Tips for Cleaning Newly Painted Kitchen Cabinets

So you’ve had your kitchen cabinets painted recently, and now they look amazing. How can you keep them looking so good? It’s important to make sure you keep them clean.

When you are cleaning your kitchen cabinets, however, you’ll want to keep a few things in mind.

What are the Best Ways to Clean Wood Painted Cabinets?

The main thing to keep in mind is that abrasives that are harsh or using excessive amounts of water can do damage to your cabinets. You may want to try a gentle method of cleaning. 

For dust and light splatters, try a damp, soft cloth (typically microfiber) to gently wipe your cabinets. Use another dry towel or cloth to dry them off. 

For a medium amount or grease, make a cleaning solution with dish soap and water. Use this on a cloth to wipe away grease or grime buildup. Then use another dry towel or cloth to wipe the cabinets dry.

For the heaviest grease or stains, you can create a cleaning solution by mixing one cup of vinegar, one tablespoon of baking soda, and two cups of warm water. You can add a small amount of dish soap to this for some extra cleaning power. 

Some other tips for keeping your cabinets clean include:

  • Clean as you go when using the kitchen
  • Don’t hang wet towels over the cabinet doors
  • Clean up any spills right away
  • Regularly wipe the cabinets down

How Often Should You Clean Your Cabinets?

Ideally, you want to wipe down your cabinets once or twice a week. Keep up this practice, and make it regular. You’ll want to do a deep clean of the interior and the exterior of the cabinets once or twice a year. 

What Do You Want to Avoid When it Comes to Cleaning Your Cabinets? 

There are a number of things you should avoid. These include: 

  • Leaving wet cabinets to air dry
  • Soaking the cabinets
  • Soaking the hinges of the cabinets or getting water on the inside of the cabinets
  • Using cleaners that contain ammonia, bleach, or other harsh chemicals
  • Using an abrasive scrubber or sponge

If you go through the trouble and expense of having your cabinets professionally painted, you want to keep them looking as good as possible for as long as possible. Fortunately, if you follow the above advice, you will be well on your way to having gorgeous kitchen cabinets for many years to come.

What Are the Best Paint Colors for Guest Rooms?

If you are having guests visit your home, it’s important for them to feel welcomed and comfortable, especially if they have traveled a long distance to be with you. You want to have a guest room where your guests can relax and feel at ease. You want your guests to be able to have a good night’s rest. The colors of the guest room will have a big impact on how your guests feel during their stay.

Calming Colors

The most calming color is blue. Different shades of blue have been proven to help people to sleep better as they have a calming and relaxing effect on the body. You may want to look into softer, more relaxing shades like gentle powder blue, dreamy ocean blue, soft sky blue, or even a soft lavender. 

Another color that can have a calming effect is green. This is why people feel so relaxed in nature. Many  people choose to go with the lighter shades, like a light grassy color or sage, but deeper tones can also work really well in a guest bedroom.

Pastel colors like yellows and pinks can be great if you want to liven things up. You can keep the comfortable, cozy feeling while giving the room a little more warmth.

Multipurpose Rooms

Many people have had to use guest rooms for home office in recent years. There may be other reasons to have multiple purposes to a room. It can also be good to use calming and soothing colors to give you a comfortable place to work. 

Neutral colors can be great as well for shared spaces or multipurpose rooms. Using a beige or a white can give you a great backdrop, and you can look for more vibrant colors in any decorations, artwork, or even furniture for the room. 

If you want to go for a neutral color but you’d rather stay away from white, there are a lot of great shades of gray. Many people use a blend of beige and gray. It can also be great to go with a “barely there” pink or yellow: a blend of beige and the smallest amount of pink or yellow. 

Finding Interior Painters 

No matter what color scheme you ultimately decide on for a guest room—whether it has one purpose or many—it’s important for you to be able to find painters you can rely on. Use our site to find the best painters in your area.

Does Weather Influence Exterior Painting?

Picture this. You finally decide to paint the exterior of your home. But the cold weather is preventing the paint from drying properly, the wind is blowing dirt into the paint, and then it rains, and the humidity causes the paint to not dry properly. 

The weather can very easily ruin an exterior painting project. This can happen before, during, and after painting. The best way to prevent the weather from ruining your project is to be prepared for all of the conditions that could occur. 

Temperature

If it’s particularly hot, the paint can extend. If it’s especially cold, the paint can contract. This can lead to cracks in the paint. The wood or other material underneath the paint can also contract or expand, and this can result in paint that peels. A lot of direct sunlight that comes with warmer temperatures can also cause the paint to fade more quickly.

