Gas, Paint and Being Green!
Posted by Michele | Filed under Random
This past Fourth of July weekend I noticed that not many people were worried about gas. We were in a gridlock going to our desert home. Once out there, we stayed very close to home. We drove the golf cart over to the club house for a barbeque and fireworks. If we went out to dinner, we drove only a mile or two.
It was 115F! That’s hot! It’s the best time for me as I’m stuck inside and creating blogs, painting my art and fixing the house up. This is also a great time for you to do the same. Save the driving, and take time to redecorate with a can of paint or two.
Over my years of designing color for homes, I’ve collected many tester pints. Wasting paint is not a good thing. Where is it going to go? Most people just throw them in to the trash can. Dunn Edwards will take them but there comes a limit in to how many times they can recycle them. They cannot remove all the tint and the end result is dead gray. My suggestion is to help out and recycle your pints and half empty gallons.
I had a left over gallon of a rusty brown paint. My husband’s office was in dire need of some TLC. I took all my testers along with half empty gallons and drove to his office. I rolled on the rust paint to the entry wall. What a difference! It looks like a new place. However, the remaining four walls now look dingy.
Here is how I will recycle the rest of the testers:
I will sort out all the green pints of paint from the beiges. Then sort by those that have either warm tones or cool tones. Warm tones tend to have a yellowish tone. Cool tones will look more blue. I do not want to blend those together . If they seem too dark in value I will lighten the shades with a left over pint of a soft white or cream. Now I will have a soft green shades.
The warmer green tone will be used on the remaining three walls of the entry which will look great next to the rust accent wall. My husband’s office will be painted the same color. It will have just a bit more energy than the blue tones. Two rooms will be complete on scrap paint. Isn’t that cool?
The extra beige testers, I will do the same. Mix them all together and blend in some white. The third and forth offices will be painted in beige with a accent wall in the soft blue green tone. This will blend the warm and cool tones together.
I have a half a can of rust left over and another half empty can of red. I will blend these together to created the pop that is necessary for the warehouse accent walls. There are colorful bin trays in bright blue, rust and yellows stacked on the typical gray industrial shelving. The vivid rusty red will create some energy in that room where work flow needs to move along. The next time a distributor comes in for a will call pick up they will see that we are moving and groovin!
Just so I’m clear on the steps of blending old paint, keep this in mind:
Don’t use old paint - After one year, it starts to get thick. Try using your kitchen blender to mix old paint, just add a bit of water until desired consistency. Remember to clean your beaters sooner rather than later.
Be safe and blend the same finishes. I would not put flat paint mixed with a bit of low sheen for a bathroom area. Low to high sheen for bathroom and kitchen backspash areas is best. Flat paint with flat. Low sheen can be added moderately to a flat for interior walls but I do not suggest it. You might see a variation in the roller marks or brush strokes.
Do not just dump random paint colors together. You might end up with mud. I’ve been doing this for a long time and I have the artist’s eye so I can dump them together. I do not suggest you do that until you’ve tested a ratio of two colors together. If you’ve got the magic eye, go for it!
Take a dark color and blend in another lighter value. If you put too much white into red, you will have pink. Do you want that? You must add a 1/2 cup of paint at a time to blend in order to arrive at the color you want with your remnant color pints. I would mix in a yellow to lighten a red.
Don’t try and mix full strength colors together. Bright green and bright red will make a horrid brownish tone. I would mix a light value with each separate color or with the same value. For instance, if I had a left over rust and red, that works. Blue and Purple, Yellow and Green, Red and Rust, Green and Blue are pretty safe to test together. But, be careful. If you have orange and red, add a bit of orange to the red for a burnt red, a bit of yellow to red for a very warm red, a bit of green to blue for a blue green. You can do the opposite as well. I’m not sure but I think if you add alot of yellow to red, you’ll have orange.
Otherwise, I would be safe and mix the same tones together with white or very light shade of beige, off white, cream, to the left over cans.
I hope that makes sense. Look at it this way, you will have fun mixing them up and you’ll learn something new and help preserve the planet. Let’s be mean and green, conserve where we can and make our lives simple but fun! Stay home, recycle, think of ways to conserve then on that rainy day, Splurge!!!
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