Ryan in American Painting Contractor Magazine

Ryan was featured along with some of the best in the painting industry in this months American Painting Contractor Magazine in a column named Personalities in Paint.

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It was highlighting the social media personalities in the painting industry. Ryan has always from the start put out as much information as he could to educate not only other contractors but potential clients. “It is better to know what to expect than to waste time” he says all the time.

By using his YouTube channel a few blogs and many other social media outlets we have been able to reduce the wasted hours spent on going out to estimates that just don’t go anywhere, saving clients time away from work or having to call other contractors because we just were or were not a good fit for each other.

I love you so much now get away from me

I love you so much now get away from me.

I have always loved watching people and when I say I love it, I will sit in the mall or at the store and watch people go in and out, have conversations and watch them interact with each other. I believe this is why I am usually a good judge of character and can see through the bs that some people live their lives with.

This is also, however, one reason I don't give a lot of my time to too many people, the salespeople, the time stealers, the people who just don't bring any value to a daily life, you know who these people are, we are all that person at one time or another. The salesperson who shows up unannounced or calls and says, can we meet for a bit? Anyone who knows me knows that won't fly and here are some of the rules that are not negotiable.

• If you call, leave a message and exactly what you want. If you just say call back you will be waiting a long time. Let me determine if it really needs a callback and if I am the one best fit to handle the issue
• Meetings, I hate them, I rarely do them and when we do they are quick and hopefully you get your point across quick or I will stop listening halfway through, it's best to send me all your thoughts and let me go through them on my time.

The cc

Don't cc me in with other peoples emails, they are in positions to handle their business, the cc is just an aggressive way to let someone know I sent this to your boss as well, I delete and block cc'rs

These may seem harsh but remember it's your life, don't let people steal your time, it's valuable

Back to people watching

Now back to people watching, being in business I get to see the best and worst in people and generally everyone is great and were honored to work for them and get to meet their families and we all become friends. Then there are the others who make you think "why did I go in business"  and you must be a horrible person and can do nothing right.

Those people are few and far between but anyone in business knows they can come at any given moment, you know the ones.

• The treat your staff horrible
• Find things to complain about that are not there
• Didn't take the time to read the agreement they signed
• Don't live up to the things they need to do on their end and blame you.

But what's most interesting about these people is for us about 75% still call us back for more work?

We make a list each year of these people who we just will not work for, it'snot worth the aggravation to our staff and painters to have to endure a week or more with them.

I am not referring by the way to projects that we make mistakes on, those things do happen, no one is perfect. Anyone who has worked with us even if they have a complaint will say they came back and corrected things.

Not just our business

• These people are not just in our business, I see someone upset and yelling in the CVS I go to almost anytime I go there, someone is always upset and sometimes just having to wait their turn.

• At the store in the morning, people get upset their food isn't ready in time or correct or someone pulls out in front of them or any other hundreds of things.

• Take a breath, it's not worth getting upset about, you cannot believe that person at CVS wakes up each day thinking "I can't wait to make people wait for half an hour and yell at me when they get up to the register"

So when you see me out and about most of the time I am watching everyone else, be nice to each other, be kind, respectful and helpful. It goes a long way.

The holidays are over let's paint

The holidays are over lets paint!

Now that the hustle and bustle of the holidays is almost over it's time to think again on getting your home improvement projects done and painting is a great one to do over the winter

With today's paints, the time when you had to open the windows to keep from breathing in bad fumes is a thing of the past. There are many products now that are allergy and asthma friendly Natura for one from Benjamin Moore is odorless and zero voc as well. Remember just because it says zero voc does not mean it's odorless.

The winter is a great time to paint simply because that is where your spending most of your time at now, shouldn't it be the color and rich look that you want? In the summer you have so much to worry about outside. 

The interior painting process is a fairly simple one but can go wrong when the choices are simply left up to price, most of the time that saying "you get what you pay for" is true and painting and contractors are no different.

Everyone will come in and promise you the world, but its the company that follows through and delivers that leaves the lasting impression and that is what sets us apart, when you call someone should be able to answer the phone and address any concerns, the painters should be professional and courteous but know their jobs and how to do it. Guiding you through the process.

A company should have a great relationship with their paint vendors and trust the products they are using are truly awesome and ones they would use in their homes.

When you need a question answered they should most of the time have that answer, they should be accountable for any mistakes, they show up late they should have called or apologized.

Everyone makes mistakes and we are no different but owning those mistakes is where it's at.

So if you need an interior painting company that loves what they do and will do anything to make their clients happy give us  a call , we would love to come to take a look at your project

Choosing a professional to paint your kitchen cabinets

Why choose a professional to paint your kitchen cabinets?

