Hartz Homes, Chicagoland’s family homebuilder, offers a full menu of painting options, but often new homeowners choose to do some painting themselves after they move in and begin decorating their home. Here are five helpful ideas that can make this task easier.
- Potato Chip Can Keeps Paint Rollers Fresh
Hate to wash out rollers before taking a break or stopping for the night? Then, store them in an empty tube-shaped potato chip can. To keep the roller fresh, drill a hole in the plastic top and cut a slit from the hole to the top’s rim. (See photo above.) This allows you to fit the top around the roller wire and snap in onto the top of the can for a good seal.
- Fabric Softener Helps Keep Bristles Soft
Just rinsing brushes with water at the end of the day will probably lead to a brush with stiff, hard-to-use bristles the next day. Here’s a fix to this frustrating problem. First, pour a half cup of fabric softener into a bucket containing a gallon of warm water. Then, after rinsing your brush with water, submerge the bristles in the water/softener mixture and swish it around for about 15 seconds. Now store you brush by either hanging it or leaving it lying flat. The next time you use the brush it will be fresh and ready to go!
- Visually Change the Size of a Room with Paint
Painting walls white, cream, pastel, or a cool color (having blue or green hues) makes a room seem bigger. These shades give the illusion of more space by reflecting light. Conversely, when you want to make a large space seem smaller, use a darker paint. Darker shades will draw the walls inward and make the room feel cozier.
- Keep Q-Tips Ready for Action
Keep a supply of Q-Tips in your pocket for small, on-the-spot clean-ups. They are easier to control than rags and are very absorbent. The Q-Tips are also great for small touch ups, too, especially when you don’t want to dirty a clean brush.
- A Hair Dryer Helps Remove Painter’s Tape
Often a strip of good paint is peeled off the wall when you are removing the painter’s tape. If this is happening to you, simply grab a hair dryer, turn it on with low heat, and hold it a few inches from the tape. The tape’s adhesive will soon soften, allowing you to remove the tape without disturbing the good paint.
Please check out these new home communities from Hartz Homes:
Armitage Pointe of Addison, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Bella Vista Townhomes of Bolingbrook, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Heather Glen of New Lenox, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Hibernia of New Lenox, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Leigh Creek of New Lenox, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Manchester Cove of Mokena, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Marquis Pointe of Montgomery, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Marywood Meadows of Montgomery, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Nantucket Lakes of New Lenox, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Oliviabrook of Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Park West of Manteno, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Playa Vista of Plainfield, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Sky Harbor of New Lenox, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Whisper Creek of Mokena, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Hartz Homes has new home communities in:
Addison, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Aurora, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Bolingbrook, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Lockport, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Manteno, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Mokena, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Montgomery, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
New Lenox, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)