Latest / Repcolite Home Improvement Show / America's Pettiest Houses, Two-Tone Cabinet Secrets, and Why Your Deck Coating Is Doing It Wrong

Transcript

America's Pettiest Houses, Two-Tone Cabinet Secrets, and Why Your Deck Coating Is Doing It Wrong · Repcolite Home Improvement Show

0:02
Speaker 1: Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in. You're listening to Home
0:04
Speaker 1: in Progress by Repcoal Light Paints, sponsored by Benjamin Moore.
0:08
Speaker 1: And i want to get straight to business here because
0:11
Speaker 1: I've got some fun stuff that i want to do
0:13
Speaker 1: with this first segment, but I've got to do the
0:15
Speaker 1: important business stuff first. So coming up on the show
0:18
Speaker 1: this week, at the end of the show, we're going
0:20
Speaker 1: to be talking about deck projects. Right it's spring, I
0:23
Speaker 1: have to talk about deck projects specifically, though. In this
0:26
Speaker 1: particular segment, I'm going to focus on a wood protector
0:29
Speaker 1: that we sell at Repcolite that does something that most
0:31
Speaker 1: other deck products don't do. I'm also going to be
0:34
Speaker 1: taking a deep dive into two tone kitchen cabinets. I've
0:38
Speaker 1: got a list of six common questions that come up
0:41
Speaker 1: whenever people think about painting their cabinets two different colors.
0:44
Speaker 1: You know, if you've seen the look and you like
0:46
Speaker 1: the look, but you haven't tried it yet for one
0:48
Speaker 1: reason or another, I've probably got some info that's going
0:51
Speaker 1: to help you out. Okay, that's the business stuff, but
0:54
Speaker 1: right now, let's jump into the fun thing. Spite you know,
0:59
Speaker 1: somebody wrongs you and you wonder how you can get
1:02
Speaker 1: even you know, spite, what can you do to get
1:05
Speaker 1: your revenge? That That's what I want to talk about.
1:07
Speaker 1: And I'm not saying it's a good thing, you know,
1:09
Speaker 1: I'm not saying spite or revenge or any of that's
1:12
Speaker 1: a good thing. It's not a good thing. But it
1:14
Speaker 1: does happen, right, it does happen. Most of us, though,
1:18
Speaker 1: don't take it as far or get as creative as
1:21
Speaker 1: to actually build an entire house with the sole intention
1:25
Speaker 1: of making somebody else miserable. Right, very few of us
1:28
Speaker 1: have probably done that in our lifetime. Probably even our
1:32
Speaker 1: parents and grandparents haven't done that. But it really is
1:35
Speaker 1: a thing, and it goes back a surprisingly long ways
1:39
Speaker 1: in American history. You know, maybe you've heard of these.
1:42
Speaker 1: They're called spite houses, and they're exactly what they sound like.
1:46
Speaker 1: Buildings put up with the primary purpose of annoying somebody else,
1:50
Speaker 1: blocking them out, or blocking a view that they might
1:54
Speaker 1: have had but no longer do. Are basically just you know,
1:58
Speaker 1: ruining the day of a neighbor or a family member,
2:01
Speaker 1: or in some cases an entire city government. So spite houses.
2:06
Speaker 1: Today on the show, I'm going to talk about one
2:09
Speaker 1: that's going to make it to the on air portion
2:12
Speaker 1: of the show, but I've got two others that I'm
2:14
Speaker 1: going to cover in the podcast, you know, just because
2:17
Speaker 1: I've got more time there. So if this concept intrigues you,
2:21
Speaker 1: check out Home in Progress as a podcast and you'll
2:24
Speaker 1: snag some really cool bonus material. All Right, the house
2:27
Speaker 1: I want to talk about first means that we've got
2:29
Speaker 1: to travel back to Frederick, Maryland, to the year eighteen fourteen,
2:34
Speaker 1: and we're going to focus on a wealthy ophthalmologist, ophthalmologist, ophthalmologist, ophthalmologist,
2:41
Speaker 1: an eye doctor named doctor John Tyler. Now doctor John
2:45
Speaker 1: Tyler wasn't just you know, an average ophthalmologist eye doctor.
2:51
Speaker 1: He was actually a medical pioneer. He was credited as
2:54
Speaker 1: the first American born physician to perform a cataract operation.
2:59
Speaker 1: So big stuff. He's accomplished, he's successful, ladies, and apparently
3:05
Speaker 1: he's also incredibly petty. See here's how the story goes.
3:09
Speaker 1: The city of Frederick decided that they were going to
3:12
Speaker 1: extend Record Street. You don't need to know what street
3:15
Speaker 1: it is, but that's the name of the street, Record Street.
3:17
Speaker 1: They're going to extend it straight down through a piece
3:20
Speaker 1: of land that doctor Tyler owned, and that really really
3:24
Speaker 1: honked him off. You know, he was really mad about that.
3:26
Speaker 1: He didn't want that, not at all. He tried to
3:29
Speaker 1: fight it, he tried to argue against it. You know,
3:32
Speaker 1: I had great, big meetings, probably pounded on a desk
3:35
Speaker 1: and shouted at people. But the city, you know, the
3:39
Speaker 1: powers that be, they decided it was the best move
3:42
Speaker 1: for everybody involved. The people were behind it, you know,
3:45
Speaker 1: the community wanted it. It was all about progress and
3:48
Speaker 1: making things easier for everybody. And so doctor Tyler lost.
3:53
Speaker 1: And of course when he did so, he went home
3:55
Speaker 1: to stew on it, right, you know how it is.
3:57
Speaker 1: Somebody thwarts you, you know, a whole bunch of someone's
4:00
Speaker 1: in this case, and so you stew on it. But
4:03
Speaker 1: what can you do, you know, what can one person
4:06
Speaker 1: do against the whole city. Sounds like a movie is
4:09
Speaker 1: about to unfold here, and maybe it should be a
4:12
Speaker 1: movie because an idea dawned on doctor Tyler. Really, it's
4:18
Speaker 1: pretty smart, pretty brilliant. He found an old local law
4:21
Speaker 1: that stated that the city can't build a road through
4:24
Speaker 1: a parcel if construction on a substantial building was already
4:28
Speaker 1: in progress. There already in progress there. So doctor Tyler
4:33
Speaker 1: hires this crew and overnight, overnight, they poured a foundation
4:38
Speaker 1: right in the path of the proposed road. So when
4:40
Speaker 1: the road workers show up the next morning, getting ready
4:44
Speaker 1: to you know, start their day, start working on the
4:47
Speaker 1: project of the road. Instead, they find this hole in
4:49
Speaker 1: the ground, a crew of builders and doctor John Tyler,
4:53
Speaker 1: you know, sitting in a chair watching them, reportedly looking
4:56
Speaker 1: extremely pleased with himself. Now the road was never built.
5:00
Speaker 1: He won, and doctor John went ahead and finished the house.
5:04
Speaker 1: And it was massive, you know, a three story Federal
5:07
Speaker 1: style mansion with seventeen rooms, over nine thousand square feet,
5:12
Speaker 1: you know, fourteen foot ceilings and eight working fireplaces. The kicker, though,
5:17
Speaker 1: the thing that I love about this story is that
5:20
Speaker 1: he never actually even lived in it. He already had
5:22
Speaker 1: a house next door. That whole nine thousand square foot
5:25
Speaker 1: palace was basically just an expensive way to win this argument. Now,
5:31
Speaker 1: the Tyler Spight House still stands today at one hundred
5:34
Speaker 1: and twelve West Church Street. It's been a bed and breakfast,
5:38
Speaker 1: it's been offices, and it's been on and off the
5:40
Speaker 1: market for years for prices well over a million dollars.
5:44
Speaker 1: And maybe best of all, it's also rumored. Of course,
5:46
Speaker 1: it's rumored to be haunted. So you got phantom footsteps,
5:50
Speaker 1: cold spots, all of those things. So the Tyler Spite
5:54
Speaker 1: House you can still see it today. Check that out.