Sure you may be able to paint your kitchen cabinets but I assume you don't have a $5000 sprayer we use to paint them? Or a few of them. Painting kitchen cabinets is about the proper surface preparation, choosing the correct materials throughout the entire process and knowing what to do when small issues arise or how to change products for different types of cabinets.

A professional cabinet painting company has done hundreds of cabinets and has seen issues and know how to avoid them and correct them if they pop up. They have the proper professional equipment to accomplish the finish we consider top of the line.

We are always testing new products, new primer, and finishes, new equipment to be able to offer the best finish in the area. Without keeping ahead of the industry and paints and coatings changing so frequently a paint company could be using outdated applications or worse yet products that are old and have been improved.

Trained Staff

We have written procedures so we can assure each set of cabinets is done in the same way so there are no surprises. Our painters and applicators take great pride in what they do, I have been told many times by them how they will be doing projects to make them the best looking cabinets in the Lehigh Valley. No corners would ever be cut with these guys and the results show in the before and after pictures and tons of happy clients.

If you have thought about painting your kitchen cabinets we can take all your worries out of this process, from the initial site visit to the day we arrive, you will be taking care of and your cabinets will be in the great and capable hands of our trained staff.

What could go wrong?

We have seen and gone back to jobs that other contractors were hired, not using the proper primer, not cleaning the cabinets, overspray all over the ceiling runs and drips in the finish are just some of the things we have seen. Once a job is ruined, it is very costly to come back and correct them. Sometimes as much or more than the original project.

Choosing Paint Colors Can Be Stressful

Choosing paint colors can be a stressful task

Choosing paint colors for some is fun and for others can be the most stressful thing to do with a home improvement project.

Choose the wrong color and it can ruin any great paint job.

With so many available colors today it can seem impossible to choose the perfect color, also lighting, the shade can dramatically also change the appearance of any color inside and out.

There is a reason there are professional color consultants to help make this decision easier.

But let's take this a step further

What if we can take pictures of your home or business and show you what the new possibilities are as far as color?

We now offer three free color renderings for our clients on most full repaint projects.

With the help of our great vendor Benjamin Moore we can take a picture of your exterior home or business and show you the different variations of what colors are possible.

Free Color Renderings

Along with a color consult and these color renderings, there is simply nothing to worry about when you're making that huge decision regarding the paint colors for your home.

Still can't decide after seeing three renderings? No problem we offer affordable packages of additional renderings.

Choosing the correct paint color

Choosing the perfect color for your room

With so many colors and brands available to today, this can be a very stressful situation when you decide to paint a room in your house. Not only choosing the correct color but one that will complement and coordinate with all of your other furnishings.

Another consideration is families who have an open space, one which you can see the others rooms while standing in the other. For these areas try to choose a color one or two shades up or down from the color your using in that room.

Benjamin Moore has a great color chart that I used in my home, any color compliments the other, this is the Affinity Color Chart you cannot go wrong here.

If your unsure a color consultant can certainly be a saving grace here, we use one ourselves, even though we paint every day, we bring a professional in to choose colors for our projects because they have the knowledge of the flow of the home, other considerations such as your curtain color and coordinating colors with furniture.

If you're concerned with colors, use a neutral color and add a splash to one wall, adding an accent wall can dramatically change the look of a room or highlight a painting, a televison or other focal wall.

If you're selling your home

If you're selling your home, many suggest using a white or off-white color, this will easily allow the buyer to add any of the colors they want without confusing their purchase with a lot of colors throughout the home

From the Diy Network 

A good rule of thumb is to remember the color wheel. We all learned about the primary colors in school - red, yellow and blue. These are on the color wheel at 12:00, 4:00 and 8:00 respectively. Combining any of these will give you a secondary color (i.e. purple, orange). Colors near each other on the color wheel such as blue and purple are analogous to each other and will allow one color to stand out more. Colors opposite each other on the color wheel such as green and red are complementary to one another and will nicely play off each other. Staying within the same shade of color (i.e. greens) will give you a subtle and soothing look. Painting with cool colors such as blues, greens and purples makes small rooms appear larger and more airy while colors such as reds, yellows and oranges will give a room a more vibrant appearance. You can vary the warmth even with a red or yellow by choosing muted shades of those colors such as pink, peach or a buttery yellow. Warm colors have cool ones as their complementary colors while cool colors have warm compliments. Shades are either pure or vibrant, muted (which are less intense than their vibrant counterparts) or shaded (the darker colors in the same color scheme). 

Don't stress it

Whatever you do, don't stress this choice, you can always repaint, put samples on the wall to see what the color really looks like in the space with your lighting.

This is a fun time, you will change the look and feel of your home, it's not the time to be stressed out or angry over paint. Take a deep breath, hire a pro and with us we bing our designer with most of our interior painting projects.