Home design right at hand
Apps give homeowners and designers creative freedom
August 25, 2011|By Dennis Hockman, Chesapeake Home + Living
When I started covering architecture and interior design back in the late 1990s, interviews with homeowners and designers about their projects inevitably turned to manila folders or three-ring binders thick with fabric swatches, torn-out magazine pages, measurements, calculations, paint chips and sketches.
Today, that design file hasn’t been replaced, but it’s being augmented with a bevy of smartphone and tablet applications that help eliminate lugging a messy binder crammed with loose pages from home to the design studio or paint store and back. Even better, these apps are, in many cases, saving time by eliminating all of that running around.
The more robust apps cost anywhere from 99 cents to $6.99 and offer high functionality for design professionals and homeowners elbow-deep in a major home improvement or design project. Most homeowners, however, won’t need everything those apps have to offer, but a nice variety of free apps can be handy for helping with day-to-day home decorating and maintenance needs.
A few of my favorite freebies include any number of color selection apps offered by most major paint brands, Home Depot’s app, the “iHandy Level”, Kravet / Lee Jofa’s “eDesign Assistant” and the ubiquitous “Flashlight” app.
The major paint brands, including Behr, Benjamin Moore, Olympic and Sherwin-Williams, all have apps designed to help you select paint by browsing color cards, using a color spectrum, or taking a photo on your phone or tablet and using a color in that image to match with one of their paints.
Bryan Koerber, president of Budeke’s Paints, which has locations throughout the Baltimore region, says that Benjamin Moore’s “Color Capture” app is a good starting tool for narrowing down the colors you might want.
“But nothing replaces actually going to a paint store, checking out a fan deck to further narrow down your options, and then getting a color sample and testing it out on your wall before painting,” says Koerber.
Taking the functionality of the paint apps a step further, the free version of the “Home Decorator” app lets you take a picture of the room you want to paint and then recolor the walls with hues from preloaded color cards, a free-form palette or by using a color from a photo you’ve taken. The drawback here is that the app doesn’t match up with any actual paint colors.
“Palettes” is another interesting color app that takes images you like and breaks them down into manageable color palettes you can use to decorate a room. For example, in a recent conversation I had with interior designer Penny Mickum, she mentioned using a “coastal palette” for a house she had just finished decorating. “Palettes” allows you to take a photo of an actual coastal environment and then parse the image into a palette that could work as the basis for a room or house scheme.
Kravet / Lee Jofa’s “eDesign Assistant” takes the color-matching technology a step further and adds search functions that allow for product selection based on pattern, texture and style, as well as color. Choose from a library of colors, or take a photo from your smartphone for a color match, and the app will find coordinating fabrics and styles. Registered interior designers can sign in for additional capabilities.
“I like the Kravet app for finding prices and availability on the spot with our clients,” says Baltimore interior designer Lisa Steinhardt of Design Loft Interiors.
Another product search and purchase app, this one from Home Depot, gets you access to over 100,000 products and as a bonus includes a handy interactive toolbox with a caliper for measuring length and width of small items, a measurement converter, a nut-and bolt finder, a tape measure, and drywall flooring, insulation, and paint calculators as well as in-store maps and “how-to” projects and videos.
The “iHandy Level” is a free tool that comes as part of the “iHandy Carpenter” toolkit, which costs $1.99, The full carpenter kit is more advanced than I need, but the level is great for hanging framed art and photos and easy to calibrate using any level surface.
I’m sure many people are familiar with the “Flashlight” app, but it’s worth mentioning, because I probably use it more than all the others combined. The app fills the screen of a smartphone with bright light to illuminate dark spaces. It’s handy for times when you wouldn’t expect needing a traditional flashlight and lets you finally take that mini flashlight off your key chain—even my plumber uses it.
As much as apps, mobile devices themselves are revolutionizing the way some architects, interior designers and builders work with clients. Building on the basic premises of cloud computing — where resources, software and information are provided to computers and other devices by way of a remote server or “cloud”— architects and interior designers are creating electronic project folders so that when they meet with clients all they have to bring is a laptop computer or tablet to access everything from blueprints and elevations to product PDFs and images of fabrics patterns and paint colors.
Architect Paul Hume, is cutting down on the paper work by using an iPad to access stored files, images and sketches.
“It is useful for fieldwork because I do not have to carry around drawings. It also gives me access to documents, everything from contracts to emails,” says Hume.
“Evernote” offers similar functionality — it has an app for mobile devices and can be used to organize notes and documents, images you’ve taken yourself or copied from web pages, links, video clips and more all in one place. Searching is easy with an autocomplete function that recognizes words you have typed before as well as those that appear in saved files.
“We use ‘Mobile Me’ to allow our designers to view the client files, pictures and information from anywhere,” says Steinhardt. “I save all of this information to a public file and we can all view it. This application is very useful as a designer. I never have to have physical papers/folders with me. I only use my iPad.”
August 26th, 2011
Painting Idea’s From Across the Pond!