5:57
Speaker 1: All right, Let's get to the second one, the Boston
6:00
Speaker 1: Skinny House. So we're heading to Boston, the north end,
6:03
Speaker 1: right along Freedom Trail, you know, across the street from
6:06
Speaker 1: the Cops Hill burying Ground. If you go there, you're
6:09
Speaker 1: gonna find a four story wooden house at forty four
6:12
Speaker 1: Hull Street. Now, from the street, it kind of looks
6:15
Speaker 1: like an optical illusion. You know. It's ten feet wide
6:18
Speaker 1: its widest point, and it tapers down in the back
6:21
Speaker 1: to a little over nine feet. Now, inside, at the
6:24
Speaker 1: narrowest spot, you can stand in the middle and touch
6:26
Speaker 1: both walls without fully extending your arms. It doesn't even
6:30
Speaker 1: have a front door. You have to enter from the
6:32
Speaker 1: side alley. It's the Skinny House, like I said. And
6:35
Speaker 1: the legend, we'll talk about whether it's actually true in
6:39
Speaker 1: a second. But the legend, which is really good, goes
6:42
Speaker 1: like this. Two brothers they inherited a piece of land
6:45
Speaker 1: from their father. Okay, one brother he goes off to
6:49
Speaker 1: fight in the Civil War. So he's out, he's doing
6:53
Speaker 1: the Civil War thing. And while he's gone, the brother
6:57
Speaker 1: who stayed home, and I don't know why how he
7:00
Speaker 1: got out of having to go. Maybe he was way older,
7:03
Speaker 1: or I don't know, I don't know, I don't know.
7:05
Speaker 1: Maybe he didn't have arches or something right, you know,
7:09
Speaker 1: flat feet. Maybe he couldn't go anyway, he didn't go
7:13
Speaker 1: to fight in the Civil War. And while his brother's gone,
7:16
Speaker 1: this guy stays home and he builds himself this great, big,
7:19
Speaker 1: comfortable house, taking up basically all of the inherited land. Okay,
7:24
Speaker 1: he basically uses up all of it. When the brother
7:28
Speaker 1: comes home, the soldier brother comes home, he discovers, of course,
7:31
Speaker 1: because he's not completely you know, unaware of what's going on.
7:35
Speaker 1: He walks in and sees a great, big house standing
7:38
Speaker 1: on what was supposed to be their inheritance. He realizes
7:42
Speaker 1: that his inheritance has pretty much mostly been kind of stolen,
7:47
Speaker 1: you know, swiped out from underneath them by his brother.
7:50
Speaker 1: He's only got this little sliver of land left, that's
7:53
Speaker 1: all that's left of the inheritance. So what do you
7:55
Speaker 1: do with that? Do you wring your hands? Do you
7:58
Speaker 1: bemoan things and in the way of the world and
8:01
Speaker 1: the way your brother treated you, do you do all
8:03
Speaker 1: of those things or do you just get even? He
8:06
Speaker 1: decided to get even, so out of pure spite, he
8:09
Speaker 1: builds the narrowest house he could fit on that little
8:12
Speaker 1: piece of land. And he did it, you know, specifically,
8:16
Speaker 1: you know, specifically positioned the house to block his brother's
8:20
Speaker 1: light and to ruin his view. And we all know
8:23
Speaker 1: how important natural light is, right, I mean, I'm sure
8:27
Speaker 1: the brother who stayed home, you know, he built the house,
8:30
Speaker 1: and he's got all this wonderful natural light coming in,
8:33
Speaker 1: and he chose all his colors with that in mind.
8:35
Speaker 1: He looked at Benjamin Moore samples till the cows came
8:39
Speaker 1: home and checked him out in his lighting with this
8:42
Speaker 1: beautiful natural lighting, and he picked all his colors to
8:46
Speaker 1: be perfect in that setting. And then his brother puts
8:50
Speaker 1: a house up in blocks it all. All his colors
8:52
Speaker 1: look terrible. I don't know, it's really really really interesting
8:56
Speaker 1: to me. Now. Unfortunately, it's possible. I guess I've got
9:01
Speaker 1: to say this, you know, due diligence here, it's possible
9:04
Speaker 1: that the story that I just told you isn't completely accurate. Yeah,
9:08
Speaker 1: of course the things I added potentially aren't accurate potentially,
9:13
Speaker 1: but the historical details as well, they're a little bit
9:17
Speaker 1: murky when we dig into it. But you know what,
9:19
Speaker 1: I don't care about that right now. I'm choosing to
9:22
Speaker 1: believe the story as I relate it because I really
9:25
Speaker 1: like it. And even if it's not the true story,
9:28
Speaker 1: the fact remains. You know, there is this little skinny
9:31
Speaker 1: nothing of a house that's blocking all of the light
9:34
Speaker 1: and the view of the neighboring house. If animosity and
9:37
Speaker 1: spite didn't build that little sliver of a house, I'm
9:41
Speaker 1: pretty sure some animosity in spite came about because of it.
9:44
Speaker 1: So that's the skinny house in Boston. The third spite
9:49
Speaker 1: house that I've got is maybe a sad story in
9:53
Speaker 1: a way, I think it's kind of funny. I mean,
9:56
Speaker 1: if you don't know the people, it's sad and fun
10:00
Speaker 1: I don't want to be hard hearted, but this happened
10:03
Speaker 1: a while ago, so you can chuckle without feeling too
10:06
Speaker 1: bad anyway. This one is in or at least was
10:11
Speaker 1: in newbury Massachusetts, just outside newbury Port. Now, if you've
10:15
Speaker 1: ever driven out towards Plumb Island. You might have seen
10:18
Speaker 1: this house. Me. I never go, you know, much further
10:21
Speaker 1: than maybe Coopersville. But if you're a traveler and you've
10:25
Speaker 1: made it out to Massachusetts and Plumb Island, maybe you've
10:29
Speaker 1: seen this house. It's a lonely, weather beaten kind of
10:34
Speaker 1: pale pink house with a cupola on top, and it's
10:37
Speaker 1: sitting completely by itself in the middle of this big
10:40
Speaker 1: salt marsh, right, no neighbors, no trees, just this sad
10:43
Speaker 1: little pink house surrounded by wetlands. It's called the Plumb
10:47
Speaker 1: Island Pink House, and it was built around nineteen twenty five.
10:51
Speaker 1: And for decades, the story that everybody told about this
10:54
Speaker 1: house was this, you know, the couple was getting divorced,
10:57
Speaker 1: or a couple was getting divorced. Before the huse was up,
11:00
Speaker 1: a couple is getting divorced, and the wife insists as
11:05
Speaker 1: part of the settlement, she insists that her husband build
11:08
Speaker 1: her in exact replica, exact replica of the comfortable home
11:13
Speaker 1: that they'd shared in town. And you know, the whole
11:17
Speaker 1: agreement and all that he agreed to that everything was settled.
11:22
Speaker 1: But the problem was she forgot to specify where this
11:25
Speaker 1: house was going to be built, so, acting out of
11:28
Speaker 1: pure pattiness, the husband builds an exact replica. But he
11:33
Speaker 1: builds it way out in the middle of this isolated
11:36
Speaker 1: salt marsh. You know. So she's got no neighbors, no trees,
11:39
Speaker 1: she's got no running fresh water. Although the plumbing was
11:41
Speaker 1: hooked up to salt water. She allegedly took one look
11:45
Speaker 1: and said, no, sir, I am not going to live there.
11:49
Speaker 1: All right, now, that's the story. Is that true? Hard
11:52
Speaker 1: to say, you know, all signs seem to point to
11:56
Speaker 1: maybe not. Maybe it's just an urban legend. But again,
11:59
Speaker 1: I don't care. I don't care. I want it to
12:02
Speaker 1: be true. So I'm going to just gloss over it
12:04
Speaker 1: and I'm not going to look too closely at the facts.
12:07
Speaker 1: So if you dig into it, I guess the only
12:09
Speaker 1: reason I mentioned that is if you dig into it
12:11
Speaker 1: and you determine that this wasn't true, I understand that's possibility.
12:16
Speaker 1: I'm just not focusing on that. I like the story
12:21
Speaker 1: spite houses, love the concept of spite houses, though I
12:24
Speaker 1: don't advocate for them. If you've never heard of spite houses,
12:27
Speaker 1: check them out, do some googling. It's really interesting what
12:30
Speaker 1: people will do to get back at neighbors or family
12:33
Speaker 1: members who they think have wronged them. And you know,
12:38
Speaker 1: I don't know that it's I'm sure it's still happening.
12:40
Speaker 1: Of course, it's still happening, because we're all still human.
12:43
Speaker 1: But like sometimes when I'm driving around and I see
12:46
Speaker 1: houses painted in absolutely hideous color combinations, I've always wondered
12:51
Speaker 1: what was going on there. And now, after doing this
12:54
Speaker 1: whole you know, little exploration into spite houses, I wonder
12:58
Speaker 1: if it's maybe got something to do with that. You know,
13:01
Speaker 1: are those color combinations on that house out of spite?
