For decades, people have spent (devoted) part of their annual vacations from the office taking care of home maintenance, repairs, general yardwork, and painting. As summer vacation is upon us, and the kids are out of school (whether they are our kids or not), it’s time to partake in that annual ritual of painting among other chores and activities – the inside, outside, or both. We may take a short trip to the beach or the mountains, or squeeze in a few other activities, but painting is at the top of the list for our stay-at-home vacation (“staycation”).
Fortunately, the exterior doesn’t need to be done or addressed every year, but maybe the trim didn’t get done as well as it should in a previous year’s session. Maybe we changed our mind about the color of the trim because we found something we like better, or another house nearby used the same or a similar color and we want ours to be a little different. Possibly we have made some recent repairs to the fascia, soffit, siding, or window trim, and that needs to be painted.
We may have changed our front (entry) door, and it needs to be painted from the base primer to a color we prefer. The same might be true for a storm or screen door.
If it has been a particularly harsh winter or spring, the trim may need to be touched up or painted anew to seal and weatherproof areas that have suffered from earlier rains, sleet, snow, or ice.
The addition or expansion of a porch or deck means that paint is in order here. Maybe the weather wasn’t cooperating when the original work was done – rainy, cold, or windy, for example.
Anything else added to the property – a porch or yard swing, pergola, garage, or planting or tool shed – needs to be painted.
Indoors there can be many areas in need of paint also. While indoor painting can occur throughout the year, it might as well get some attention now since we are in the painting mood outside anyway.
Paint has a magical quality of being able to change our mood to a more positive or happy one, ward off negativity and depression, renew or enliven areas of the home that were looking a little dated or tired, give the home a clean and put-together look, and just make us feel better about living in our home. This is by design. It’s no accident.
Whether the paint is brushed on, rolled, padded, or sprayed, it’s not the technique that is important but the end results. Take any room or area of the home, or anyplace on the home exterior (even all of it), and once it’s painted it takes on a new look. Not unlike getting a haircut or new hairstyle or finding an outfit that we feel really good about wearing, paint does this for our homes. It updates and sets it apart. It makes us notice.
Sometimes, the paint is just a new application to brighten and refresh an area – it was white before and it’s going to be white again. of course, paint manufacturers are constantly changing the names and tints of the paints they make, so whatever color we use now will likely be a little different from a paint we used a few years ago.
Another option is adding a dramatic change with paint by changing the previous color to something much more dramatic and bold – not loud or overdone, but just something noticeable.
Painting is something that so many of us do because it has so many possibilities for improving the look of our homes and our general outlook about our living environment.