Humidity

It’s not often you see someone painting the exterior of the house in the rain. That is because the humidity can greatly affect the painting project. It’s best to paint on a sunny, dry day so that the paint will dry properly. If it’s extremely humid or raining, the paint will deteriorate faster and take longer to dry.

Wind

Excessive wind can not only blow dirt into the paint, but it can cause paint to dry too quickly. The paint needs to form a film when it dries, and that may not happen with excessive wind. Over time, the wind can cause damage to your paint job, making it wear down and making a re-coat necessary. 

While it’s true that waiting for absolutely perfect weather may prevent you from ever having the house painted, it’s best to work with professional painters who are experienced and know when the conditions are good for painting. 

Reliable professionals will be able to look at the weather forecast and decide if there is too much humidity that day, if it’s too windy outside, or if the temperatures are too extreme. They have done this many times before so they have a comprehensive understanding of the best weather conditions for painting. 

So how can you go about finding the best painting professionals in your area? Fortunately, you have come to the right place. MyHousePainter can help you to find the most dependable painters for an exterior painting job near you.

Using Paint to Boost the Value of Your Home

The real estate market always ramps up during the spring and the summer. If you are thinking about selling your home, you may need to do a few things to increase your home’s value. Sometimes plumbing repairs need to be done, there may need to be upgrades to the HVAC system, and you may even want to have some landscaping work done. Another way to increase your home’s value, though, is to have your home painted. 

You may need exterior painting or interior painting. It would be a good idea to have a real estate agent assess your home and provide recommendations. There may be different recommendations based on your home’s specific circumstances: the layout of your home or the color and look of neighboring houses. Here are some general tips to keep in mind that work for most homes.

  1. Vibrant, flashy colors in bathrooms, kitchens, and living rooms don’t appeal to the majority of buyers. Buyers who see flashy greens, blues, reds, etc. may see these colors as projects: rooms that need to be repainted. This may cause the price you are able to get from the house to decrease. 
  1. Keep walls neutral, especially in living areas. Gray, soft blue, and beige are all excellent colors that will allow buyers to imagine their vision for the house. White kitchens, dark blue bedrooms, and light blue bathrooms are particularly popular.
  2. Choose colors for rooms that complement the space. Certain colors or finishes are excellent for hiding imperfections, and they can help to make your home look new. Make sure you have ceilings painted a bright white so the rooms will look larger.
  3. Find the best color for your home’s exterior. This may require some thought and consideration. Professional painters will be able to suggest colors that would look great on your home. You also want to think about how your home will look next to your neighbor’s houses.

When it comes to increasing the value of your home, one of the best and easiest things you can do is to have your house painted on the inside and the outside. The most important thing is that you find painters you can rely on and trust to do a great job so your home will be looking its best for potential buyers. Use our website to find the best painting professionals near you.

5 Tips for Choosing the Best Exterior Paint Colors for Your Home

Whether you’re in a new home or you want to liven up the look of your home and boost the curb appeal, making the decision to have the exterior of your home painted can be overwhelming. The first thing you need to do is choose a color palette that will work for your home. 

Making a commitment to a final color can feel like a big step. Not to worry! You can incorporate a number of colors that complement each other to create a stunning look. 

Here are 5 tips to help you narrow down the choices:

  1. Look at your neighbors – You may want to choose colors that complement neighboring homes or homes in your subdivision. Looking at nearby homes can give you some ideas about which colors will look the best on your house.
  2. Consider contrasting colors – If you select a paint scheme that gives variation in tone, it will highlight the architectural features of your house.
  3. Think about the existing materials – You want to choose paint colors that will complement the natural shades and textures of your home, particularly if you have a stone or brick façade.
  4. Test out colors you are considering – You may want to paint boards with any colors you are thinking about and hold them up to different parts of the exterior throughout the day to give you a better idea of how it’s going to look.
  5. Don’t forget about the interior colors – You’ll want to think about how your exterior colors and interior colors will complement each other. 

You may want to take a look at homes by searching websites like Pinterest for images that will give you inspiration and ideas. Close your eyes and visualize your home. What color do you picture? Do you find that you are drawn to neutral colors, warm or cool shades, or even bold pops of color? 

Once you have chosen a color palette, it will be easier to figure out which one of the paint colors will be the best fit for you and your home.