HELPFUL ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESTIONS

Painting cabinets is a pretty tempting DIY project.  How do the pros do it?   I remember looking at my hideous pickled-oak cabinets and thinking, “I should just paint those!  I’ve got time, how hard can it be?”  I used to be pretty handy back in the day, and I’d try household projects all the…

Wondering if an accent wall is a good idea?     We often get asked to weigh in on this, since we’re asked to paint them!  Here are my do’s and don’ts for accent walls, from an interior design perspective.     First, the most important thing to understand about accent walls is that they…

Working with an interior designer is the surest way we know to guarantee a beautiful, updated home that reflects your tastes.  We love working with designers, and your project will be in good hands. . But homeowners can unknowingly make life difficult for their designer, and get in the way of their own project’s success….

How do you know who is a good painting company, and who isn’t?  How do you find a great painter, and not just someone who hired a good marketing company to make them look good? After all, it’s easy to make just about any business look impressive online.  What should you look for in a…

Why hire a professional painting contractor? After all, painting doesn’t look that hard . . .  right??   There are plenty of blogs out there designed for the DIY market that make interior painting look pretty easy.  (Most homeowners won’t tackle exterior painting, and with good reason . . .  but more on that below.)…

White paint is the go-to color for most homeowners in Austin, TX, and with good reason! (It’s quickly become the go-to color in San Antonio, TX as well, although San Antonio kept its beiges and tan colors a lot longer than Austin did.) Painting a room white can make it feel open, clean, spacious, welcoming,…

If you’re picking a paint color for your home, first browse online for some inspiration photos, right?  Yes, but that’s only a starting point!  Finding photos online can point you in the right direction, but it won’t get you to the finish line . . .  and those photos can inadvertently be misleading.   Online…

If you want a fresh, white kitchen, selecting the right white kitchen paint color for your cabinets can be massively frustrating! So much so, in fact, that many of our clients opt for our complimentary color consulting services, to take the stress out of it.  After all, there are hundreds of whites out there, in…

What does kitchen cabinet painting cost?  We sat down with our San Antonio team to discuss our painting process and estimate some ballpark figures based on a small, medium, and large set of kitchen cabinets.     You can view our video, or just read on! Let’s start by covering some of the benefits of hiring…

Are interior colors getting warmer?   Is brown coming back?  And what does this mean for you?   I’m often asked if brown is “coming back”. This photo is my answer to that question. Yes, brown is being incorporated back into interiors, bringing some friendly warmth into a space.  But notice these walls:   they’re…

We’re so honored to have one of our wallpaper installations and cabinet painting projects featured in this Houzz article, that we just had to share it!  And we are tickled pink (orange?) by the playful and cheery design selections by the wonderful Crystal Romero of Bradshaw Designs! Read the full article, with details and before pictures,…

If you’re ready to start updating your Tuscan brown home, where do you begin?  What will have the most impact immediately?   Do you start with painting the walls?  (Not a bad plan!)  New rugs?  Furniture??  Moving out of the Dark Ages (the “Brown Phase”) actually starts with decluttering!  Because most homes designed during the…

After seeing light, fresh interiors everywhere in stores, on HGTV, and in your friends’ houses, you’re ready to freshen up your home, especially if it’s still in what we call the “Brown Phase” of the past few decades.  You’ll be moving out of the Dark Ages – literally!  But you’re unsure how to begin.  Cream or…

We’re often asked whether we recommend painting kitchen cabinets before or after the new countertops and backsplash are installed.  You might be worried about damaging the freshly-painted cabinets during new counter or tile installation.  But maybe you’re itching for an updated kitchen NOW  –  we’ve all been there!  –  and want to get the painting done, at…

Painting crown molding is usually straightforward – just paint it the same color as the rest of the trim or woodwork in the room (the baseboards, door casings, and window sills).  But if we’re painting kitchen cabinets in a new color, homeowners often ask us whether their crown molding should be painted to match.  Since crown…

Perhaps you’ve noticed lots of black painted trim – doors, windows, woodwork – in interior design magazines.  The problem is, not ALL the trim is black, which makes it hard to figure out the pattern.  Maybe all the baseboards and crown molding are white, but the windows themselves (the metal, wood, or vinyl parts –…

Clients often ask us about grasscloth, whether it wears well, and especially whether it’s possible to get a “seamless” look with it.   We love grasscloth!  Yes, it wears beautifully (this is not your 1970’s straw-looking stuff – today the fibers and weaves are tighter and lay flatter).  You’ll find many lovely versions that have…

Most of us know by now that the “Brown Phase” of interior design is (thankfully!) over.  It lasted a good long while… through all of the 90’s and into the mid-2000’s.   White and gray are tied for the “new neutral”, and bright colors are back in a big way.  No more bronzes, golds, and…

We wanted to show you one of our favorite examples of how white cabinets will transform a space!  This small kitchen, in a lovely hundred-year-old home in a historic neighborhood, was completely transformed when Paper Moon Painting refinished the cabinets in a lovely soft white.  The previous owner had “modernized” the kitchen in order to sell…

Okay, so you decided your kitchen needs a facelift, and “painting cabinets” is first on your list.  You thought your Uncle Gene said that he left you some “fracking land”, but it just sounded like that with his  south Texas accent.  He actually said “some freaking land”, because of course he doesn’t curse.  Now you wish…

Seemingly all at once, everyone’s cabinets are outdated. One day, everyone woke up, took a good look at their golden oak cabinets while brewing their morning coffee, and said to themselves, “Argh!!… they’re orange!”  Or  you realize that those “whitewashed” pickled oak cabinets are… pale pink.  Suddenly you find yourself staring at a massive design albatross…

Over the past few weeks, some of my clients have really struggled to pick a paint color.   These people were decisive professionals in their business lives, yet when sifting through hundreds of colors in dozens of paint charts, they froze.   So many colors are SO similar.  And color choice seems so “permanent”.  After all, you’re paying someone to put…

We’re back for Part 2 of the gripping story that had you all on the edge of your seats at the end of Part 1: “I tried removing this *f#&$@%!!^ paper, I’ve realized that removing wallpaper is no joyride but it still needs to come off, now what??” Okay, so you took a razor knife…

So I walk into one of my jobs the other day and what do I see but one of my painters making a massive rookie mistake:  trying to remove wallpaper that didn’t want to be removed.  Ugh!  There goes an extra day of prep and many hundreds of dollars right out the door.  We were preparing…

“Which paint sheen should I use?”  “Does it really matter?”  “Is there such thing as a sheen mistake?”  I hear these questions all the time. What is paint “sheen”, exactly? Loosely defined,  “sheen” is the amount of “shininess” of any surface.  Technically anything you can imagine has a sheen, from a rose petal or a…

Okay folks, in case you haven’t noticed:   the wallpaper trends have changed again.  I know you’ve been meaning to get rid if that old dated wallpaper, thinking that the stuff is completely “out”.  You’ve resigned yourself to having that room textured and painted like the rest of the house, and you still can, of course – we…