13:06
Speaker 1: You know for some reason, because you have to have
13:08
Speaker 1: seen houses like this too, right, houses with just absolutely
13:12
Speaker 1: vile color schemes on the outside, crazy yellows, electric blues.
13:16
Speaker 1: I saw one just on some travels I did go
13:21
Speaker 1: further than Coopersville. That wasn't exactly true either, that was
13:25
Speaker 1: just being funny. But I have gone further, and I
13:27
Speaker 1: remember one that on a vacation that we would go
13:30
Speaker 1: to yearly, so we'd drive past the house, you know,
13:33
Speaker 1: multiple years, and we'd see this house. We'd always start
13:36
Speaker 1: to look for it. It had yellow trim around the
13:40
Speaker 1: windows and the doors and all of that. The exterior
13:43
Speaker 1: of the home yellow trim, and I mean yellow, SpongeBob yellow.
13:47
Speaker 1: The front doors and the shutters they were like fire
13:50
Speaker 1: engine red. And the house itself, you know, the chef's
13:55
Speaker 1: kiss to this whole whole scene. The house itself was
14:00
Speaker 1: electric blue. It looked like a superhero suit. Every time
14:04
Speaker 1: I'd see that house, I'd wonder, what in the world
14:06
Speaker 1: is going on? Did somebody really like those colors? I
14:10
Speaker 1: just want to stop and ask, But that's probably probably
14:13
Speaker 1: offensive to knock on the door and just say, hey,
14:17
Speaker 1: you got to tell me about this. You like this?
14:19
Speaker 1: You know you can't do that. So I just wonder
14:21
Speaker 1: what was going on now. I wonder if it's not
14:24
Speaker 1: so much that they like the colors, but maybe their
14:27
Speaker 1: neighbor said something that just got under their skin and
14:30
Speaker 1: they thought, hey, I've got an idea. All I know
14:33
Speaker 1: is that at Repcolite, we're here for you. If you
14:36
Speaker 1: need a palette of beautiful colors and you want to
14:39
Speaker 1: make your home a centerpiece of the neighborhood, we can help.
14:42
Speaker 1: Of course, we can help. But if you're looking for
14:44
Speaker 1: a hostility palette, you know, or something like that, you know,
14:47
Speaker 1: colors that are designed to make your neighbor's eyes bleed.
14:50
Speaker 1: I'm sure we can find something, you know, we put
14:53
Speaker 1: our heads together, we can come up with a plan. Now,
14:55
Speaker 1: we're not advocating, you know that. You do that. We
14:57
Speaker 1: want you to, you know, talk things through through and
15:00
Speaker 1: communicate and be kind and all of that. But if
15:03
Speaker 1: you are going to lean into some crazy bright and
15:05
Speaker 1: eye burning colors, just saying, remember that Benjamin Moore's Aura
15:10
Speaker 1: covers like a dream no matter what colors you pick.
15:13
Speaker 1: And on top of that, Aura as well as many
15:16
Speaker 1: other Benjamin More Premium exterior paints, they're all on sale
15:19
Speaker 1: right now for twenty percent off at every repco Light
15:22
Speaker 1: location until May twenty five. So keep all that in mind.
15:25
Speaker 1: All right, let's shift gears and take a look at
15:28
Speaker 1: six common questions that come up every time people consider
15:31
Speaker 1: doing that two tone cabinet thing in their kitchen. We'll
15:33
Speaker 1: get to that right after. This home in progress is
15:36
Speaker 1: brought to you by Repcolite Paints and Benjamin Moore. You know,
15:38
Speaker 1: people often think of paint as just another line item
15:42
Speaker 1: on the project's supply list. But here's the thing. Everything
15:45
Speaker 1: you do, every hour of prep, every stroke of the brush.
15:48
Speaker 1: All comes down to the quality of the paint. The
15:50
Speaker 1: paint is the project. Make sure it's the best. And
15:53
Speaker 1: we're back. You're listening to Home in Progress by Repcolite Paint,
15:56
Speaker 1: sponsored by Benjamin Moore, and let's spend some time talking
16:00
Speaker 1: about kitchen cabinets, right, lots of fun talking about kitchen
16:04
Speaker 1: cabinets specifically. I want to talk about the whole idea
16:07
Speaker 1: of painting your cabinets two different colors, you know, on purpose,
16:11
Speaker 1: not because you tried to touch it up and you
16:13
Speaker 1: got paint from the basement you grabbed the wrong can.
16:16
Speaker 1: Doing it on purpose. You know, we've all seen plenty
16:19
Speaker 1: of examples. I'm sure you've seen tons of examples on
16:22
Speaker 1: the interwebs and maybe in you know, maybe you've got friends,
16:27
Speaker 1: maybe you've been to their houses and you've seen things.
16:29
Speaker 1: I've seen things on the internet. But I've seen kitchens
16:32
Speaker 1: with two tone cabinets, and I think it looks really good.
16:36
Speaker 1: You know, I haven't seen any that I thought looked terrible.
16:39
Speaker 1: Most of them I think look really good, and I
16:42
Speaker 1: get really excited. It looks straightforward, it looks clean, it
16:44
Speaker 1: looks modern, it looks super cool, and I decide when
16:48
Speaker 1: I see these things that I'm going to do it
16:50
Speaker 1: in my own kitchen. I'm going to bring that amazing
16:54
Speaker 1: look to my own home, right. And then I get
16:58
Speaker 1: to the point where I really think about doing this,
17:00
Speaker 1: and suddenly I've got just an absolute boat load of questions,
17:04
Speaker 1: and I get nervous because it doesn't seem when I'm
17:07
Speaker 1: standing on the brink of the project, it doesn't seem
17:09
Speaker 1: as easy as I thought. You know, for starters, you've
17:12
Speaker 1: got to get the colors right, right, I mean, you've
17:14
Speaker 1: got to get the colors right. And that's already scary
17:17
Speaker 1: enough when you're choosing just one color, or it can
17:20
Speaker 1: be anyway. Some people just breeze through that. Others of
17:23
Speaker 1: us agonize over getting that color right. But when you're
17:26
Speaker 1: picking two colors and you want them to work together, well,
17:29
Speaker 1: that's a dicier proposition. You know, there's more going on
17:32
Speaker 1: with that. You definitely don't want to get done painting
17:36
Speaker 1: your kitchen cabinets and put you know, all the doors
17:38
Speaker 1: back up, you put all the hardware back on, and
17:41
Speaker 1: you stand back with your cup of coffee and you
17:44
Speaker 1: slurp down a little slurp so you can just you know,
17:47
Speaker 1: take in what you've done and you realize you hate it.
17:50
Speaker 1: You don't want to be in that boat, right. You
17:53
Speaker 1: don't want to paint all your kitchen cabinets and hate it.
17:55
Speaker 1: So you've got to get those colors right. That's a
17:57
Speaker 1: little bit stressful. But we've also got to figure out
18:01
Speaker 1: where the right places are for those colors. And it
18:03
Speaker 1: seems so straightforward in the pictures because we see it
18:06
Speaker 1: done and it's just like, yeah, of course that's where
18:08
Speaker 1: you put it. Look at your own kitchen. Where do
18:10
Speaker 1: you go with the two different colors? How much of
18:13
Speaker 1: each color do you use? All of those questions start.
18:16
Speaker 1: What do you do with the island? Which color does
18:19
Speaker 1: that get? Does that get a third color? What if
18:20
Speaker 1: you don't have an island? What if your kitchen is
18:23
Speaker 1: super small, super tiny, you know, does it still work there?
18:27
Speaker 1: What if the floors are oak or you know, tile
18:30
Speaker 1: or whatever. Does the floor matter? What if the kitchen
18:33
Speaker 1: doesn't get much light? You know, a lot of questions
18:36
Speaker 1: go through your head. And then maybe the biggest question
18:38
Speaker 1: of all is am I going to regret this in
18:41
Speaker 1: five years? Right? I mean? Who wants to do all
18:44
Speaker 1: of this and regret it in five years? Is it
18:46
Speaker 1: going to be a trend that's just over and done
18:48
Speaker 1: and we're going to look at our kitchens and think, wow,
18:50
Speaker 1: that was so you know twenty twenty six. They're all
18:55
Speaker 1: good questions. You've got to know the answers to those,
18:57
Speaker 1: and you've got to think them through before you jump
18:59
Speaker 1: into a project like this. And that's what we're gonna
19:01
Speaker 1: do today. We're going to walk through six common questions
19:04
Speaker 1: that come up when people think about this project, and
19:06
Speaker 1: of course I'm going to give you the answers, or
19:09
Speaker 1: at least my answers to those questions, and that can
19:13
Speaker 1: get you moving on the project if this is something
19:16
Speaker 1: that you've been thinking about. All right, first question, let's
19:18
Speaker 1: just jump right in the first big question that usually
19:21
Speaker 1: comes up. And these aren't really in order. Maybe there
19:24
Speaker 1: some of them are in order. I don't know, I
19:27
Speaker 1: just kind of threw them together. First big question, I
19:29
Speaker 1: want to focus on where do the different colors go.
