Nyeleni Furniture, House & Home Improvement

When it comes to the easiest and cheapest ways to transform your home, paint is often described as the most powerful tool. And it truly is. But, what many overlook is just how far paint can go. Beyond walls and the front door, there are many other elements in your home, that with the right kind of paint, proper application and good color can be transformed into things of beauty!

Let’s walk through the home and see just how far your paint can go:

Bathroom:

Does your ceramic tile look old and tired, outdated and sad? Before opting to replace the tile, there’s a much less expensive and time consuming project: paint! There are special paints available on the market that are specifically made for ceramic tile. These paints are waterproof and come in myriad designer color options.

Ever hankered to get rid of your outdated lavender colored bath-tub? Replacing a bathtub can be very costly and messy as well. If the tub is attached to tile, than the tile can end up breaking. You can have your bathtub professionally painted- which is often the best option in this case as it’s a tricky job and requires specialized paint products. A typical job will cost you about $300. But it may well be worth it, if you compare to the cost and hassle of replacing the tub.

Likewise, if your bathroom cabinets are dragging your design overhaul down- have no fear, paint is here! Depending on what your cabinets are made of, and painted with, the job may involve some sanding and a particular kind of paint and possibly primer. Consult with your local paint store as to how to approach this. Paint your cabinets a nice, bright and light color that ties in with the entire bathroom. Replace your old bathroom hardware and SHAZAM- a whole new bathroom!

Kitchen:

Beyond the walls of your kitchen, paint can be used to brighten up down-trodden cabinets. As cabinets are such a dominate feature in a kitchen, this will do a lot to enliven the entire room. Again, consult with your local paint company with regards to the type of paint and process that will best serve your particular cabinets. When replacing the cabinet hardware in the kitchen, think of finding something that ties in with all the appliances.

Another element you can spruce up with paint is your countertop. Yes, it is possible to paint countertop. But you’ll want to do it right. It’ll involve using a special primer, numerous coats of paint and then a seal- generally satin or high-gloss non-yellowing polyurethane. When approaching the color of your countertop, make sure it ties in with all the colors you’ve chosen for the other elements: cabinets, walls etc.

Living Areas:

You’ll be surprised what you can transform with paint in your main living areas. Maybe you have an outdated tile on your fireplace hearth. Again, with the proper primer, the right kind of paint and a color that ties everything together, you can wave your painting wand and cure almost any outdated monstrosity!

Furniture is another beast that paint can tackle successfully. You can sand down wood furniture and then re-stain it, or go for painting it a completely different color- something bold to serve as an accent in your living room. This again may involve a coat of primer and a particular paint. Think of it as another opportunity to consult and get chatty with you local paint store.

You can even get down to the nifty gritty details and start to create some art projects. Re-paint some old art frames, to make them punch out in your home design. Try painting a vase, or a decorative platter.

So, as you can see the power of paint goes far beyond walls. Whether you’re in need of some affordable and relatively quick home staging tricks before a resale, or if you just want to do some improvements that won’t break the bank and consume all of your time, get to know paint and its true potential.

Being a “Go-To” Painting Company: The Bull in a Bear Market

Much to my wife’s chagrin, I willingly and somewhat credulously engage with some of the more far-flung segments of popular culture—to wit, more often than not I fall asleep listening to a late-night radio host she charitably refers to as “Alien Man.” I won’t bore you with received conspiracy theories or musings from this or that gassy knoll, but I would like to use one of the outer limit’s more interesting fields of endeavor as a jumping point for this article.

Predictive linguistics is, in a nutshell, the belief that within the unknowable magnitude of collected human chatter we might dig out kernels of future events, most often along larger-scale trend lines such as shifts in political climate. The governing logic at work within this study holds that humans both intuit and shape future happenings through language; in other words and on a smaller, cruder scale: get a group of 30 farmers together and give them a few hours to kill in a room miked for sound and by the end of the day, you’ll probably have painted a decent picture of next year’s harvest through careful notation of repeated phrases and tonal patterns.

So, the chicken or the egg? To a predictive linguist, the answer is “both.”

On that note, we’ve all worn our eyes to the quick–and likely lost a few winks as business owners–reading about the economy these last few months. Whether or not the credit crunch leads to further fiscal deterioration, the language concentration centered around ‘downturn’ is unmistakable, and it’s smart business to bet that a relational turn towards ‘value’ will take on a gathering intensity as Wall Street makes its uneasy peace with Main Street.

Indeed, to the savvy business, this fog of uncertainty represents a very real, tangible opportunity for growth: how might a successful painting company watch its billable hours climb out of the ashes of recession?

By adding…value.

Keep in mind that most residential customers see their painting projects as component parts to the greater aim of ‘home improvement’ or ‘beautification,’ and slap a double nickel on that relationship during times of economic hardship. They’re hiring for quality, finish, aesthetic, to be sure; as fingers tighten around purse strings it’s unavoidable that they’re also hiring with an eye on a quantifiable improvement to their initial investment in the residence—in short, they are hiring to add value!

And as surely as your customers will be hiring to add value$, they’ll also be hiring to add valueZZZ…consider how much proverbial—and sometimes literal!–sleep you save your customer by doing all the little things well, by covering all of their bases where possible. Time is always money, remember, and the surest way to add value across the board is by becoming a ‘go-to’ business, increasing your customer’s bottom line by decreasing his bottom time:



‘Go-to’ businesses hire, train, and employ go-to guys: Encourage your painters to develop and build upon small home repair skills whenever possible. A ‘handy’ painter might well save a customer the trouble of finding and locating an electrician, joint man, plumber, etc.

‘Go-to’ businesses use their network of contacts to provide their customers with solutions: Let’s say that during the walkthrough, your customer mentions they plan on an addition to the west wing at some point over the next six months. A ‘go-to’ business checks its contact list for a general contractor in that area and is happy to save the customer extra legwork by making an introduction at the right time.

‘Go-to’ businesses take the extra step, every step of the way: your painters are onsite to beautify and fortify your customer’s home; to that end, why not ask that your painters bring in empty trashcans or recycling bins on trash day, take in the customer’s mail or the paper as a courtesy, dust a coffee table that needs dusting? A ‘go-to’ business treats its customers’ homes as its own, and it holds its painters to that highest standard, seven days a week.



As the old saying holds, the list might well go on, and on–these are but a few examples of ‘go-to’ business practice. But for the most potent distillation of ‘go-to’ philosophy, take a good, long look at the telephone: a ‘go-to’ business functioning at its highest capacity is constantly challenging itself to be that first call for every one of its customers–at every point of the decision-making process.



Are you a ‘go-to’ business? If not, why not?