren’t just allowed – they’re encouraged! And, contrary to popular belief, chalkboard wall paint comes in thousands of colors, not just the traditional black.

There’s a lot more you can do with chalkboard paint than merely permitting a bit of fun in your kids’ rooms. You can paint a giant chalkboard calendar in the kitchen to keep everyone’s schedules straight. Paint a wall in your office and use it to make notes to yourself. Even paint your refrigerator or the inside of your pantry door and use the surface to add items to the shopping list when they run out.

Dry Erase Walls
Similar to chalkboard paint is Benjamin Moore’s Notable™ dry erase paint. This creates a “whiteboard” look on almost any surface you apply it to, including painted walls, glass, wood, metal and laminate. Convert walls of all sizes into a functioning dry erase board, perfect for kids’ rooms, playrooms, offices and more!

Ombre Walls
A gradual gradient from dark to light is known as ombre, a unique wall paint idea that offers plenty of flexibility. Pick three or four similar colors of Benjamin Moore Aura® interior paint in a matte finish. Then, it’s up to whether you make the color lighten from the bottom up or the top down. Soften the transition from the ceiling to the wall or make the walls look like a 360-degree sunset.

The ombre wall technique involves painting the wall in several horizontal sections. Begin by painting the two darkest stripes. Then, combine a bit of each color in a paint tray. Dip a sponge in this in-between paint and use it to blend the area between the two sections to create the desired color-fading look. Depending on your technique, you can make the transition between each color as gradual or distinct as you want.

Letters and Numbers
Paint phrases on the kitchen or dining room walls or create an accent wall with a giant monogram. You might choose the first letter of your last name for the living room wall or your child’s first name for a wall in his bedroom. To help make the letters or numbers stand out, choose Benjamin Moore paint in a semi-gloss finish. Natura® and Aura® products are ideal for this application.

Looking for more unique wall paint ideas for your home? Visit the Paint Centers website or stop by one of our Michigan locations for all the inspiration you need.

There are many factors to consider when deciding on the right color for your space. According to Sharon Grech, Benjamin Moore Color and Design Expert, lighting is one of the most important. Here, she shares tips for finding a color that will look great at any time of day.

1. Assess lighting. “Light has the incredible ability to play tricks on us, often changing the way we see a color and the mood it creates,” explains Grech. “This is why it can be so challenging to find the right paint color for a room. We have to consider lighting on so many levels, from the type of lighting, both natural and artificial, to the direction the sunlight is travelling, to the time of day.” She recommends deep, rich colors like Shadow 2117-30, Guacamole 2144-10, Gentlemen’s Gray 2062-20 and Dinner Party AF-300. “What I love about these bold colors is that their dimension and depth are really brought to life with light.”

2. Trial run. The most effective and budget-friendly way to choose your paint is to test out the color before committing. Go to your local retailer and purchase a sample pot. “Testing and enjoying the color in your space over a few days will allow you to see how the color evolves and adjusts to lighting throughout the day,” says Grech. “Morning light casts blue undertones while evening light is warmer, more red. It is important to look at colors at different times throughout the day as it may have a significant impact on the undertone of your chosen color.”

3. Finish with a lasting impression. Just like choosing paint colors, there are several options when it comes to finishes. Grech says the higher the sheen, the more glare there will be from the lighting source. This can be a bonus if you want light to reflect around a room and bring a dark color to life. On the contrary, a flat or matte paint finish will have no reflection and can appear darker. For more sheen on walls, Grech recommends satin or eggshell finishes. For less sheen, look for a flat or matte finish in the Aura® line.