19:32
Speaker 1: You know, I've seen photos and I've seen you know,
19:35
Speaker 1: the Navy Navy island with white perimeter cabinets and that
19:39
Speaker 1: looks great. I've seen kitchens with teal lower cabinets and
19:43
Speaker 1: light uppers and that looks great, And then I look
19:46
Speaker 1: at my kitchen and I think, where in here do
19:50
Speaker 1: the colors go? You know, because my kitchen doesn't look
19:53
Speaker 1: like those kitchens that I'm seeing on Instagram. In fact,
19:56
Speaker 1: most of my house doesn't look like the photos I
19:59
Speaker 1: see on you know, I'll do a paint project at home,
20:02
Speaker 1: and I'll get all excited and I'll think, this is great,
20:05
Speaker 1: this is really good stuff, you know, what an improvement.
20:08
Speaker 1: I think I should take pictures and post them on
20:11
Speaker 1: Repcolite's Facebook page, on repolites Instagram page, even on our TikTok,
20:16
Speaker 1: you know, for the kids to find. And then I
20:18
Speaker 1: take those pictures and I look at them, and man,
20:21
Speaker 1: I don't even want to live in my house anymore.
20:23
Speaker 1: You know. I guess the camera sees things that I don't.
20:27
Speaker 1: It certainly does not look on a photograph like the
20:31
Speaker 1: amazing kitchens that I'm seeing. So when I see beautiful,
20:35
Speaker 1: two toned kitchens online, like I said, I'm pumped and
20:37
Speaker 1: excited until I look at the dumpster fire kitchen that's apparently,
20:41
Speaker 1: you know, dwelling in my home, the real life kitchen,
20:45
Speaker 1: and I think, Wow, where in the world do the
20:47
Speaker 1: different colors go in here? Well, if you deal with that,
20:51
Speaker 1: you know, if you even slightly know what I'm talking about,
20:54
Speaker 1: there are some rules of thumb that can help you.
20:56
Speaker 1: And you know they're not terribly it's not rock science.
21:00
Speaker 1: This is pretty intuitive. But one of the most common
21:03
Speaker 1: rules of thumb is this, Lighter colors usually work well
21:06
Speaker 1: higher in the room, and darker colors are stronger colors.
21:09
Speaker 1: They're usually going to work well lower in the room
21:12
Speaker 1: or on a clear focal point, you know. And that
21:15
Speaker 1: rule works because lighter colors higher in the room help
21:18
Speaker 1: the kitchen feel more open and more bright. Darker colors
21:21
Speaker 1: lower in the room, of course, are going to give
21:23
Speaker 1: the kitchen some weight. They're going to ground the space.
21:26
Speaker 1: And that's why you so often see light upper cabinets
21:28
Speaker 1: with darker lower cabinets, or whider cream perimeter cabinets with
21:32
Speaker 1: a navy you know, maybe green or charcoal island. But
21:35
Speaker 1: remember that's a rule of thumb. It's not the law.
21:39
Speaker 1: You know, it's not the law. I'm not going to
21:41
Speaker 1: show up at your door and enforce this law because
21:46
Speaker 1: it's not a lot. It's rule of thumb. It's America.
21:48
Speaker 1: You do what you want to do. So darker colors
21:50
Speaker 1: can go up high. You just need to understand what
21:53
Speaker 1: they do, and from understanding what they do, you can
21:56
Speaker 1: determine if that's going to work in your space. You know,
21:59
Speaker 1: a dark upper cabinet is going to carry more visual weight,
22:02
Speaker 1: may make the wall feel a little heavier, you know,
22:04
Speaker 1: that's possible. In a small, low light kitchen, that can
22:07
Speaker 1: make the room feel, you know, kind of closed in.
22:10
Speaker 1: But in the right situation it can really work. You know,
22:12
Speaker 1: if the upper cabinets have glass doors, for example, the
22:15
Speaker 1: dark color might not feel as heavy because the glass
22:18
Speaker 1: is going to break it up. If the kitchen has great,
22:20
Speaker 1: you know, supernatural light, maybe taller ceilings, maybe you've got
22:24
Speaker 1: open shelving or something mixed in. If you've got any
22:27
Speaker 1: of those things or a combination of them, darker uppers
22:30
Speaker 1: can really work. If the dark color is only on
22:33
Speaker 1: one upper section, you know, like maybe a hutch or
22:35
Speaker 1: a bar area or a pantry wall, it can feel
22:37
Speaker 1: intentional rather than heavy. So just remember the dark lowers
22:41
Speaker 1: and light uppers thing is a rule of thumb, not
22:43
Speaker 1: a hard and fast rule. All right, back to the
22:45
Speaker 1: main question, where do the different colors go in your space?
22:49
Speaker 1: In my space, I think the easiest answer to all
22:52
Speaker 1: of that is to stop thinking first about color and
22:55
Speaker 1: start just looking for natural breaks in your kitchen. And
22:58
Speaker 1: because two tone cabinets are going to work bad when
23:00
Speaker 1: the color change happens at a place where the kitchen
23:02
Speaker 1: already feels like it changes right. An island is an
23:07
Speaker 1: obvious example. It's separate from the perimeter cabinets, sits in
23:10
Speaker 1: the middle of the room. It already feels like its
23:13
Speaker 1: own piece. So if the island's a different color, most
23:16
Speaker 1: people don't look at that and think why is that different? No,
23:19
Speaker 1: that makes sense to people. So an island is a
23:22
Speaker 1: great way to go. But you can look for other
23:24
Speaker 1: natural breaks too. You know, maybe all your lower cabinets
23:27
Speaker 1: run together in one clear line. That can be a
23:29
Speaker 1: natural break. You know, maybe you have a tall pantry
23:32
Speaker 1: cabinet at the end of the kitchen that can be
23:34
Speaker 1: a natural break. Maybe you've got a built in hutch,
23:36
Speaker 1: a coffee bar, a little desk area that already feels
23:40
Speaker 1: separate from the main cooking area. Those can be natural breaks.
23:43
Speaker 1: Maybe one whole wall of cabinets is separate from the
23:46
Speaker 1: rest of the kitchen. That can work too. What you're
23:49
Speaker 1: looking for is a place where the color change is
23:51
Speaker 1: going to feel like it belongs. What you want to
23:53
Speaker 1: avoid is this random approach that you sometimes see, not
23:56
Speaker 1: terribly often, but sometimes see once a cabinet section in
24:01
Speaker 1: one accent color, and then another unrelated section across the room,
24:04
Speaker 1: and maybe one upper cabinet somewhere else. Even if each
24:08
Speaker 1: choice by itself feels fine and makes sense, the overall
24:11
Speaker 1: effect can start to feel a little bit scattered, and
24:14
Speaker 1: it definitely feels amateurish. It looks less like a design
24:19
Speaker 1: plan and more like you were just looking for places
24:21
Speaker 1: to use the second color. I'm exaggerating a little bit here,
24:24
Speaker 1: but I think it's not that hard to imagine what
24:26
Speaker 1: I'm talking about. You start looking at your kitchen trying
24:28
Speaker 1: to put these other colors in place, use that second color,
24:31
Speaker 1: and it's easy, or potentially easy, to start using it randomly.
24:35
Speaker 1: You don't want to do that. You want to be
24:37
Speaker 1: very intentional. So when you're deciding where to put different
24:39
Speaker 1: colors in your space, look for the natural breaks in
24:42
Speaker 1: your kitchen. All right, question two, and it springs naturally
24:45
Speaker 1: out of what we just talked about. Do I need
24:47
Speaker 1: an island to really make two tone cabinets work, and
24:51
Speaker 1: of course the answer is no, you don't need an island.
