1.888.COLOR.08 • 530.753.5074
2860 W.Covell Blvd. Suite 5, Davis, CA 95616
Serving the counties of Yolo, Sacramento, Solano and more!
Celebrate Davis is this week!
Thursday, May 17th, from 4:30-9:30 is the annual ”Celebrate Davis” event at Community Park. Come check out local businesses, entertainment and food. Brooks Painting will be there and we will have a special coupon available at our booth:
$500 Off any Complete Interior or Exterior Paint Job!
This coupon is only available at the event at our booth, so make sure if you’re in Davis that you stop by, say hi and collect your coupon!
Your house is your canvas, but it is not blank. When painting the exterior of your home there are elements to take into consideration when selecting color. What color is your roof? Is it terra cotta tile or perhaps gray slate? It makes a difference. How about a brick or stone façade? If you look closely, you can see subtle color differences in the stone that can be used for inspiration. You could paint the fascia in one of those colors taken from the stone. Sometimes brick will be distressed with flecks of white and black. A couple of the best colors that will complement brick is green or even the right shade of gray. Reds compete with the brick, so I stay away from those. If the front door is within view of the brick, then painting it a beautiful gloss black is a great choice.
What about painting the interior of your home? Inspiration for the right color can come from several places. You could use a favorite piece of art, a chair or even a pillow. Consider one of the colors that you wear that gets you the most compliments. Most likely it’s one of your favorite colors, so you will be happy seeing it on your walls every day. When selecting a paint color for your interior, you really must consider the flooring, the countertops in the kitchen, and the stain on the cabinetry. And don’t forget your furnishings. There are many more elements to be considered when selecting a paint color for the interior of your home, so hiring a professional painting contractor that has a color consultant on staff is essential.
Your house may be your canvas, so don’t forget to draw from the surrounding elements for color inspiration and selection.
Paint has the special quality of being able to make almost any surface more beautiful or captivating. However, if paint isn’t applied correctly, it can defeat the purpose of adding beauty and refinement. Choosing the right brush is key for a good quality paint job.
There are a few questions you need to consider before choosing a brush:
1. What type of paint are you applying?
2. What type of surface are you painting?
Are you painting a small surface? Trim? Corners? Flat surfaces? Textured surfaces?
Here are a couple more things to keep in mind when choosing a brush:
Remember, you get what you pay for. This stands true for almost anything in the painting industry (paint, contractors, brushes, supplies, etc). When you buy a good quality brush and take good care of it, it will serve you well and be worth the investment.
Some people call them foreman, we call them crew leader here at Brooks Painting. We currently have four of them. These are the team members who are responsible for running each job. They are the face of the company that people see on their jobs. They are driving Brooks Painting vans all around town.
Training at this position is critical to the success of each paint job. They have been trained on an extensive list of items that help make them better at running jobs smoothly. From telephone etiquette, job sequencing, labeling paint cans at the end of jobs to final walk through with customers, they have learned it here at Brooks Painting. There are four items that I want to highlight for you that I think we do better than anyone. Before the job starts, your crew leader comes out for a Pre Job Walk. This lets them meet you and review the job before they show up to do the work. They have a list of things they go over, ranging from paint colors and job scope, to bathroom use and clean up. This extra step ensures jobs run smoothly. Second is daily check-ins. It may be a phone call, email, or a note on the counter, our guys check in every day so that you are kept in the loop of what is happening on your job. Third is additional work orders. Instead of having to schedule another appointment with an estimator, all of our crew leaders have been trained how to do estimates the Brooks way. They can write work orders for any changes that may occur. Last is our final job walk. The crew leaders receive closing packets from the office for each job. These include invoices, surveys, sign off sheets, and referral cards. They walk the job with you and make sure they have done everything the estimator told you they would do. They take care of any touch up that is needed, and label all the paint cans. They also have you fill out a survey, a sign off sheet that confirms we are done with the job, and collect the final payment. Each of our crew leaders really is a manager of the job, they take care of it all.
We are blessed to have longevity at our crew leader positions. Flint has been with us since 2005. Manuel has been with us since 2003. Gerry has been with us since 2004. And last but not least, Bud has been with us since 2002. That is a combined 34 years with Brooks Painting, and an average of 8.5 years. This translates into well run jobs for our customers.
As a color consultant, having knowledge about which colors will compliment your home is an important part of my job. So what do I do when a customer is selecting a color that I “know” won’t look good on the exterior of their home? This happened recently and it gave me pause.
My personal preference is to put subdued color on exteriors, but I often gravitate to rich color. I’m not a fan of pastels, so I stay away from them, but also for the reason that I don’t believe they look very good on exteriors. So I had a customer that chose a pastel color for their exterior, and not a color that I thought would look the best on their home. The problem is that when I tried to direct them to other colors, they kept going back to that same light green. So I had to take a step back, and let them make their choices. They were passionate about the color, so who am I to say no? I know that when the color is up, and the job is finished, they will still be happy and as excited as when they selected the color. And part of my job is ensuring my customer is happy with the end product.
My color selections have been stretched in recent months. People want to express themselves with color, not only on the inside of their homes, but the exteriors as well. The bottom line is that it’s important as a color consultant that the colors complement each other. Most importantly, I want my customer to be happy and enthusiastic about color selection. If we can achieve both, then I’ve done my job.