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Benjamin Moore Webster Green: How It Looks in Every Room · Repcolite Home Improvement Show

0:02
Speaker 1: Hey everybody, thanks for tuning in. You're listening to Home
0:04
Speaker 1: in Progress by Repco Light Paints, sponsored by Benjamin Moore.
0:08
Speaker 1: And today, like always, we got a ton of stuff
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Speaker 1: we're going to cover. Coming up at the end, we're
0:13
Speaker 1: going to circle back to English kitchen designer Johnny Gray.
0:17
Speaker 1: We talked about him last week quite a bit, and
0:20
Speaker 1: we focused on his philosophy about what he feels is
0:23
Speaker 1: necessary in good kitchen design. Now this week, I want
0:26
Speaker 1: to demonstrate, you know, I want to make it practical.
0:29
Speaker 1: I want to demonstrate that you don't need a certain
0:31
Speaker 1: style of kitchen or a full-blown kitchen renovation in order
0:36
Speaker 1: to put some of these things to work in your
0:38
Speaker 1: own home. And that's important to me because as I
0:41
Speaker 1: learn about new things like this and new philosophies of design,
0:45
Speaker 1: it can be a little bit depressing. Depressing's strong. I
0:49
Speaker 1: shouldn't say depressing. It's kind of a bummer because I've
0:52
Speaker 1: got the house that I've got and sometimes it feels
0:54
Speaker 1: like those things just don't fit in my home. And
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Speaker 1: a lot of that was true with the Johnny Gray
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Speaker 1: stuff involving kitchens. And so I wanted to dig into
1:03
Speaker 1: how that still can apply to a home like mine
1:06
Speaker 1: or to a kitchen like mine, which is probably very
1:09
Speaker 1: similar to a lot of your kitchens. So we're going
1:12
Speaker 1: to get to that. That's coming up at the end.
1:14
Speaker 1: We're also going to talk about some money that I spent.
1:18
Speaker 1: Just a boatload of money kind of broke my heart.
1:21
Speaker 1: My furnace wasn't working or quit working. It's a new furnace.
1:25
Speaker 1: It's two years old. Every time I turn it on,
1:27
Speaker 1: I think, wow, I don't have to worry about furnace problems.
1:30
Speaker 1: I've got a new furnace. And then it wasn't working.
1:33
Speaker 1: So I am worrying about furnace problems. Anyway, I dropped
1:36
Speaker 1: a boatload of money getting it fixed. And I learned
1:39
Speaker 1: when the guy left with my check in his hands,
1:43
Speaker 1: I learned that it was something I could have done
1:45
Speaker 1: for free. I'm going to let you know about it
1:48
Speaker 1: so that if you run into the same issue this fall,
1:51
Speaker 1: and it's kind of a common thing, you could run
1:52
Speaker 1: into it. at least you're going to have a couple
1:55
Speaker 1: ideas about how to handle it. Maybe you can save
1:57
Speaker 1: yourself some cash. So that's all coming up. Right now, though,
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Speaker 1: I want to talk about Benjamin Moore's Color of the Year,
2:04
Speaker 1: their new Color of the Year. They released their pick
2:06
Speaker 1: a couple weeks ago, and I like it. It's good.
2:09
Speaker 1: It's a good pick. And that sounds like I don't
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Speaker 1: like it and that I'm downplaying it. It's a good one.
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Speaker 1: Thumbs up. Big thumbs up from me. I like it.
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Speaker 1: It's called Webster Green, and if you haven't seen it,
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Speaker 1: it's a relatively dark bluish green. You can look it up.
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Speaker 1: It's radio. I can only do so much, and I'm
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Speaker 1: not going to spend time describing color on the radio.
2:30
Speaker 1: Webster Green, look it up. But before I get into
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Speaker 1: the color itself and all the different ways to use it,
2:37
Speaker 1: before I do all of that, I want to start
2:38
Speaker 1: by talking about my kid's living room. He's getting married soon,
2:43
Speaker 1: bought a house, and he's been working on it. You know,
2:46
Speaker 1: he and his fiance, they've been working on it. Anyway,
2:48
Speaker 1: when they bought the house, there was a lot going
2:51
Speaker 1: on in some of the rooms. You know, we walked
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Speaker 1: through We're looking at the color, the choices, everything going on.
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Speaker 1: There's a lot going on in a few of those rooms.
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Speaker 1: They had a Pepto-Bismol pink in the dining room, for example.
3:02
Speaker 1: There's a lot going on. But in the living room,
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Speaker 1: the room I want to talk about, everything was calm.
3:08
Speaker 1: Everything was serene. It was just a nice gray, right?
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Speaker 1: And everything, all the furniture that they put in there,
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Speaker 1: everything that they filled that space with, it just looked good, right?
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Speaker 1: It looked really nice. Well, flash forward a little bit.
3:22
Speaker 1: They've cleaned up the house. They've got, you know, some
3:25
Speaker 1: of the main jobs that needed to be done, the
3:27
Speaker 1: main fix ups and stuff like that. That's all taken
3:30
Speaker 1: care of. And now it's time to start thinking about
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Speaker 1: painting the house. And when I heard their plan for
3:35
Speaker 1: the living room, which was a dark blue green, that's
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Speaker 1: what they were going to put in there, similar to
3:40
Speaker 1: the color of the year. That's what they wanted. When
3:43
Speaker 1: I heard that, I tried gently, you know, as a
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Speaker 1: parent is want to do to talk them out of it.
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Speaker 1: You know, it's going to make that room way too dark. Now,
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Speaker 1: the fiance, my son's fiance, picked this out, my future daughter-in-law.
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Speaker 1: And so I didn't want to say anything, you know.
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Speaker 1: You know, I'm the radio guy, but I still got
4:03
Speaker 1: to be humble, got to be humble. So I didn't
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Speaker 1: want to say anything. It's their color. But still, I
4:08
Speaker 1: wanted to gently let them know or drop some hints
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Speaker 1: that maybe this was a bit much. You know, it's
4:13
Speaker 1: a lot of color. It's going to probably make the
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Speaker 1: room feel really dark. You know, on top of all
4:17
Speaker 1: of those things, It's a lot of extra work. You know,
4:21
Speaker 1: it's a lot of extra money to get to get
4:23
Speaker 1: the paint for that and all of that. And it
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Speaker 1: looks good already. It's nice right now. Why do it? Blah, blah, blah. Anyway,
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Speaker 1: they wanted that dark green. And despite all my wise
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Speaker 1: penny pinching advice, they painted it anyway. Then I saw it,
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Speaker 1: you know, later I walked in to see everything, saw
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Speaker 1: the room and it was really ridiculous. It looks so
4:44
Speaker 1: crazy good. It's not even funny. I mean, it's over
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Speaker 1: the top good. It's like, it's an old house. It's
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Speaker 1: not a fancy house, but it's like a photo shoot,
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Speaker 1: a magazine spread living room. It's that cool. I'm jealous.
5:00
Speaker 1: I'm annoyed. You know, my living room stinks compared to theirs.