24:54
Speaker 1: In No Island kitchens, the classic move, you know, the
24:57
Speaker 1: easiest way to go is just to go with the
24:59
Speaker 1: light upper cabinets in darker lower cabinets. But it's not
25:02
Speaker 1: the only option. You know. Another No Island option is
25:05
Speaker 1: to use color on a divine zone, you know, a
25:07
Speaker 1: pantry wall, maybe a built in hutch, a coffee bar
25:10
Speaker 1: or something like that, you know, an adjacent prep area.
25:13
Speaker 1: Designers talk about this a lot in terms of creating
25:16
Speaker 1: a feature area, feature space, or giving a space its
25:19
Speaker 1: own identity. So a pantry, you know, especially if it's
25:22
Speaker 1: a tall cabinet or a furniture style piece, you know,
25:25
Speaker 1: that doesn't always have to match every other cabinet in
25:27
Speaker 1: the kitchen. You know, it can be treated more like
25:29
Speaker 1: a built in piece of furniture. So maybe the kitchen
25:32
Speaker 1: cabinets are all kind of an off white, but the
25:34
Speaker 1: pantry wall is a deep green, Or maybe the perimeter
25:37
Speaker 1: cabinets are all you know, off white, but the coffee
25:39
Speaker 1: bar or the hutch is navy or something like that.
25:42
Speaker 1: That can work because the color belongs to a clear zone.
25:45
Speaker 1: You know, it's not random. It's helping that part of
25:47
Speaker 1: the kitchen feel intentional. But in a no island kitchen,
25:50
Speaker 1: you do want to be careful about using too many colors.
25:53
Speaker 1: So two cabinet colors absolutely plenty. Don't need more than that.
25:57
Speaker 1: Once you start adding a third, you know, accent color
26:00
Speaker 1: or a cabinet color, plus the floor, plus the counters,
26:02
Speaker 1: plus the backsplash, plus the hardware and the appliances. You
26:06
Speaker 1: add all of that together and the kitchen can start
26:08
Speaker 1: to feel visually crowded. So no, you don't need to
26:11
Speaker 1: have an island to make this work. But without an island,
26:14
Speaker 1: you do need a bit of a plan. You know,
26:15
Speaker 1: you need to have a focused plan, all right. Third question,
26:18
Speaker 1: will two colors make my kitchen feel smaller or busier? Well,
26:21
Speaker 1: the honest answer is yeah, they can, but they don't
26:24
Speaker 1: have to. You know, two tone cabinets can make a
26:26
Speaker 1: kitchen feel more interesting and more custom as well. You know,
26:29
Speaker 1: it could go either way. But if the contrast is
26:32
Speaker 1: too strong, or if the kitchen is already small, dark,
26:35
Speaker 1: or visually busy, then two cabinet colors can make the
26:38
Speaker 1: room feel chopped up. So this is where size and
26:40
Speaker 1: light is going to matter. If you've got a large
26:42
Speaker 1: kitchen with good natural light, you've got a lot more freedom,
26:45
Speaker 1: you know, a lot more room to work here. You
26:47
Speaker 1: can usually handle a deeper color on the island, darker
26:50
Speaker 1: lower cabinets, a bold pantry cabinet color, stronger contrast. You
26:55
Speaker 1: can handle that in a bigger kitchen with great natural light.
26:58
Speaker 1: If your kitchen is small, isn't get much natural light,
27:01
Speaker 1: you might need to be a little more careful, you know,
27:03
Speaker 1: in that situation. One cabinet color that really might be
27:07
Speaker 1: the better answer for you. And that's where I'm at
27:09
Speaker 1: in my house, pretty sure, that's where I'm gonna fall.
27:12
Speaker 1: You know, my kitchen isn't small small, but it's not
27:15
Speaker 1: big and it's not open. And I think that because
27:19
Speaker 1: of that layout, I might be creating more visual drama
27:22
Speaker 1: than I really want. There's already plenty of drama in
27:25
Speaker 1: the Hanson kitchen. I don't know that I need to
27:27
Speaker 1: bring more drama in with colors and all of that.
27:32
Speaker 1: You know, we've got our own personality drama. We don't
27:35
Speaker 1: need paint colors adding to that. So I think I
27:38
Speaker 1: might need to just kind of veer away from this
27:40
Speaker 1: whole two tone cabinet thing for my current kitchen. You know,
27:43
Speaker 1: I've got to think it through, but right now I'm
27:45
Speaker 1: thinking that this, right here is the deal breaker for me.
27:48
Speaker 1: This is the question that when I ask and think
27:51
Speaker 1: about this and really come to the answer, I think
27:53
Speaker 1: this is the one that breaks it for me. And
27:55
Speaker 1: that's okay. Even though I like the look, it's not
27:57
Speaker 1: right for every space. And I really, you know, absolutely
28:00
Speaker 1: don't want to go through all the work of getting
28:02
Speaker 1: this all done only to realize that it's not something
28:04
Speaker 1: I like or something that works in the space. So
28:06
Speaker 1: it's good to ask these questions and come up with
28:09
Speaker 1: the answers, even if I don't love love love you
28:11
Speaker 1: know the answer, all right. Those are the first three
28:14
Speaker 1: common questions that people run into when they think about
28:17
Speaker 1: this project. I've got three more coming up, and we're
28:20
Speaker 1: going to get to them right after. This Home in
28:24
Speaker 1: Progress is brought to you by Repcolite Paints and Benjamin Moore.
28:27
Speaker 1: Think about it. You spend hours prepping, sanding, taping, and
28:30
Speaker 1: then finally painting. Don't throw all that work away with
28:33
Speaker 1: an inferior product. The paint isn't just another supply. The
28:36
Speaker 1: paint is the project. Make sure, it's the best, and
28:41
Speaker 1: we're back. You're listening to Home in Progress by Repcolite
28:43
Speaker 1: Paint sponsored by Benjamin Moore, and we're working our way
28:47
Speaker 1: through six common questions people ask. You know, six things
28:50
Speaker 1: people struggle with when they're considering painting two tone kitchen cabinets.
28:54
Speaker 1: We covered the first three last segment, and if you
28:57
Speaker 1: want to catch those just head to repcolite dot com
29:00
Speaker 1: check out episode four fifty nine, or you can follow
29:03
Speaker 1: us on Facebook or Instagram and I'll be posting this
29:06
Speaker 1: stuff throughout the week. Next week anyway, the fourth question
29:09
Speaker 1: that commonly comes up is this, how do I choose
29:12
Speaker 1: two colors that actually work together? Right? You know, we
29:16
Speaker 1: talked about it at the beginning. Choosing one cabinet color
29:19
Speaker 1: can often be hard enough for some people. Choosing two
29:24
Speaker 1: feels like, oh, man, like I'm climbing Mount Everest and
29:27
Speaker 1: I don't want to get that wrong. And when you've
29:29
Speaker 1: got two colors that you're trying to make work together,
29:32
Speaker 1: you feel like you've pretty much doubled your chances of
29:35
Speaker 1: getting that wrong. Well, to help you, here's a rule
29:37
Speaker 1: of thumb that solves most of it, or at least
29:40
Speaker 1: it solves it. In principle, it's going to give you
29:42
Speaker 1: the principle to work with, all right. The principle is
29:44
Speaker 1: this one color should do the calming, the other colors
29:48
Speaker 1: should do the talking. Really basic in principle, choose one
29:52
Speaker 1: quiet color and then choose one color with character. If
29:54
Speaker 1: both colors are loud, you're everything in the kitchen or wherever,
30:00
Speaker 1: but your everything in the kitchen is going to start
30:02
Speaker 1: to feel really visually stressful, and you don't want that
30:05
Speaker 1: the quiet one. When you choose these colors, the quiet
30:08
Speaker 1: color is almost always going to be something like a
30:11
Speaker 1: warm white, a cream, a soft grays, something along those tones,
30:15
Speaker 1: you know, just something relatively neutral, relatively calm. The chatty color,
30:20
Speaker 1: the noisier color, that's of course where you bring in
30:23
Speaker 1: your personality. So with that color, that's where we see
30:26
Speaker 1: navies or a sage green or something even deeper and moodier. Right,
30:31
Speaker 1: let me give you to try to put, you know,
30:34
Speaker 1: just bones on this or meat on the bones. I
30:36
Speaker 1: guess that's the right way to say it. Let me
30:37
Speaker 1: give you three Benjamin More pairings that work in just
30:40
Speaker 1: about any kitchen setting, all right, and I'll put all
30:42
Speaker 1: of these in the show notes at repco light dot
30:44
Speaker 1: com if you want to check them out later. If
30:47
Speaker 1: you're looking for a safe, timeless option, you know, mostly timeless,
30:51
Speaker 1: go with white Dove and Hail Navy. You know both
30:54
Speaker 1: Benjamin More colors, White Dove and hail Navy. White Dove's
30:58
Speaker 1: a warm white and Hale Navy's an that's basically going
31:01
Speaker 1: to act like a neutral, and that combination together isn't
31:04
Speaker 1: going to look dated in five, ten, probably more years.