With a wet Bank Holiday forecast, it’s time to get decorating
By Ruth Bloomfield
Friday, 26 August 2011
As Bank Holiday traditions go, trailing to the local DIY store and loading up with emulsion and white spirit is as much a British tradition as queuing on an A-road near a seaside town or losing your friends at the Notting Hill Carnival.
But giving your front room a facelift no longer means puzzling over a million shades of neutral. Experts say that, as people stay longer in their homes, thanks to the stagnant market, paint choices are getting bolder.
Colour trends
The key paint trend that David Oliver, creative director at Paint & Paper Library (www.paintlibrary.co.uk), has noticed is that since the downturn we have been buying lots more of it, in favour of other – more expensive – options like wallpaper and fabrics.
The other effect the extended period of economic gloom has had on Britain’s walls is to unleash a burst of colour upon them. “When the property market is rising people are more included to paint their houses in very neutral colours, because they may be moving,” says Oliver. “But if they are not moving then they will decorate how they want to decorate. It is rather refreshing.”
Oliver’s next paint range, out next spring, will reflect this new daring with an appetising colour chart full of smoky grey-lilacs, acid yellows, Italian oranges and Etruscan reds.
Joa Studholme, international colour consultant for Farrow & Ball, believes people are looking for a relaxed, comfortable, slightly nostalgic feel and has identified four key colours which she believes will define domestic design in 2012. They are “pigeon”, a dark blue-grey; “brassica”, a purple with underlying black; “babouche”, a cheery yellow and “railings”, an almost-black dark grey.
Studholme also sees a resurgence of gloss paint – and not just on woodwork in place of eggshell but in blocks of colour on walls too. “A gloss just comes alive in candle light in a dining room, and it is such fun,” she says.
In line with the braver colour environment Crown (www.crownpaint.co.uk) has enlisted the services of Wayne and Geraldine Hemingway, founders of Red or Dead, to create a new “vintage” range, inspired by fashion and design from the 1940s to the 1980s. Admittedly the range contains a super-safe selection of whites, creams and neutrals, but there are also some bolder options like Beatnik Blue, a deep greeny-blue. Sally Heppenstall, marketing manager at Crown, says that increasing bravery with colour is already being reflected in sales. “People are really starting to express themselves with shots of interesting colours,” she says.
With its autumn and winter range, Crown is tipping a rainbow of shades to fly off the shelves: grey-greens and purples teamed with mustard yellows and sharp violets; warm shades like burnt orange, chocolate and burgundy; and a theme Crown has named “space” – think electric blues, greens, golds, blacks and metallic and iridescent shades. For the more cautious-natured, Helen Turkington, the interior designer who sells her own range of paints (www.helenturkington.ie), believes grey is becoming the new off-white. “It is still a neutral colour and it is a great base for so many other tones,” she says. The fact that it is easy on the eye is critical. Unlike Oliver, Turkington says her clients want classic schemes that will last. “People can’t afford to repaint every couple of years,” she says.
Interior designer Giulia Adams (www.gainteriors.com), based in Stroud, Gloucestershire, has just repainted her own white kitchen in a greeney-grey Sanderson shade (“driftwood grey”): “I think clients like it because it is not scary, but it is one step up from white,” she says.
Paint effects
The very words “paint effects” conjure up an early nineties nightmare of shaky stencils atop a terracotta background. But boredom with minimal neutral design is bringing a more sophisticated array of specialist paint finishes back into vogue. As a former set painter Pierre Clement (www.clement-interiors.co.uk) uses sleight of hand to create effects from the subtle to the downright flashy. The former could include a colour wash, where walls are painted a flat colour and then brushed over with translucent artists pigment (Clement recommends Paint & Paper Library, www.paintlibrary.co.uk or artists’ supply shop L Cornelissen & Son, www.cornelissen.com). Another option would be to create a linen effect by marking a vertical section of a wall and then painting over it with glaze paint (try Leyland Paints, www.leyland-paints.co.uk), first in horizontal swathes and then vertically, to mimic the cloth. “It looks brilliant, especially when a room is large,” says Clement. “It is cheaper than using a fabric and you can have whatever colour you want.”
In fact Clement can use his artistic background to create a whole host of effects, from stonework to concrete to wood, painting on to MDF panels which are then attached to the walls. “I think that people are a getting a bit tired with the minimal look. The sky is the limit if you are creative,” says Clement, whose recent jobs have included painting Italian-style cherubs on a suburban ceiling.
At the pinnacle of the market Maddie Argyle, of Glaze Specialist Decoration (www.glazesd.co.uk), works for “ridiculously rich” clients. Her team of fine art-trained painters can recreate damaged period wallpaper or, for one recent job, they hand-painted faux wallpaper onto the 44ft curved stairwell of a Mayfair mansion which would have been impractical to actually paper. “Really rich people also don’t like to see joins,” she says.
For lesser mortals Argyle suggests creating a dragging effect on walls, cupboard doors or even a piece of furniture by mixing paint and glaze for a softer look than regular painting, with almost imperceptible brush marks. This would cost between £65 and £70 per square metre.