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Speaker 1: And I'm the radio guy. I should know better. I
5:07
Speaker 1: work with this stuff. Anyway, they painted the walls that
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Speaker 1: deep blue green. They painted the trim and the crown
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Speaker 1: and off white. And all of a sudden it was just, Amazing.
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Speaker 1: The crown molding and the trim and the woodwork, things
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Speaker 1: that I never really noticed when I looked at it
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Speaker 1: when it had just gray on the walls. I never
5:25
Speaker 1: noticed that stuff. Now, all of a sudden, it's jumping out.
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Speaker 1: You know, it looks great. It looks amazing. The art
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Speaker 1: that they hung up on the walls. was so vivid
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Speaker 1: and so beautiful. It's jumping out at you. You know,
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Speaker 1: not in a weird way. I mean, it's just, your
5:40
Speaker 1: eyes are drawn to it. It was amazing. The furniture,
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Speaker 1: the same stinking furniture that looked good, looked nice, looked comfortable,
5:48
Speaker 1: you know, before with the gray walls. Now, it looks
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Speaker 1: super fancy. It looked way better. It looked more inviting.
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Speaker 1: You know, I don't know. It didn't just blend into
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Speaker 1: the walls like it did before. And it doesn't matter.
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Speaker 1: This is interesting too. It doesn't matter in that room
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Speaker 1: if it's 10 in the morning or 10 at night.
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Speaker 1: The room just works. It works. It's inviting. It's welcoming.
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Speaker 1: And it still has a lot of style to it,
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Speaker 1: a lot of polish. It's sophisticated is what designers would say.
6:18
Speaker 1: It's just a fancy way of saying that nothing in
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Speaker 1: the room is shouting. It's calm and it's confident. It's
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Speaker 1: just a great space. It made me want to go
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Speaker 1: home and repaint my own living room, which I just
6:30
Speaker 1: repainted like two years ago. And that feels like just repainted.
6:35
Speaker 1: You know, I got to get 10 years out of
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Speaker 1: this stuff, you know, out of this color. And now
6:40
Speaker 1: here I am feeling inclined to repaint already. It's not good.
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Speaker 1: Frustrated that color turned out. So I'm happy for them.
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Speaker 1: But man, man, it makes me want to do more. Anyway,
6:51
Speaker 1: my point, if you're sitting in a gray living room
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Speaker 1: right now and you're feeling like it's fine, you know,
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Speaker 1: it's fine. It's fine. I like it. if you haven't
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Speaker 1: really looked at it in years, maybe it's time to
7:01
Speaker 1: think about a change. You know, a new color on
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Speaker 1: the wall can take a room that was fine and
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Speaker 1: actually make you feel something about it. You know, my kid,
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Speaker 1: he's not a flowery, he lifts weights all the time.
7:13
Speaker 1: He's fishing all the time. He's not a flowery, let's
7:16
Speaker 1: talk about color kind of guy. And yet he talks
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Speaker 1: about that living room is so welcoming, so inviting to him.
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Speaker 1: He loves that color. It makes him feel so great
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Speaker 1: just being in that space. If you're in just a
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Speaker 1: nice gray or beige room and you've been in that
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Speaker 1: nice gray or beige room for a while and there's
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Speaker 1: no reason to change it because it's nice, maybe it's
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Speaker 1: time to rethink that a little bit. Think about some
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Speaker 1: other colors. Think about something you could do. And that
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Speaker 1: brings me to Benjamin Moore's Color of the Year for 2027. Now,
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Speaker 1: I'm going to admit right away, everybody and their brother
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Speaker 1: has a color of the year right now. It's kind
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Speaker 1: of overkill. Paint companies, stain companies, trend forecasters. I counted
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Speaker 1: at one point and I had like there's a dozen
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Speaker 1: of them out there and they were already out well
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Speaker 1: before Benjamin Moore announced theirs. And after a while with
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Speaker 1: all of those things, you start to wonder, does any
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Speaker 1: of this color of the year stuff really matter? And
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Speaker 1: I'm sure that in certain circles it matters and it
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Speaker 1: probably matters a lot, you know, designers and stuff like that.
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Speaker 1: But to me, what really matters is what I've kind
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Speaker 1: of been talking about. It's not whether, you know, you
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Speaker 1: use this color of the year at all. It's really
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Speaker 1: if the color of the year, you know, what matters
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Speaker 1: is if the color of the year can make you
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Speaker 1: rethink what you're doing in your own home, make you
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Speaker 1: look at your own walls and think maybe there's something
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Speaker 1: different I could do. That's what I think is the
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Speaker 1: real job of a color of the year. It's supposed
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Speaker 1: to nudge us a little bit. It's a reason to
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Speaker 1: stop walking past the same room every single day without
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Speaker 1: really thinking about it. And when I see that living
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Speaker 1: room that my kid was living in and had and
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Speaker 1: the living room that he's got now, It's a shame.
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Speaker 1: I mean, your house is not getting what it could.
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Speaker 1: You're not getting what you could out of your house
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Speaker 1: if you don't explore some of these things. I'm so
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Speaker 1: glad they didn't listen to my bonehead advice and leave
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Speaker 1: that room gray. Such a dramatic change just with color. Anyway,
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Speaker 1: color of the year. Its job is to get you
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Speaker 1: thinking about color and what it could do in your home.
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Speaker 1: And if it does that, then the color of the
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Speaker 1: year is worthwhile. It's done its job. Whatever color you
9:23
Speaker 1: end up picking. All right. Let's talk about Benjamin Moore's
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Speaker 1: pick this year. It's called Webster Green, and it's number HC-130.
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Speaker 1: It comes out of their historical collection, and it's a
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Speaker 1: collection that turned 50 this year. It came out in
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Speaker 1: 1976 for the Bicentennial. So Benjamin Moore went way back
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Speaker 1: to the archives to pull out a green that's already
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Speaker 1: proven it can last. It's timeless, this color. It's been
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Speaker 1: on a lot of walls already, and it's held up.
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Speaker 1: In their color story behind the pick, they talk about
9:50
Speaker 1: how they actually dug through their old color cards and
9:53
Speaker 1: brochures And they found that pretty much every era had
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Speaker 1: its own green, you know, a deep forest green in
9:59
Speaker 1: the arts and crafts. period, emerald green in the twenties
10:02
Speaker 1: and the thirties, mint in the fifties, moss in the sixties, avocado,
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Speaker 1: you know, avocado green, love that. That was the seventies.
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Speaker 1: And so Webster green, it's what we've got now. At
10:14
Speaker 1: least that's what Benjamin Moore is saying. All right, what
10:17
Speaker 1: does it look like? I've kind of already hinted at
10:19
Speaker 1: it a little bit. If you don't have a fan
10:21
Speaker 1: deck in front of you, though, I'm going to get
10:23
Speaker 1: all artsy and poetic. Webster Green. All you need to
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Speaker 1: do is picture the soft, greenish-blue needles of a white
10:30
Speaker 1: pine tree in the shade. Okay? Soft, greenish-blue needles of
10:35
Speaker 1: a white pine tree in the shade. And the shade
10:37
Speaker 1: part's important. Picture that. Or, if you will, try this one.