31:08
Speaker 1: You know, it's going to be really solid. It's going
31:10
Speaker 1: to hold its ground well. Now, if Navy feels too
31:12
Speaker 1: formal for you, you can soften it. Try Swiss coffee with
31:16
Speaker 1: october mist, you know, something like october mist. Swiss coffee
31:20
Speaker 1: is a creamy white, and october Mist is a soft
31:23
Speaker 1: sage green. That's the pairing for somebody who wants, you know,
31:27
Speaker 1: to step into that world of color, but they don't want,
31:29
Speaker 1: you know, the color to be screaming at you. You know,
31:32
Speaker 1: he'll Navy. It's not really a screamer, but it is loud.
31:36
Speaker 1: It's louder than sage green is going to be, you know,
31:39
Speaker 1: a soft sage green. So Swiss coffee october Mist a
31:42
Speaker 1: little more, a little more muted. That's probably a better
31:45
Speaker 1: way to say it. If you want something that's a
31:46
Speaker 1: little more current, you know, a little more twenty twenty six,
31:49
Speaker 1: because that's how you roll. Try white dove with a
31:52
Speaker 1: G and teal. A gen teal was actually Benjamin Moore's
31:56
Speaker 1: color of the Year back in hmmm, I think it
32:00
Speaker 1: was twenty twenty one, So beck in twenty twenty one
32:03
Speaker 1: something like that, A G and TL color of the Year.
32:06
Speaker 1: It's still going strong. We still see a lot of it.
32:08
Speaker 1: It's a great color to bring into a setting like this.
32:11
Speaker 1: It's definitely going to feel current. So you've got those options.
32:15
Speaker 1: You've also got a number of other ways you could go.
32:17
Speaker 1: You could go deeper in moodier, you know, with colors
32:19
Speaker 1: like vintage, Vogue, Kendall, Charcoal, mysterious or silhouette. All of
32:24
Speaker 1: these colors can be beautiful, but you do need to
32:27
Speaker 1: be aware that they ask a little more of you
32:29
Speaker 1: than something like Hale Navy is going to do, you know,
32:31
Speaker 1: because Hale Navy is really really forgiving. It's pretty much
32:34
Speaker 1: going to look like Navy no matter what light it's sitting. In.
32:37
Speaker 1: The moodier colors that I just listed, they're more like chameleons.
32:41
Speaker 1: They're more like teenagers. That's probably the best way to
32:44
Speaker 1: say it. They've got complex undertones, right, Teenagers have complex undertones.
32:50
Speaker 1: We all know that. So these colors, they can lean
32:53
Speaker 1: a little purple, a little brown, a little green, depending
32:55
Speaker 1: on the color, and those undertones they shift on you
32:59
Speaker 1: throughout the So what looks like a warm espresso again,
33:02
Speaker 1: they shift on you throughout the day. That's teenagers right there.
33:06
Speaker 1: These moody your colors will do the same thing. What
33:08
Speaker 1: can look like a warm espresso at ten in the morning,
33:11
Speaker 1: let's say, all of a sudden, can end up looking
33:13
Speaker 1: cool and purple by four in the afternoon. So be
33:16
Speaker 1: aware of that and use them with care. Put them
33:19
Speaker 1: somewhere the room can support them, you know, so an island,
33:22
Speaker 1: the lowers, a hatch, a pantry, cabinet, and of course
33:25
Speaker 1: before you put them anywhere, sample them in your actual
33:28
Speaker 1: kitchen at three different times of the day before you
33:31
Speaker 1: jump into any one of these colors, you know, And
33:34
Speaker 1: in fact, that should be the case with any color
33:36
Speaker 1: that you're doing on any project, really, you know, unless
33:40
Speaker 1: it's super small project, but most of the time you're
33:43
Speaker 1: going to be better off sampling the colors Benjamin war
33:45
Speaker 1: color samples. You can get them for five ninety nine.
33:48
Speaker 1: Get enough paint to put it on, you know, a
33:50
Speaker 1: significant area, and really get a look at that color
33:53
Speaker 1: before you commit. Make sure you're doing that. Big takeaway
33:56
Speaker 1: with this question and answer. The safest combinations are usually
33:59
Speaker 1: going to have some restraint, right. One color is going
34:02
Speaker 1: to give the room a sense of calm, the other's
34:04
Speaker 1: going to make it interesting. All right, moving on, Let's
34:06
Speaker 1: get to question five. And this is one that people
34:08
Speaker 1: maybe don't ask as often as they should. So I'm
34:11
Speaker 1: kind of cheating here. You know, maybe it's not a
34:14
Speaker 1: common question, but it really should be. And the question
34:17
Speaker 1: is this, what else in the kitchen has to be
34:19
Speaker 1: considered before I pick the colors, you know, after going
34:23
Speaker 1: through all the things that we talked about, but before
34:25
Speaker 1: you're actually nailing down your color choices, you know, down
34:28
Speaker 1: to two specific tones, you need to take a look
34:30
Speaker 1: at your kitchen and look specifically at what's staying. You know,
34:34
Speaker 1: start with the floors, because this is where people get
34:36
Speaker 1: tripped up quite a bit. If you've got warm oak floors,
34:40
Speaker 1: you know, honey oak, red oak, hickory, anything with orange, red,
34:44
Speaker 1: or yellow in it. The floors are gonna matter. A
34:47
Speaker 1: cool gray cabinet color may look great on a paint
34:50
Speaker 1: chip in the store, but once it's sitting next to
34:53
Speaker 1: that warm floor, that two can fight each other. And
34:56
Speaker 1: that's not a small thing. It's one of the most
34:58
Speaker 1: common kitchen paint regrets that we see. You know, people
35:01
Speaker 1: who've picked colors without thinking about how that color is
35:05
Speaker 1: going to play with their floor, and then they end
35:08
Speaker 1: up with their cabinets and their floor kind of fighting
35:10
Speaker 1: each other. Now, you don't want your cabinets and your
35:12
Speaker 1: floor to match, but they should relate to each other.
35:15
Speaker 1: They should be able to talk congenially with each other.
35:19
Speaker 1: So think about those things. If you've got warm floors,
35:22
Speaker 1: you're usually going to want cabinet colors that can live
35:24
Speaker 1: with warmth. You know, warm whites, creams, soft sages, warm grazies,
35:29
Speaker 1: balanced navies, you know, deeper greens that don't get too icy.
35:32
Speaker 1: If you've got cooler floors, they can handle cooler whites,
35:36
Speaker 1: cleaner blues, charcoals, or cooler greens more easily. So keep
35:40
Speaker 1: that in mind. Now apply that same thinking to your
35:43
Speaker 1: counters and your Backsplash warm with warm, cool with cool,
35:47
Speaker 1: and if your counter or your backsplash is already doing,
35:51
Speaker 1: you know, a ton of work visually. If you've got busy,
35:54
Speaker 1: granite pattern tile, bold colors in those areas, then your
35:58
Speaker 1: cabinets probably need to quiet things down a little bit.
