If the painted surfaces in your home began to turn yellow, you see traces of dirt, they parch and have lost their shine or if you simply want to change the color, it’s clearly time to repaint your walls.
In specialty stores you will find a huge range of products, which makes it very difficult for you to choose the best solution without prior documentation, so we decided to come to your help, defining the most important things you need to know about choosing interior paint.
For the bathroom and the kitchen it’s best to choose a paint that contains special additives to prevent mold because in these rooms there is usually a lot of steam, which means that the walls are subjected to a greater condensation and water infiltrations.
Washable wall paints
If you want to choose a washable paint, you shouldn’t consider only the price, because most often it’s not a defining criterion for product quality. There are other issues more important to be aware of: the degree of resistance to soiling and staining, the whiteness you want to get (white or super-white), cover intensity and efficiency. The degree of easy it is to actually wash the walls is also very important.
Washable paints can withstand more than 200 cycles of washing. These wash cycles are tested in the laboratory and are determined by the number of successive passes of a soaked sponge over the same area, without noticing a significant reduction of the film thickness. Recent high performance paints also contain Teflon. These paints contain, in addition to the usual additives for water based paints, other substances that provide resistance to surface staining, soiling and scratches, as well as longer lasting qualities in time. Washable paint shouldn’t be applied on mineral plasters, lacquers and oil-based paints.
Special wall paints
An example of special paint is the paint with silver ions, which fights fungi and bacteria. Silver ions in the composition provide a clean environment, having a permanent antibacterial effect. Studies by researchers demonstrated that silver has antimicrobial properties, managing to annihilate up to 650 types of pathogenic microbes. In addition, titanium dioxide, the pigment responsible for the white color, has an important quality: if it isn’t nreutralized by a solvent, it acts as a biological air purifier.
Choose neutral colors
Studies have shown that people feel the need for for a change faster in the case of rooms painted in bold, vivid colors, than in the case of rooms that are painted in pastel or white shades.In other words, if you don’t want to renovate your home frequently, choose an interior paint in a neutral color.
If you want some color accents, pick cheerful decorations (curtains, pillows, lighting, which, if necessary, are easier to replace than repainting the walls). In addition, if you want to break the monotony of an all-white room, you can cover a wall with decorative paint, with can have special textures such as stucco,marble, travertine, ardesia and various other effects (metallic, silky, light reflecting). Indeed, special decorative paint is more expensive than washable paint, but it it’s enough to paint just one wall with it to add more personality to a certain room. Note that, unlike wallpaper, this paint ensures better hygiene, washability, breathability, durability and easy maintenance.
If you need a special color, with a textured metallic or matte finish, can go in a specialty store, where it;s possible to buy custom colors mixed on the spot. All you have to do is place your finger on your favorite color or shade from hundreds of variations and the paint is prepard on the spot, by mixing several basic pigments. This service is a bit more expensive than buying basic colors from the store, but it’s worth all the money if your main interest is to personalize your home as much as possible.
We hope you’ll find these tips useful, but we would also like to remind you that if you’re in need of a good and reliable contractor in Philadelphia and in the area, we offer great home remodeling services, from bathroom and kitchen remodel, to sidings, flooring and everything in between. Don’t hesitate to contact us to request your free estimate.