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Speaker 1: A boxwood hedge on a cloudy day. Okay, that's basically
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Speaker 1: the overall idea of the color. It's not an emerald green.
10:51
Speaker 1: It's not a bright crayon green. It's not olive green.
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Speaker 1: Benjamin Moore calls it a midtone. And on a sunny day,
10:57
Speaker 1: that's fair. But inside, in a lot of rooms, I
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Speaker 1: think it's going to read deeper than midtone suggests. And
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Speaker 1: that matters because how this color looks is going to
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Speaker 1: depend really a ton on the light in your room.
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Speaker 1: So let me give you three quick rules for Webster green.
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Speaker 1: And then I want to talk about how it can
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Speaker 1: work in the different exposures that you may have, you know,
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Speaker 1: for different rooms in your home. Those quick rules, though,
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Speaker 1: let's get those first. When working with Webster Green, first rule,
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Speaker 1: dim light is going to make it look darker. Second rule,
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Speaker 1: cool light is going to make it bluer. Third rule,
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Speaker 1: warm light is going to make it look greener. So
11:34
Speaker 1: keep all of that in mind. Dim light is going
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Speaker 1: to make it darker. Cool light is going to make
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Speaker 1: it look bluer. Warm light is going to make it
11:40
Speaker 1: look greener. That's pretty much it. If you remember those three,
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Speaker 1: you can predict a lot about what this color is
11:45
Speaker 1: going to do in your house. And that's what I
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Speaker 1: want to do next. Walk through the home and talk
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Speaker 1: about how it will work. And perhaps offer some alternate
11:53
Speaker 1: colors if you want the feel of Webster Green, but
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Speaker 1: know that it won't be perfect in your space. We're
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Speaker 1: going to get to all of that soon. But in
12:00
Speaker 1: the meantime, in the meantime, go online if you can,
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Speaker 1: if you're not driving, and search for Webster Green from
12:06
Speaker 1: Benjamin Moore. That's going to help you visualize it a
12:08
Speaker 1: little better. when we start trying it out in different
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Speaker 1: rooms in the home, which I'm going to do right
12:12
Speaker 1: after this. Home in Progress is brought to you by
12:15
Speaker 1: Repco Light Paints and Benjamin Moore. You know, people often
12:18
Speaker 1: think of paint as just another line item on the
12:21
Speaker 1: project supply list, but here's the thing. Everything you do,
12:24
Speaker 1: every hour of prep, every stroke of the brush, all
12:27
Speaker 1: comes down to the quality of the paint. The paint
12:29
Speaker 1: is the project. Make sure it's the best. And we're back.
12:33
Speaker 1: You're listening to Home in Progress by Repco Light Paints,
12:35
Speaker 1: sponsored by Benjamin Moore. And last segment, I started talking
12:39
Speaker 1: about Benjamin Moore's new color of the year, Webster Green.
12:42
Speaker 1: It's a mid-tone or somewhat deep, soft greenish blue. It's
12:47
Speaker 1: a color from their historical collection, so it feels, you know,
12:50
Speaker 1: kind of tried and true. In a way, it feels
12:53
Speaker 1: kind of safe while still being darker than most people
12:56
Speaker 1: choose to go with their colors. So it's kind of
12:58
Speaker 1: like pushing the boundaries with color, but having a bit
13:01
Speaker 1: of a guardrail. It's a really good color pick for
13:04
Speaker 1: a color of the year. There's a lot you can
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Speaker 1: do with it. Now, to help you get a feel
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Speaker 1: for all of that, I want to walk through a
13:10
Speaker 1: number of different common exposures, you know, for rooms and
13:14
Speaker 1: what happens with a color like Webster Green in those spaces.
13:17
Speaker 1: From there, you can decide, you know, if it's the
13:20
Speaker 1: right approach for your space or if you need to
13:22
Speaker 1: go in a slightly different direction. And even if you
13:25
Speaker 1: don't go with a green at all, you know, if
13:29
Speaker 1: that's what you're thinking that, oh, I don't want green,
13:31
Speaker 1: so this is not going to be helpful. If you listen,
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Speaker 1: you're still going to get an idea about how different
13:36
Speaker 1: exposures affect color in a space. So it's still valuable.
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Speaker 1: All right, let's start with a north-facing room. Now, north
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Speaker 1: light is indirect. It's cool, it's a little bit blue,
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Speaker 1: and it's steady. Benjamin Moore describes it as a consistent
13:50
Speaker 1: light throughout the day. Now, the good news is that
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Speaker 1: Webster Green is going to look about the same at
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Speaker 1: 9 in the morning as it does in 3 in
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Speaker 1: the afternoon in a north-facing room. It's going to be
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Speaker 1: very predictable. The bad news, if you want to call
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Speaker 1: it that, is it's going to look darker and it's
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Speaker 1: going to lean towards its cooler, bluer side in a
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Speaker 1: north-facing room. So if it's a den or a library
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Speaker 1: or a dining room that you mostly use at night,
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Speaker 1: Webster green can be perfect in there. If it's a
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Speaker 1: small north room with one window and you want it
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Speaker 1: to feel bright at noon, it might feel like a cave.
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Speaker 1: So in that case, look for a green with a
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Speaker 1: little more warmth in it. Cushing green, HC 125, that's
14:28
Speaker 1: a nice option. It's warmer. It's a touch grayer. Almost
14:32
Speaker 1: the same depth. If you want to go lighter, Saybrook Sage, HC114.
14:38
Speaker 1: We'll put a few more options in the show notes
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Speaker 1: so you don't have to write all this down or
14:42
Speaker 1: just listen to me list off numbers and names. But
14:46
Speaker 1: show notes, I've got more info. But that's north-facing rooms.
14:49
Speaker 1: All right, south-facing rooms. They're the easy ones. You know,
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Speaker 1: south light is strong. It's warm. It's kind of golden.
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Speaker 1: And that warmth plays really nicely against the slightly blue
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Speaker 1: side of Webster Green. You're going to get in daylight
15:02
Speaker 1: probably the brightest version that you're going to see of
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Speaker 1: this green. It's going to be in daylight in a
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Speaker 1: south-facing room, richer at night. As night moves in, the
15:12
Speaker 1: color is going to get a little richer, a little deeper.
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Speaker 1: If the idea of that is a little bit too
15:17
Speaker 1: lively for you, be aware you're going to get some
15:19
Speaker 1: lively color with this in a south-facing room at midday.
15:22
Speaker 1: If that's too much, A grayer green like Caldwell Green, HC-124,
15:26
Speaker 1: that would settle it down. But that's south-facing rooms. East-facing rooms,
15:31
Speaker 1: they're trickier because they change. You know, bright, warm light
15:35
Speaker 1: in the morning and then flat and cool light by
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Speaker 1: the afternoon. So the question in these rooms isn't really
15:40
Speaker 1: which way the room faces. It's when are you in there?