36:02
Speaker 1: They shouldn't be amping things up, they should be calming
36:04
Speaker 1: things down. If those surfaces that we just talked about
36:07
Speaker 1: are simple, well then you've got more room for contrast
36:10
Speaker 1: and personality in the cabinet colors. So keep all of
36:13
Speaker 1: that in mind, and then you've got the stuff people
36:15
Speaker 1: forget to think about your appliances and your hardware. Stainless steel,
36:20
Speaker 1: it's basically going to be a neutral. It'll work with
36:22
Speaker 1: pretty much anything but Matt Black appliances. They can really
36:27
Speaker 1: push a kitchen towards the cool side, towards the sleek side,
36:30
Speaker 1: towards the modern side. If you've got existing hardware that
36:33
Speaker 1: you're keeping, you know, brush nickel from two thousand and eight,
36:36
Speaker 1: brass from last year, Matt Black, that hardware that you're
36:40
Speaker 1: keeping is already pushing your cabinet decision one way or
36:43
Speaker 1: the other. You've got to keep that in mind. Brass
36:46
Speaker 1: is going to want warmth, polished nickel and chrome they're
36:48
Speaker 1: pretty happy with cool tones. Matt Black is gonna work
36:52
Speaker 1: with both, but it's going to lean modern. So all
36:55
Speaker 1: of that. Keep that in mind. And then finally you've
36:57
Speaker 1: got your lighting. Think about your lighting because color changes
37:01
Speaker 1: dramatically in different light. A navy that looks rich and
37:04
Speaker 1: classic in a bright showroom can look nearly black in
37:07
Speaker 1: a dim kitchen. So you're not gonna want to move
37:10
Speaker 1: too fast on that until you've looked at that color
37:13
Speaker 1: in your kitchen. A white that looks soft in one
37:15
Speaker 1: room can look dingy in another. A green that looks
37:18
Speaker 1: calm in daylight can go muddy at night under the
37:21
Speaker 1: wrong bulbs. So before you commit, and as I already mentioned,
37:25
Speaker 1: sample the colors in your actual kitchen. Look at them
37:28
Speaker 1: in the morning, look at them at night, look at
37:30
Speaker 1: them next to the floor, the counter, the backsplash, look
37:33
Speaker 1: at them next to the appliances. Because the goal in
37:35
Speaker 1: all of this isn't just to pick two great colors.
37:38
Speaker 1: The goal is to pick two colors that belong in
37:40
Speaker 1: the kitchen. So that's question five, last common question that
37:45
Speaker 1: I've got, and it's something that a lot of us
37:47
Speaker 1: are thinking, even if we're not asking it out loud.
37:50
Speaker 1: Is this going to look dated, you know, by next week,
37:53
Speaker 1: Because why in the world would you want to spend
37:55
Speaker 1: time and money and energy painting kitchen cabinets if it's
37:58
Speaker 1: going to be dated in a year or so. That's
38:01
Speaker 1: a lot of time and energy and money spent for
38:04
Speaker 1: something that's just gonna really date the kitchen. Well, if
38:07
Speaker 1: you're wondering that, here's the way I think about it.
38:10
Speaker 1: The thing that usually dates a two tone kitchen isn't
38:12
Speaker 1: the fact that there are multiple colors. It's the choices
38:15
Speaker 1: of the colors. It's the choices that you've made. It's
38:17
Speaker 1: the wrong contrast, the wrong undertone, it's too much going on,
38:22
Speaker 1: it's a finish that feels very tied to one moment.
38:25
Speaker 1: Or it's a color combination. You know, this is the
38:27
Speaker 1: most common, the color combination that was copied from a
38:30
Speaker 1: trend photo but never really belonged in the house. Two
38:33
Speaker 1: tone itself isn't the concern. It's been around for about
38:37
Speaker 1: a decade now. You know, about one in four homeowners
38:40
Speaker 1: who renovate their kitchens choose contrasting upper and lower cabinets.
38:44
Speaker 1: So it's not a flash in the pan. You know,
38:47
Speaker 1: trend it's an established design option. You just need to
38:49
Speaker 1: get the colors right. So a whiter cream kitchen with
38:52
Speaker 1: a navy island that's not going to feel ridiculous in
38:55
Speaker 1: a few years. Warm white with stage green isn't some
38:58
Speaker 1: kind of crazy design amble. What's going to age faster
39:02
Speaker 1: are combinations that feel extreme, that feel disconnected or overly trendy.
39:07
Speaker 1: The pairings that age well are the ones that don't
39:09
Speaker 1: shout their decade. Now. Some dating is, of course unavoidable.
39:14
Speaker 1: Every kitchen eventually shows its era. The honey oak that
39:18
Speaker 1: I've got in mind from nineteen ninety five, or whenever
39:21
Speaker 1: it shows its era, the granite from two thousand and five,
39:24
Speaker 1: the all white kitchens from twenty fifteen. They all looked
39:28
Speaker 1: timeless when they were put together, but not so much anymore.
39:32
Speaker 1: And that's not a failure. That's just how design works.
39:35
Speaker 1: You know. The goal isn't to pick something that's never
39:37
Speaker 1: going to look dated. The goal really is to pick
39:40
Speaker 1: something you know, realistically, the goal is to pick something
39:42
Speaker 1: that you'll love for ten to fifteen years, because that's
39:45
Speaker 1: about how long a kitchen lasts before it gets a
39:47
Speaker 1: refresh anyway. So if you're worried about two tone cabinets
39:50
Speaker 1: looking dated. You can probably stop worrying. You don't need
39:54
Speaker 1: to avoid it altogether. You just need to make calm
39:56
Speaker 1: wise choices. You know, use one quiet color and one
39:59
Speaker 1: character color, keep the placement logical, pay attention to the
40:03
Speaker 1: floor and the counters, avoid adding too many colors, and
40:06
Speaker 1: choose colors you actually like, not just the colors the
40:09
Speaker 1: Internet told you to like this month. That's the big takeaway.
40:12
Speaker 1: And speaking about painting cabinets, you know, which is what
40:15
Speaker 1: I've been doing this whole you know, last two segments here.
40:18
Speaker 1: If you'd like a free guide that I put together
40:20
Speaker 1: about a year or so ago with product recommendations, tips
40:24
Speaker 1: and tricks, just head to repcollite dot com slash cabinets
40:27
Speaker 1: and you can fill out a form for that free guide.
40:30
Speaker 1: And I think all I'm asking for on that form
40:33
Speaker 1: is a name and your email so I can send
40:36
Speaker 1: you the guide. So it's pretty simple, pretty straightforward. Repcollite
40:39
Speaker 1: dot com slash cabinets, and I'll get you that how
40:43
Speaker 1: to guide and it'll walk you through everything you need
40:45
Speaker 1: to know. All right, let's shift gears one last time
40:48
Speaker 1: for the week, and let's talk about deck projects. You know,
40:51
Speaker 1: it's spring. You got to talk about deck projects when
40:54
Speaker 1: you work in the paint business, and we hit spring,
40:57
Speaker 1: so we're gonna do that right after this, you're listening
41:01
Speaker 1: to Home in Progress, where the projects are real, the mistakes,
41:04
Speaker 1: they're educational, sometimes painful, mostly educational. And the only thing
41:10
Speaker 1: more stubborn than that old wallpaper on your bathroom wall
41:14
Speaker 1: is your determination to get it fixed. Probably sponsored by
41:18
Speaker 1: Repcollite Paints and Benjamin Moore Paint with a purpose, people
41:21
Speaker 1: who care and everything you need to get the job
41:23
Speaker 1: done right. And we're back. You're listening to Home in
41:26
Speaker 1: Progress by Rep Coellite Paint, sponsored by Benjamin More And
41:30
Speaker 1: it's deck season. And I know I talk about decks
41:34
Speaker 1: every single stink and spring on the show, every single year.
41:38
Speaker 1: And that's because every spring, we Michigan people, we emerge
41:42
Speaker 1: from hibernation, right, and we walk on to our decks
41:46
Speaker 1: and they usually look a little bit rough. At least
41:50
Speaker 1: mine does looks a little rough. I'm assuming years does too.
41:54
Speaker 1: You know, I wish these things would last for years
41:56
Speaker 1: and years and years, but the truth is the deck
41:59
Speaker 1: codings don't. They just don't last that long. You know,
42:02
Speaker 1: the products that we put down usually are going to
42:04
Speaker 1: give us one to two years and then they need
42:06
Speaker 1: to be redone and just a quick note before I
42:09
Speaker 1: really get into the meat of the topic, Just a
42:13
Speaker 1: quick note. I know that there are deck products out there.
42:16
Speaker 1: You're maybe thinking about them. You know, maybe you're nudging
42:19
Speaker 1: somebody next to you, a dear loved one, and you're saying, oh,
42:22
Speaker 1: this guy doesn't know what he's talking about. There's this
42:25
Speaker 1: product out there three to five years. It's going to
42:27
Speaker 1: give me three to five years. It's all over all
42:29
Speaker 1: their marketing three to five years. This guy doesn't know
42:32
Speaker 1: what he's talking about. If you're that person, you know,
42:35
Speaker 1: nudging your friend or whatever, I've got news for you.