Argyle runs workshops to teach would-be wall artists how to create one-off paint effects. Alternatively, contact the Society of British Interior Design (www.sbid.org) for advice about finding an expert.
Rebecca James (www.interiordesire.com) is seeing specialist finishes like polished plaster trickle down from commercial clients.
“Polished plaster always was popular in hotel lobbies and restaurants and now you are seeing it in people’s houses,” she says. “It is very easy to clean, which is great, and it looks fantastic for several years.”
This effect is achieved through some laborious teamwork. The backdrop is any regular, smooth plastered wall. Then a thin skim of a specialist plaster mixed with coloured artists’ pigment is applied with a flat plastering knife. Two people need to work on a wall at once: as one applies the mix the other smooths it down a second time. This is a recipe that goes off quickly, so mistakes are hard to correct, but applied correctly you get an immaculate glassy effect which is further shined up by a layer of wax.
It costs between £100 and £150 per sq metre and the darker the colour the more expensive it will be.
August 26th, 2011
Brick, and stone and other masonry products are some of the most common, and durable building materials that are used, but they also absorb water like sponges. Water absorption can lead to cracks and crumbling as well as leading to ugly exteriors, with white chalky salt deposits left from water entering and evaporating through the porous surface. Also if water is entering your exterior walls, it can render your insulation useless, and increase your energy costs. This is why properly sealing your exterior surfaces is so vital. When installing new brick or stone, it is important to include sealing as part of the work scope. For existing stone and brick, have it sealed now to maintain and prolong the life of what is already in place. DJ’s painting has sealed hundreds of buildings and helped owners keep maintenance and energy costs as low as possible. Contact DJ’s Painting today to see how we can help you maintain your building.
May 11th, 2011
It’s important to think about the mood you want to create in a room when choosing a paint color: calming, energizing, dramatic, or warm and welcoming.
Certain colors directly impact the mood of a room:
Red: causes a rise in blood pressure, respiration, heartbeat, pulse rate, it is very stimulating
Yellow: energizing, yet more likely to evoke anger and loss of tempers when used as the main color scheme
Blue: calming and relaxing, perfect for bedrooms and bathrooms
Green: calming and relaxing, known to be the most restful color for the eye
Orange: creates energy and excitement
Purple: dramatic and sophisticated when dark hues are used; calming and relaxing when light hues are used
Paint Swatches and testing paint colors an a small area of a wall are a useful tool in deciding on a paint color- lighting (natural and artificial) impact the way a color appears on surfaces.
Contact DJ’s painting today to get your project started.
April 28th, 2011
Read the full blog at the Paint Guru’s
Spring Exterior Diagnostics
It’s very likely that the exterior inspection recommended in our last post will turn up some problems here and there. The
good news is that paint problems are usually easy to fix if you can figure out what caused them in the first place. Here
are a few of the more typical problems and their likely causes; in our next post, we’ll tell you how to fix them. First you
should identify if the problem is localized or general. If the problem is limited to a small area or on one side of the house
it should be easy to identify and correct. If the problem exists on the entire house it may be a much larger issue and you
should probably have a paint expert to inspect your home. Contact DJ’s Painting today for your inspection.
Read the full blog at the Paint Guru’s
Posted by Benjamin Moore at 04:00:00 PM in Advice from the Pros
Spring Exterior Diagnostics Part Two – Paint Gurus http://paintgurus.typepad.com/blog/2011/03/spring-exterior-diagnostics-pa…
April 26th, 2011
Read the full blog with pictures at http://livingincolorwithsonu.typepad.com
Creating a New Room
Lucianna Samu
I’ve had the privilege to work at some of the best addresses in Manhattan. From The Dakota to the teeniest apartments in Tudor City, New Yorkers adhere to a singular space-planning theme: every alcove, niche, sliver or slice is put to good use and deemed “a room.” While part of the charm of my old house is its nooks and crannies, my space planning philosophy remains entirely 21st century–if I’m heating it, I’m using it!
So, while the painters are busying themselves in the entry foyer, I’m re-working 100+ sq ft of emptiness in the middle of the house. Leaving what is best described as a center hall empty irritates my green-living sensibilities. So the question is–how can a hall be made to act like a room? Well, some walls would probably help. Here’s the space on my floor plan:
The top of the custom built-in hutch conceals the rise of the staircase, which travels clear through the top of it. I antiqued the nearly black Narragansett Green HC 157 with black glaze and finished with a brown paste wax to knock back its newness, making the piece appear logical where it stands, or so I like to think.
Read the full blog with pictures at http://livingincolorwithsonu.typepad.com
April 26th, 2011
DJ;s Painting Local offers more than traditional painting, we offer solutions to your coating problems. DJ’s Painting can install systems that will repel water from the surface of your building; keeping dirt off your walls, and keeping water from penetrating the building walls. The photos to the right show a before and after of a building with this system installed.