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Speaker 1: You know, a kitchen, a breakfast nook, a bedroom that
15:46
Speaker 1: you wake up in. Webster Green is going to look
15:48
Speaker 1: great when you're actually using the room. A family room
15:51
Speaker 1: that you mostly use after dinner. It's going to look
15:54
Speaker 1: cooler and it's going to feel a little bit flatter.
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Speaker 1: So in that space at that time of day, a
15:58
Speaker 1: warmer green would probably help you out. And so would
16:01
Speaker 1: the lights. We're going to get to that. You got
16:03
Speaker 1: to have the right light bulbs. We're going to get
16:04
Speaker 1: to that in a second here. Last one, west-facing rooms.
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Speaker 1: They're kind of the reverse of that. They're pretty flat
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Speaker 1: in the morning or can be. And then late in
16:12
Speaker 1: the day, you get that warm golden light coming in sideways.
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Speaker 1: And that's when this color is going to look its richest.
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Speaker 1: So a west-facing living room or a dining room that
16:21
Speaker 1: you use in the evening is Webster green's a perfect
16:24
Speaker 1: fit for that space. All right, two more things that
16:26
Speaker 1: I want to cover. And honestly, these might matter more
16:28
Speaker 1: than the exposure of the room. First off, I already
16:30
Speaker 1: mentioned it a little bit, light bulbs. Once the sun
16:34
Speaker 1: goes down, it doesn't really matter which way the room
16:36
Speaker 1: is facing because at that point, you're looking at all
16:39
Speaker 1: the walls. You're looking at that color under lamps. Warm bulbs,
16:43
Speaker 1: somewhere around 2,700 to 3,000 Kelvin. Those bulbs are going
16:47
Speaker 1: to pull this green warmer and cozier. So keep that
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Speaker 1: in mind. Cooler bulbs, 4,000 and up, they're going to
16:52
Speaker 1: push it towards the blue and they can make a
16:54
Speaker 1: dark room feel kind of stark. Not really the best
16:58
Speaker 1: feel for most people. So keep that in mind, the
17:01
Speaker 1: temperature of the bulbs that you're using in your space.
17:04
Speaker 1: Second thing, we live in West Michigan, right? The National
17:07
Speaker 1: Weather Service in Grand Rapids puts December at about 20%
17:11
Speaker 1: of possible sunshine. Think about that, 20%. So if you
17:14
Speaker 1: fall in love with the color on a sunny afternoon
17:16
Speaker 1: in July, just know it's going to spend a good
17:19
Speaker 1: part of the year where we live under a gray sky.
17:23
Speaker 1: So sample it, you know, sample it now, you know,
17:25
Speaker 1: get a big swatch up, not a little chip, put
17:28
Speaker 1: it on a couple of different walls and then look
17:30
Speaker 1: at it in the morning, in the afternoon and at
17:32
Speaker 1: night with the lamps on. You know, if you love
17:34
Speaker 1: it at this time of year, you're going to love
17:36
Speaker 1: it all year long. And if you sample it and
17:39
Speaker 1: it's not right for your room, of course, that's fine.
17:42
Speaker 1: Try one of the other swaps that we talked about
17:45
Speaker 1: or head to the show notes for more info on
17:47
Speaker 1: different swaps you could use or go completely, you know,
17:50
Speaker 1: in another direction. Like I said at the beginning, the
17:52
Speaker 1: color itself isn't really the point. The point is that
17:55
Speaker 1: you stopped letting something that was nice prevent you from
17:58
Speaker 1: getting to something that looks great. My kid's living room,
18:01
Speaker 1: textbook example of how much paint and the right color
18:05
Speaker 1: or just a new color maybe. how that can change
18:08
Speaker 1: how you feel about a room. It really is exciting.
18:10
Speaker 1: Maybe that's a little over the top, but it is
18:12
Speaker 1: exciting to me because too often I convince myself that
18:15
Speaker 1: it's about the furniture or the layout of the room
18:19
Speaker 1: or a lot of other things that are really expensive
18:21
Speaker 1: to change. You know, those things do help. I get that.
18:23
Speaker 1: They help a lot. But seeing Caleb's living room go
18:26
Speaker 1: from a nice gray to an incredible green and seeing
18:30
Speaker 1: the improvement in the space and feeling the improvement in
18:33
Speaker 1: the space and in how we feel about being in
18:36
Speaker 1: the space, It was really eye-opening. So color of the year,
18:40
Speaker 1: love it, hate it, doesn't matter. Just let it get
18:42
Speaker 1: you thinking and asking questions about your space. That's where
18:45
Speaker 1: it can be really impactful. Now, all the colors we
18:47
Speaker 1: talked about, plus a few more, the bulb stuff, all
18:50
Speaker 1: of that's going to be in the show notes if
18:51
Speaker 1: you want to check it out. All right. I dropped
18:54
Speaker 1: a chunk of change getting my furnace fixed this last week.
18:58
Speaker 1: And as we head into furnace season, I've got some
19:00
Speaker 1: info now that might save you from doing the same thing.
19:04
Speaker 1: We'll get to that right after this. Home in Progress
19:08
Speaker 1: is brought to you by Repco Light Paints and Benjamin Moore.
19:10
Speaker 1: Think about it. You spend hours prepping, sanding, taping, and
19:14
Speaker 1: then finally painting. Don't throw all that work away with
19:17
Speaker 1: an inferior product. The paint isn't just another supply. The
19:20
Speaker 1: paint is the project. Make sure it's the best. Well,
19:23
Speaker 1: the other night I noticed something about our furnace. You're
19:27
Speaker 1: listening to Home in Progress by Repco Light Paints, sponsored
19:29
Speaker 1: by Benjamin Moore. And yeah, I was going to bed.
19:32
Speaker 1: It was like 1130, something like that. And just as
19:36
Speaker 1: I laid down, put my little noggin on the pillow
19:39
Speaker 1: and started to drift off to wherever I was going.
19:42
Speaker 1: Right at that point, I noticed that the furnace kicked
19:45
Speaker 1: on and then off again right away. Then it kicked
19:48
Speaker 1: on a few seconds later. and then ran for a
19:50
Speaker 1: few more seconds and then it stopped again. Well, once
19:54
Speaker 1: I noticed something like that, I can't stop noticing it.
19:57
Speaker 1: And even though it was late, I went down to investigate.
20:01
Speaker 1: You know, I've got to strike while the iron's hot.
20:04
Speaker 1: In minutes, I'm in the basement. I've got the panel
20:06
Speaker 1: off the furnace and I'm standing there in my long
20:08
Speaker 1: underwear and I can see that the burners ignite and
20:12
Speaker 1: then they go off a few seconds later. You know,
20:14
Speaker 1: flames go out. Then the furnace tries again and again
20:17
Speaker 1: and again. Since we're getting into furnace season, I thought
20:21
Speaker 1: that I'd walk through what exactly happened, what I went through,
20:24
Speaker 1: what I paid to get it fixed. Do all of
20:28
Speaker 1: that because there are a few things worth checking at
20:30
Speaker 1: your home. And in my case, if I had heard
20:33
Speaker 1: this a week ago, I probably would have saved myself
20:36
Speaker 1: a You know, a good little chunk of change. You know,
20:38
Speaker 1: it would have been a good reminder about something that
20:41
Speaker 1: I hadn't thought to check that would have solved my problem.