42:39
Speaker 1: Those products weren't tested in Michigan when they came up
42:42
Speaker 1: with that three to five years thing. That's that's not
42:45
Speaker 1: based in Michigan. You know, it's probably based in somewhere
42:48
Speaker 1: where their winters don't exist. You know, in Michigan, you're
42:53
Speaker 1: usually going to get one to two years before you've
42:56
Speaker 1: got to redo your product, you know, redo the coding
42:58
Speaker 1: on the deck. Now, that's going to depend on you. You know,
43:01
Speaker 1: if you're not that picky, it can go three to
43:04
Speaker 1: five years. But if you're you know, picky, like regular people,
43:09
Speaker 1: one to two years is about what you're going to
43:11
Speaker 1: get out of it. And it's just because of all
43:14
Speaker 1: the exposure that Michigan decks get, the winter, the great summers,
43:18
Speaker 1: you know, lots of rain. It just really beats these
43:21
Speaker 1: codings to death. So just be aware when you hear
43:25
Speaker 1: or read claims about how deck products will last for
43:28
Speaker 1: three or more years. Just if it were me, i'd
43:31
Speaker 1: be a little skeptical. It's not usually how it works
43:35
Speaker 1: here in Michigan. All right, In the time that I've
43:37
Speaker 1: got left on the show, I want to run you
43:39
Speaker 1: through some details of a deck project, you know, because
43:42
Speaker 1: it's spring, I'll run you through those details and it's
43:46
Speaker 1: just the right time of the year to do it.
43:48
Speaker 1: But I also want to talk about it because the
43:50
Speaker 1: weather right now is absolutely perfect for this project. You know,
43:55
Speaker 1: it's not always this perfect at this time of year.
43:58
Speaker 1: It's been more or less dry for the last three
44:00
Speaker 1: weeks or so. We've had a little bit of rain
44:03
Speaker 1: here and there, but it's mostly dry, you know, not
44:06
Speaker 1: loads of rain. And the temperatures, the temperatures have been
44:09
Speaker 1: really mild, sometimes a little too mild. But it's been mild.
44:14
Speaker 1: It's a great time to work. You know, hot hot
44:17
Speaker 1: weather it's tougher to work in because we're miserable in
44:20
Speaker 1: hotter weather. You know, we're sweating, we're all slumped over.
44:24
Speaker 1: The sun's beating down on us, and most of us,
44:26
Speaker 1: you know, haven't seen the sun in ages at this
44:30
Speaker 1: point in the year, and our skin is burning almost instantaneously.
44:35
Speaker 1: So the cooler temperatures they're nicer to work in. But
44:37
Speaker 1: also when it's ninety degrees out and the sun's beating down,
44:41
Speaker 1: your coating is going to dry way too fast. You know,
44:43
Speaker 1: you can't work it in properly. You get lap marks,
44:46
Speaker 1: you get streaks, It dries before it has a chance
44:49
Speaker 1: to penetrate deeply into the wood and so on. Right now, though,
44:53
Speaker 1: cooler temperatures, longer open times on the product way easier application.
44:59
Speaker 1: As long as your deck has been dry for about
45:01
Speaker 1: forty eight hours or so no recent rain in that timeframe.
45:05
Speaker 1: If that's the case, you're in the perfect window. So
45:09
Speaker 1: don't wait until June or July when you're fighting the
45:11
Speaker 1: weather and the product at the same time. Now's the time,
45:15
Speaker 1: perfect spring for deck projects, all right. If that's the case.
45:19
Speaker 1: If that's you, If you're thinking, boy, that little guy
45:22
Speaker 1: in the radio, he sounds like he knows what he's
45:24
Speaker 1: talking about. I'm pumped. I'm going to do this. If
45:26
Speaker 1: that's you. If you're going to tackle the project, you
45:28
Speaker 1: need to start with the right prep work, and in
45:31
Speaker 1: this instance that means cleaning the deck. So get all
45:34
Speaker 1: the debris off, of course, but you also need to
45:37
Speaker 1: clean the wood. The steps that you use can vary
45:40
Speaker 1: based on what you've got on your deck right now.
45:43
Speaker 1: Benjamin Moore has an entire system of cleaners that you
45:46
Speaker 1: can use that are going to work no matter what
45:48
Speaker 1: the situation is. So stop out at any Rep Polite store,
45:51
Speaker 1: bring some photos of your deck and show us the
45:55
Speaker 1: condition that it's in, and then we'll get you moving
45:58
Speaker 1: with the right cleaners and the right steps. Another option,
46:01
Speaker 1: if you don't want to go the chemical cleaning route,
46:05
Speaker 1: you can ask about our on floor machine rental at
46:08
Speaker 1: any Repcolite location. That on floor Machine I talk about
46:12
Speaker 1: it every year on the show. It's a standing system
46:15
Speaker 1: that's going to get the boards looking almost like new again.
46:18
Speaker 1: We've only got one though, and the rentals book out
46:21
Speaker 1: pretty quickly. If you are interested, stop out at any
46:24
Speaker 1: Repcolite location and ask about it. They'll give you pricing
46:28
Speaker 1: and they'll help you make a reservation. Anyway, once the
46:32
Speaker 1: deck is cleaned and dried, or once you've got it sanded,
46:35
Speaker 1: it's time to apply the deck coding, and the deck
46:37
Speaker 1: coding that I recommend pretty much every single year is
46:40
Speaker 1: Repcolites deck and doc would protector. And I love it
46:43
Speaker 1: because it's a little bit unusual. You know, most deck
46:46
Speaker 1: codings out there, and I mean most of them are
46:48
Speaker 1: designed to make water beat up on the surface. We
46:51
Speaker 1: see it on all the commercials, right water beating off
46:54
Speaker 1: the deck like it's a freshly waxed car. And people
46:58
Speaker 1: see that and they think, wow, you know that, that's perfect,
47:01
Speaker 1: That's what I want. But here's what's actually going on
47:03
Speaker 1: with that. Those beads of water they sit there on
47:06
Speaker 1: your deck and then the sun comes out and every
47:09
Speaker 1: single one of those little beads of water acts like
47:10
Speaker 1: a tiny magnifying glass, you know, it focuses the sunlight
47:14
Speaker 1: down onto the finish underneath, and over time, slowly but steadily,
47:18
Speaker 1: that breaks down your coating in tiny spots all over
47:22
Speaker 1: the deck. It's kind of like death by a thousand
47:24
Speaker 1: magnifying glasses. Our deck and dock is formulated completely differently.
47:29
Speaker 1: Instead of making the water beat up, it's going to
47:31
Speaker 1: disperse it. It's going to thin it out so it evaporates quickly.
47:34
Speaker 1: No beads, no magnifying glasses, no premature breakdown of the finish.
47:38
Speaker 1: So that's reason number one that oil based decon dock
47:41
Speaker 1: from Repcolite is the gold standard. But there are a
47:44
Speaker 1: couple more. You know, Reason two, it's almost impossible to
47:47
Speaker 1: mess up. You know, the open time, the application time
47:50
Speaker 1: that you've got is so long. You know, it just
47:52
Speaker 1: flows out beautifully. It's forgiving. Reason three is that it
47:56
Speaker 1: fades out rather than peeling or flaking. So when it
47:59
Speaker 1: is time to recod in a couple of years or
48:01
Speaker 1: in a year or so, you're not out there stripping
48:03
Speaker 1: the old stuff off. You're not necessarily having to stand it.
48:06
Speaker 1: You're not doing battle with the previous finish. You just
48:08
Speaker 1: clean the deck, let it dry, and recode it. That's it.
48:12
Speaker 1: So Repcolites deck and dock. We also make a water
48:15
Speaker 1: based version if you want to check that out. So
48:17
Speaker 1: a little bit easier clean up, but application is sometimes
48:21
Speaker 1: a little trickier, especially the hotter the weather gets, but
48:24
Speaker 1: definitely stop out it any Repcolite and ask about it.
48:28
Speaker 1: And last thing I'll say about all of this is
48:30
Speaker 1: that deck and dock, both the water based and the
48:32
Speaker 1: oil based versions, they're all twenty percent off until May
48:36
Speaker 1: twenty five. So if you do have a deck project
48:40
Speaker 1: and you are thinking about it, it's not just the
48:42
Speaker 1: weather that's perfect for it right now, it's also the pricing.
48:45
Speaker 1: We've got that sale going on till May twenty five,
48:47
Speaker 1: So stop out at any Repcolite store and ask about it.
48:50
Speaker 1: All Right, that's going to do it for this episode.
48:52
Speaker 1: If you want to catch it again, you can find
48:53
Speaker 1: it online at Repcolite dot com. And whatever you do
48:57
Speaker 1: today makes your paints a part of it. Have a
48:59
Speaker 1: great weekend, every buddy, and I'll see you next week.
49:01
Speaker 1: For Home in Progress by Recolite Paints, I'm Dan Hansen.
49:05
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.