20:45
Speaker 1: Something that could have handled so easily. Anyway, let's get
20:47
Speaker 1: into it. When a furnace repeatedly cuts its heating cycle
20:50
Speaker 1: short and starts over, that's generally called short cycling. You know,
20:54
Speaker 1: it's when the heating system turns on and off in
20:56
Speaker 1: rapid bursts without finishing a normal 10 to 15 minute
20:59
Speaker 1: heating cycle. Mine was barely getting past ignition. It wasn't
21:03
Speaker 1: running long enough to accomplish hardly anything in the house.
21:06
Speaker 1: But it's more, you know, a bigger concern than just
21:09
Speaker 1: worrying about the house being cold. Those repeated starts and stops,
21:12
Speaker 1: they can add wear to components. They can reduce efficiency.
21:16
Speaker 1: They can cause damage, you know, more and more damage
21:18
Speaker 1: down the road. And sometimes the furnace is stopping, you know,
21:22
Speaker 1: because a safety control is literally doing its job. It's
21:25
Speaker 1: not always that, you know, we always assume that it's
21:28
Speaker 1: just because something's faulty. It could be because one of
21:31
Speaker 1: these safety mechanisms is literally doing its job and saving
21:34
Speaker 1: us from you know, whatever harm might have happened. So
21:38
Speaker 1: you want to get to the bottom of what's going on.
21:40
Speaker 1: It's important to figure it out for any number of reasons. Anyway,
21:43
Speaker 1: I started researching and the first thing that came up
21:46
Speaker 1: was restricted airflow. Now ours, it's a gas furnace, but
21:49
Speaker 1: this goes for electric too. Every furnace needs air moving
21:53
Speaker 1: through it to carry the heat into the house. Now
21:55
Speaker 1: if that air gets restricted somehow, the furnace can overheat
21:59
Speaker 1: and a safety switch shuts the heat off. A dirty
22:01
Speaker 1: filter can do that. So can blocked returns or a
22:04
Speaker 1: blower problem. Now, the filter, in my instance, seemed like
22:08
Speaker 1: a really great place to start. I don't normally think
22:12
Speaker 1: about the filters. I put them in and that's about
22:16
Speaker 1: the last time I think of them until something goes
22:18
Speaker 1: wrong or until, you know, somebody says something and reminds me.
22:22
Speaker 1: And then I go down and I find this thing
22:24
Speaker 1: in the furnace, you know, just covered with all kinds
22:27
Speaker 1: of lint and fuzzies and just horrible, horrible things. It's
22:31
Speaker 1: like a science project. I don't know. No air is
22:35
Speaker 1: getting through that thing at all. That's normally what I've
22:37
Speaker 1: got going on with the furnace filter. So I was
22:41
Speaker 1: pretty pumped. I assumed that was probably my problem. I
22:44
Speaker 1: opened up that little compartment and no, mine was relatively new.
22:48
Speaker 1: Miracle of miracles. Not too long ago, I replaced it.
22:51
Speaker 1: You know, it wasn't clogged. And on top of it all,
22:54
Speaker 1: it was the right type recommended for the system. It
22:56
Speaker 1: had the right MERV rating, M-E-R-V rating. Everything about it
23:01
Speaker 1: was right. So it's not the filter. I've got to
23:03
Speaker 1: keep looking. Well, the next thing that cropped up as
23:06
Speaker 1: a possible cause was the flame sensor. You know, when
23:09
Speaker 1: the gas valve opens and the burners ignite, the furnace
23:12
Speaker 1: needs confirmation that there really is a flame there. You know,
23:15
Speaker 1: that's important because we don't want it continuing to release
23:18
Speaker 1: gas if ignition hasn't happened. That's not good. It's opposite
23:22
Speaker 1: of good. It's truly bad. A modern flame sensor uses
23:26
Speaker 1: a tiny electrical signal through the flame to provide that confirmation.
23:31
Speaker 1: You know, if the controls don't receive the signal that
23:33
Speaker 1: they need, that little electrical signal, they close the gas valve.
23:36
Speaker 1: It keeps everything safe. The flames go out. And depending
23:39
Speaker 1: on the furnace, it may try again and then just
23:42
Speaker 1: keep repeating that cycle. Now, the sensor could be faulty.
23:46
Speaker 1: You know, that's possible. But more likely... there's contamination on it.
23:50
Speaker 1: And if that's the case, that contamination can interfere with
23:52
Speaker 1: the signal, that little electrical signal, and it can just
23:55
Speaker 1: trick your system into thinking that there's no flames there.
23:58
Speaker 1: You know, we see the flames. We're thinking, I don't
24:00
Speaker 1: know what's going on. I see it. It's lit. But
24:02
Speaker 1: the furnace, the furnace isn't getting the confirmation it needs. Now,
24:06
Speaker 1: that sounded exactly like what I was seeing. And I
24:09
Speaker 1: dealt with that before, a dirty flame sensor, a couple
24:12
Speaker 1: of times at our previous house and cleaning it had
24:16
Speaker 1: always solved the problem. So I was pretty pumped. I
24:18
Speaker 1: shut the furnace down, removed the sensor, and inspected it.
24:22
Speaker 1: And lo and behold, the ceramic portion was intact. That
24:26
Speaker 1: looked fine. No obvious cracks. But the metal rod, it
24:29
Speaker 1: was dirty, really, really dirty. So I cleaned it. And
24:33
Speaker 1: I was so excited because I was so certain. I
24:35
Speaker 1: had diagnosed the problem, and I was repairing it. And
24:38
Speaker 1: in just a few minutes, I was going to have
24:40
Speaker 1: heat in the home again, and I was going to
24:42
Speaker 1: feel like a hero. So got it all cleaned. I
24:45
Speaker 1: did just with steel wool. You know, just you got
24:47
Speaker 1: to be careful. Don't use anything too coarse, but steel
24:50
Speaker 1: wool or, you know, a scotch brite pad, something like that,
24:54
Speaker 1: just to get all of the contamination off. I did that.
24:57
Speaker 1: Got it super great. Put it back in. Figured I'd
25:00
Speaker 1: solve the problem. Turn the furnace on. It started. The
25:03
Speaker 1: burners lit. And I was just just riding into glory.
25:07
Speaker 1: And then everything went off again. Same stupid problem. Just
25:11
Speaker 1: repeated itself again. So cleaning the flame sensor didn't fix it. Now,
25:15
Speaker 1: if you run into that, cleaning a flame sensor, that's
25:18
Speaker 1: something that, you know, with the right skills, pretty much
25:20
Speaker 1: anybody can choose to tackle that. You know, you've got
25:23
Speaker 1: to know what you're doing a little bit. But it's
25:25
Speaker 1: not like that's a heavy-duty project. You don't need heavy-duty
25:28
Speaker 1: tools to make that happen. Just if you do decide
25:31
Speaker 1: to do that, get instructions for your particular furnace. You know,
25:35
Speaker 1: follow the electrical and the gas shutoff precautions. Let components cool.
25:40
Speaker 1: Use the cleaning method the manufacturer specifies. all of that.
25:43
Speaker 1: I'm not giving you a how-to here. I'm just telling
25:46
Speaker 1: you that's what I did. It can be done. Dig
25:48
Speaker 1: into it to make sure you feel comfortable doing that.
25:51
Speaker 1: Not everybody is going to, and that's fine. But I did,
25:55
Speaker 1: and it still didn't work. So at that point, I
25:57
Speaker 1: was kind of out of options. I could have tried
25:59
Speaker 1: to test the flame sensor to see if that was
26:02
Speaker 1: maybe defective in some way, but I didn't have the
26:05
Speaker 1: equipment to do that. And so I knew I was stuck.
26:08
Speaker 1: I was going to have to just call somebody out there,
26:10
Speaker 1: and get them to come and take a look at
26:12
Speaker 1: what's going on and get things fixed. So I did that.
26:14
Speaker 1: We limped through the weekend with no heat. Monday, I
26:17
Speaker 1: get somebody out there. And in minutes, minutes, they have
26:20
Speaker 1: the problem diagnosed and fixed. Do you know what it was?
26:23
Speaker 1: Of course, you want to know what it was because
26:25
Speaker 1: you want to make sure this isn't happening to you.
26:27
Speaker 1: It was leaves and debris that were blocking the furnace's
26:31
Speaker 1: exhaust vent outside the house. That was the problem. So
26:34
Speaker 1: it was an airflow problem. I was right about that.
26:37
Speaker 1: I was just looking in the wrong place. You know,
26:39
Speaker 1: I've been checking everything inside the furnace and never thought
26:42
Speaker 1: to look outside. Remember airflow matters. Every furnace, gas or
26:46
Speaker 1: electric heats the air that it pulls from inside your house,
26:49
Speaker 1: but a gas furnace, it also needs air for its
26:51
Speaker 1: burners and a clear path for the exhaust clear path
26:55
Speaker 1: for the exhaust. If you block either one of those,
26:57
Speaker 1: the safety controls can shut the burners down, which is
27:00
Speaker 1: exactly what happened to us. Electric furnaces, they don't burn anything.
27:05
Speaker 1: So they skip this part. So, Something to do this week.
27:08
Speaker 1: If you have a gas furnace, go find where your
27:11
Speaker 1: furnace vents outside. On a lot of newer furnaces, that's
27:14
Speaker 1: one or two plastic pipes coming out the side of
27:16
Speaker 1: the house. Make sure they're clear. Right now, that's going
27:19
Speaker 1: to mean leaves. Once winter hits, it's going to mean snow.
27:22
Speaker 1: You know, drifts, the piles you make yourself when you
27:25
Speaker 1: shovel or snowblow. All of those can cause problems. A
27:28
Speaker 1: pipe that was clear before a storm, keep that in mind,
27:31
Speaker 1: might not be clear after. that's for loose stuff that
27:35
Speaker 1: you can reach. That's what I'm talking about here, things
27:37
Speaker 1: plugging the end of the pipe. If a pipe is damaged,
27:40
Speaker 1: blocked further in, or keeps icing up, you're going to
27:42
Speaker 1: have to call somebody. You're dropping some money, but you're
27:46
Speaker 1: going to be safe and have the house stay heated.
27:48
Speaker 1: So do all of that. Check those things. Be aware
27:51
Speaker 1: of that. Those outside vents need attention. Also, while you're
27:55
Speaker 1: at it, you might as well check your carbon monoxide
27:57
Speaker 1: alarms too. You want one on every level and outside
28:00
Speaker 1: the sleeping areas. And if one does go off, You
28:03
Speaker 1: want to get everybody outside and call 911 so you
28:06
Speaker 1: can make sure you're staying safe. All right, last thing.
28:09
Speaker 1: Think about a tune-up. Many heating companies offer them, and
28:12
Speaker 1: a small bill now, you know, that's not fun to pay,
28:15
Speaker 1: but it could save you a lot of stress in
28:17
Speaker 1: the middle of January. You know, we were in October,
28:20
Speaker 1: and it was a little chilly out. I mean, we're
28:22
Speaker 1: delicate people. But it was 66 in the home, and
28:25
Speaker 1: everybody was shivering. We didn't know if we were going
28:27
Speaker 1: to make it. You know, what's that group of the
28:31
Speaker 1: Donner Party? where they ate each other, you know, because
28:34
Speaker 1: they're trapped. We didn't get to that point. We didn't.
28:37
Speaker 1: You know, don't write letters. We didn't get to that point.
28:39
Speaker 1: We didn't even get close to that point. But I'm
28:42
Speaker 1: not saying we weren't thinking about what happens if, right?
28:46
Speaker 1: And that's just October. You don't want to be in
28:48
Speaker 1: that situation in January. Things get ugly. Things get real fast.
28:52
Speaker 1: So maybe a checkup. That might be something for your furnace,
28:57
Speaker 1: for your peace of mind. Think about that. All right.
28:59
Speaker 1: English kitchens. Last week we talked about why they're so cool,
29:03
Speaker 1: but how do you bring that into your home when
29:05
Speaker 1: your kitchen really is not so English? We're going to
29:09
Speaker 1: talk about that right after this. You're listening to Home
29:12
Speaker 1: in Progress, where the projects are real, the mistakes, they're educational,
29:16
Speaker 1: sometimes painful, mostly educational, and the only thing more stubborn
29:22
Speaker 1: than that old wallpaper on your bathroom wall is your
29:25
Speaker 1: determination to get it fixed. proudly sponsored by Repco Light
29:29
Speaker 1: Paints and Benjamin Moore. Paint with a purpose, people who care,
29:32
Speaker 1: and everything you need to get the job done right.
29:35
Speaker 1: We're back. You're listening to Home in Progress by Repco
29:37
Speaker 1: Light Paint, sponsored by Benjamin Moore. And last week, I
29:42
Speaker 1: talked about Johnny Gray, an English designer who spent his
29:45
Speaker 1: career arguing, arguing is probably the wrong word, pushing for
29:50
Speaker 1: kitchens to be built as much for the people in
29:53
Speaker 1: them as for the cooking that's done there. He was
29:57
Speaker 1: after furniture instead of wall-to-wall boxes and boxes of cabinets.
30:00
Speaker 1: He wanted room to talk, a kitchen that feels like
30:02
Speaker 1: somebody lives there, and so on. Anyway, last week I
30:06
Speaker 1: promised that we'd bring the ideas into our own homes
30:09
Speaker 1: because it's really easy to hear all of the stuff
30:11
Speaker 1: that we talked about last week. Or if we're looking
30:15
Speaker 1: at it in magazines, you know, we can see it
30:17
Speaker 1: in magazines or on, you know, who does magazines anymore?
30:20
Speaker 1: On Instagram or whatever, we see these amazing kitchens that
30:24
Speaker 1: use the ideas and the concepts that he was talking about.
30:28
Speaker 1: And when I see them, I can only speak for me.
30:30
Speaker 1: When I see them, I think, well, yeah, if I
30:33
Speaker 1: had unlimited funds and an entirely different home, I could
30:37
Speaker 1: do those things. But I've got, you know, the place
30:40
Speaker 1: that I've got and the money I've got, and it
30:42
Speaker 1: makes it feel like these things are just out of
30:44
Speaker 1: my reach. So when I was talking about it last week,
30:47
Speaker 1: it annoyed me a little bit because I like some
30:50
Speaker 1: of these concepts quite a bit. And I'd like to
30:52
Speaker 1: see them employed in my own home, but I don't have,
30:56
Speaker 1: you know, the bones of the house don't even allow
31:00
Speaker 1: themselves or lean into these ideas. So I kept thinking,
31:03
Speaker 1: there's gotta be a way to take some of the
31:05
Speaker 1: concepts and still apply the philosophy to my space, even
31:09
Speaker 1: though my space is just, it's gonna be what it is. Well,
31:13
Speaker 1: if you're in that boat, that's what I've got here.
31:15
Speaker 1: That's what I wanna dig into. So the first idea
31:18
Speaker 1: that I wanna get to is that Johnny Gray designs
31:21
Speaker 1: around eye contact. You know, in his kitchens, the cook
31:24
Speaker 1: faces into the room whenever possible. Now, most of us
31:27
Speaker 1: can't move the sink around. We can't move the, you know,
31:30
Speaker 1: the stove around. But you don't have to move the kitchen.
31:33
Speaker 1: You can move a job. So think about everything in
31:36
Speaker 1: a meal that doesn't need water or heat. Chopping vegetables,
31:40
Speaker 1: building a salad, rolling out dough, putting tacos together. All
31:44
Speaker 1: of those things can happen at the kitchen table or
31:47
Speaker 1: at a peninsula facing the room. You know, it's the
31:49
Speaker 1: same food. It's the same kitchen. But now when your
31:52
Speaker 1: kid comes in and starts telling you about their day,
31:54
Speaker 1: you're looking at them instead of at the backsplash. You know,
31:57
Speaker 1: so basically one little thing to do right off the
32:00
Speaker 1: bat is look for little ways to move jobs around
32:03
Speaker 1: in the kitchen so you can create easy eye contact
32:06
Speaker 1: while you're working. All right. Second idea, fit the work
32:09
Speaker 1: to the person. You remember last week I talked about
32:12
Speaker 1: little Johnny Gray when he was a little boy peeling
32:14
Speaker 1: potatoes at a counter and built for somebody a lot taller.
32:18
Speaker 1: It was really uncomfortable, he said, and he never forgot it. Well,
32:21
Speaker 1: he's taken that idea and he's applied that to all
32:24
Speaker 1: of the design that he does in kitchens. And here's
32:27
Speaker 1: his rule of thumb. You bend your elbow to a
32:29
Speaker 1: right angle and then you measure from the floor to
32:32
Speaker 1: the underside of that elbow. The knife work that you're
32:34
Speaker 1: doing in the kitchen, chopping and stuff like that, is
32:36
Speaker 1: going to feel best about three to four inches below that.
32:40
Speaker 1: Kneading and rolling dough, about eight inches below that. Now,
32:43
Speaker 1: a standard counter is about 36 inches. So that's right
32:46
Speaker 1: for chopping if your elbow sits about 39 or 40
32:49
Speaker 1: inches off the floor. It should feel pretty good. If
32:51
Speaker 1: you're shorter than that or if you're kneading bread or
32:55
Speaker 1: something like that, you're working too high and you're going
32:58
Speaker 1: to feel it. So bring in a second work surface,
33:01
Speaker 1: you know, a small sturdy table at 30 or 32
33:03
Speaker 1: inches is going to give you a proper place to
33:05
Speaker 1: chop up vegetables or roll out dough or whatever. And
33:08
Speaker 1: it's a spot where a kid or a grandparent can
33:10
Speaker 1: pull up a chair to help. That's exactly what Gray does,
33:12
Speaker 1: you know, more than one height in the room. Think
33:15
Speaker 1: about that. If you're taller than that, maybe a thicker
33:17
Speaker 1: chopping board or something like that, or a taller workstation,
33:21
Speaker 1: you know, and if you've got multiple heights of people
33:23
Speaker 1: in the home, you can mix and match these heights.
33:26
Speaker 1: That's the idea. Do whatever you need to do or
33:28
Speaker 1: whatever you can do to make it easy to work
33:31
Speaker 1: in that space for the people who are going to
33:33
Speaker 1: be working in it. Make it fit the person. Third idea,
33:36
Speaker 1: kitchens are allowed rooms, right? Tile, stone, glass rooms. you know,
33:40
Speaker 1: cabinet doors, all of those hard surfaces. Sound bounces off
33:44
Speaker 1: all of it. And when a room is noisy, we
33:46
Speaker 1: generally start raising our voices without even realizing it. There's
33:50
Speaker 1: research on this with adults over 60. Once background noise
33:55
Speaker 1: gets above like 50 decibels or something like that, conversation
33:59
Speaker 1: starts to suffer. You know, people struggle to understand each other.
34:02
Speaker 1: And in a kitchen full of hard surfaces and running
34:04
Speaker 1: appliances doesn't take much to get to that point. And really,
34:08
Speaker 1: really tear a conversation down or bring it down or
34:11
Speaker 1: complicate it. Let's just say that. So a few things
34:13
Speaker 1: can help. A rug with a non-slip pad underneath. Fabric curtains.
34:18
Speaker 1: You know, the gathered kind, not panels. Something that's going
34:20
Speaker 1: to absorb sound. A cushioned chair. An upholstered seat. Anything
34:25
Speaker 1: soft like that. They're going to soak up the sound.
34:27
Speaker 1: They're going to help minimize all of that noise and
34:30
Speaker 1: bring the decibels down a little bit and make conversation easier.
34:33
Speaker 1: Not one safety note because I have to do it
34:36
Speaker 1: and because it matters. Falls involving rugs send tens of
34:40
Speaker 1: thousands of older adults to the emergency room every single year.
34:43
Speaker 1: So keep the rug low, put a pad under it,
34:46
Speaker 1: keep the edges flat, and keep it out of the
34:48
Speaker 1: place where you stand at the stove. Be safe, but
34:52
Speaker 1: bring those decibels down. Idea number four. Gray talks about
34:55
Speaker 1: something that he calls the evening kitchen. Once the cooking
34:58
Speaker 1: and the cleanup are done, the overhead lights go off
35:01
Speaker 1: and softer light takes over. That's the ideal. He compares
35:04
Speaker 1: it to sitting around a campfire. Now, that matters here
35:07
Speaker 1: in Michigan. You know, in December, the sun is going
35:10
Speaker 1: to set. You know, we've got daylight savings time coming up.
35:13
Speaker 1: Why do I keep throwing out December in my mind?
35:16
Speaker 1: It's going to be sooner than December. But anyway, the
35:19
Speaker 1: sun is going to set really early, you know, as
35:22
Speaker 1: we get into winter around 5 o'clock. So almost every
35:25
Speaker 1: winter dinner is going to happen after dark. Think about that.
35:32
Speaker 1: so much dark, so much darkness. Anyway, most of us
35:36
Speaker 1: leave the overhead lights on all evening, you know, in
35:39
Speaker 1: the kitchen for one simple reason. They're the only light
35:42
Speaker 1: that we can get on the counters and in the space.
35:44
Speaker 1: Turn them off and you can't see to clean up.
35:47
Speaker 1: You can't see to get your pie out when you
35:49
Speaker 1: want your pie snack. You know, the lights just stay
35:51
Speaker 1: on and they're harsh, you know, or they can be. Now,
35:55
Speaker 1: there are a number of fixes for this. Under cabinet lighting,
35:57
Speaker 1: that will solve a lot of that problem. It's going
35:59
Speaker 1: to put light right on the counters and So the
36:01
Speaker 1: ceiling lights can go off. You can bring in an
36:04
Speaker 1: electrician and he can hardwire it. You can use plug-in
36:07
Speaker 1: or rechargeable LED bars. You know, whatever you get. Choose
36:11
Speaker 1: something with a diffuser lens so you don't see a
36:13
Speaker 1: row of dots, you know, light dots, and then mount
36:16
Speaker 1: it toward the front of the cabinet. Keep cords away
36:18
Speaker 1: from the sink and the stove and all of that.
36:20
Speaker 1: But that will give you some better lighting in the kitchen.
36:23
Speaker 1: You can get those overheads off and use those lights.
36:27
Speaker 1: Over the table, try dim to warm bulbs. Dim to warm. bulbs.
36:32
Speaker 1: As you dim these bulbs, they turn warmer and more golden,
36:35
Speaker 1: kind of like an old incandescent bulb used to do.
36:38
Speaker 1: And use a dimmer rated for LEDs. Older dimmers often
36:42
Speaker 1: cause flickering and buzzing. Now, if you rent a plug-in
36:45
Speaker 1: lamp dimmer or smart bulbs, that would work too. Now,
36:48
Speaker 1: does softer light make for better conversation? You know, there's
36:51
Speaker 1: really no solid evidence of that or science of that,
36:55
Speaker 1: I guess. There is anecdotal or evidence we've felt You know,
36:58
Speaker 1: but Johnny Gray, our English designer that we were focused on,
37:01
Speaker 1: he believes it. And most of us have felt that.
37:04
Speaker 1: Better lighting, softer lighting is going to make for better
37:07
Speaker 1: conversations and better time just sitting around the table. It's
37:10
Speaker 1: an easy fix, really. So think about that. Idea five
37:14
Speaker 1: is to keep things close to where they're used. You know,
37:16
Speaker 1: this is another Johnny Gray thing. Keep things close to
37:19
Speaker 1: where they're used and keep everyday things in view. Now,
37:21
Speaker 1: in his kitchens, the plate rack sits right above the dishwasher.
37:24
Speaker 1: So clean plates go straight up. The big pots, they
37:27
Speaker 1: sit on open racks right below the cooktop. So try
37:30
Speaker 1: this in your own kitchen. Pay attention to the walking.
37:32
Speaker 1: You know, if you cross the room every morning to
37:34
Speaker 1: get a mug for the coffee maker, move the mugs
37:37
Speaker 1: next to the coffee maker. If the cutting board lives
37:39
Speaker 1: on the opposite side of the kitchen from where you
37:41
Speaker 1: chop up vegetables or whatever, move the board. If your
37:44
Speaker 1: pots are on a low shelf and you have to
37:46
Speaker 1: kneel and dig through it all the time, you know,
37:48
Speaker 1: pots or pans or whatever, that's what I've got at
37:50
Speaker 1: my house, constantly on our knees pulling pots and pans
37:54
Speaker 1: out of this low, low, low cabinet area. Well, if
37:56
Speaker 1: that's your situation like mine, a rollout shelf kit can
38:00
Speaker 1: turn that cabinet into something like a drawer. Tons easier
38:03
Speaker 1: to work with, much more accessible, and you can install
38:07
Speaker 1: many of these rollout shelf kits by yourself. So check
38:09
Speaker 1: those out. All right. Idea six. Last one. Mix color, pattern,
38:13
Speaker 1: and textures. Gray says he doesn't match things. He balances them.
38:17
Speaker 1: So warm wood against cool walls, a deep color next
38:20
Speaker 1: to a quiet one. You know, just mix it up
38:23
Speaker 1: a little bit. And you don't have to paint your
38:25
Speaker 1: whole kitchen to use that idea. Just paint one single piece.
38:28
Speaker 1: You know, an island, a hutch, a pantry door. You know,
38:31
Speaker 1: picture an island in Benjamin Moore's Hail Navy, you know,
38:34
Speaker 1: a deep navy color with soft white walls like white
38:37
Speaker 1: dove and then a wood top or wood table nearby.
38:40
Speaker 1: The navy is going to add depth. The white is
38:42
Speaker 1: going to keep it from feeling heavy. And the wood
38:44
Speaker 1: is going to add warmth. You know, if Navy's not
38:46
Speaker 1: your thing, try a deep green like Tarrytown Green. Try
38:49
Speaker 1: Webster Green, color of the year, like we talked about
38:51
Speaker 1: in the first segment. Just make sure that you test
38:53
Speaker 1: the color first and test it big. You know, paint
38:56
Speaker 1: a sample about two square feet and look at it
38:59
Speaker 1: in the morning and then again at night under the
39:01
Speaker 1: lights that you actually use. And if you do decide
39:03
Speaker 1: to paint cabinets, you know, the island or something like that,
39:06
Speaker 1: make sure you do it right. You want to degrease,
39:09
Speaker 1: scuff sand, prime, and then two coats of your finish paint.
39:12
Speaker 1: You know, a good cabinet paint like Benjamin Moore's Advance
39:14
Speaker 1: would be good. RepcoLite's Optima. Just get a good product
39:18
Speaker 1: on there. And by all means, if you've got a
39:21
Speaker 1: project like that that you're going to tackle, stop in
39:23
Speaker 1: at any RepcoLite. Tell us what you're working on. We'll
39:26
Speaker 1: walk you through and help you get all the stuff
39:28
Speaker 1: you need to get great results. Anyway, those are six ideas,
39:32
Speaker 1: six concepts you can apply. If you want to take
39:34
Speaker 1: that English kitchen idea, that British kitchen idea that we've
39:37
Speaker 1: been talking about and put it in your own home,
39:39
Speaker 1: at least parts of it, there's some ways you can
39:42
Speaker 1: do it. All right, that's going to do it for
39:43
Speaker 1: this week. If you want to catch this episode again,
39:45
Speaker 1: you can find it online at RepcoLite.com. Just click the
39:48
Speaker 1: podcast tab on the homepage. All right, whatever you do today,
39:52
Speaker 1: make sure paint's a part of it. Have a great weekend, everybody,
39:55
Speaker 1: and I'll see you next week. For Home in Progress,
39:57
Speaker 1: I'm Dan Hanson. Thanks for listening.