Furniture
Treat Yourself To A Fabulous Furniture Upgrade
We’ve told you about how we can paint walls…and cabinets…and floors. But have you thought about changing up your furniture? Today, we’ve got several reasons why you should treat yourself to a fabulous furniture upgrade this holiday season!
Spin The Color Wheel
You can choose silver (bells), pick a white (Christmas), or go as red as Rudolph’s nose! If you’re tired of the same old furniture, Royalty can help you revamp it into a whole new look, starting with the color!
To Stain Or Not To Stain
We aren’t talking stains on the carpet from St. Nick’s sooty boots! There are SO many options to choose from with furniture rehabs! You can opt for staining or glazing, distressing or antiquing…these are just a few of the options available to Royalty customers!
Repurpose Instead Of Purchase
Instead of buying new furniture (or putting it on your Christmas wish list), we strongly recommend that you look into giving your sad old pieces a beautiful face-lift! Over time, furniture stains can look dated, perhaps due to chipping or because a particular color is not longer trendy. Don’t throw out your old furniture! Repurpose them with a fresh coat of paint or stain for a whole new look!
Keep Your Memories
Perhaps that old chair was the one you snuggled up in with your grandparents to read Christmas stories. Or the dining room table is the one that your family has gathered around for generations. There’s no need to throw away those memories because the style doesn’t match your existing décor. Just call Royalty to set up an appointment to help those keepsakes fit in and get modernized.
All of us at Royalty Finishes want to wish you a beautiful Christmas filled with hope, love, and warmth. Happy holidays!
Floors
The Benefits Of Concrete Flooring
In an age of tile and wood-style flooring, concrete flooring doesn’t always get the kudos it deserves. Royalty has a quick list of the great reasons to consider upgrading your concrete flooring today!
Low-Maintenance
As-needed sweeping and a weekly mop is all concrete floors require as far as maintenance. Royalty will properly seal any stains or designs to protect them, so all you have to do is a quick clean. No fancy brooms, no expensive specialty products…just a little soapy water and a mop!
Versatility
Any number of looks can be completed with concrete flooring, from glossy to matte finishes. The high shine “wet” appearance can create a marble or granite illusion and more matte finishes can create a softer look. Just ask us how!
Uniqueness
Most concrete floors are poured at the time a house is built. While there will be some cracks due to settling and time, these imperfections are actually a huge bonus for creating unique looks! No other home or office will have the same appearance.
Cost Savings
Natural hardwood and some tiles like travertine are incredibly expensive. Since concrete is already part of your home’s architecture, it’s just a matter of adding some polish and elbow grease to create an amazing look. The price difference between using your existing structure and having to pay for new materials can be substantial!
Sustainability
Concrete can LAST! No need to worry about spilling red wine on it like you would for carpet or about indoor pets scratching your hardwood. It’s incredibly durable and with a professional, it will be made to last.
Royalty can help you revamp your house, from floors to ceilings! We hope you’re interested in the amazing work we can do for concrete flooring…it’s one of our many skills. Don’t forget about our special holiday offer for a free accent wall. This offer includes booking a floor face-lift!
Faux Painting
Four Great Reasons To Go Faux
So what’s the deal with faux finishing? It’s been highlighted in tons of popular home improvement shows and lots of interior decorating magazines, but what is so special about faux painting? In this week’s blog, Royalty has four great reasons to go faux!
It’s Customizable
If you’re looking to add several different colors to a room, faux finishing can help make that look a reality. From colors to textures to sheens, faux painting can help you create amazing looks that are one of a kind! There’s no need to go with the same boring beige as everyone else when you can make something completely unique.
It Creates Movement & Texture
There’s nothing flat about faux. The whole purpose of faux painting is to create textures and finishing that bring the eye to the movement and flow of the surface. Whether the look is wood, marbled, or fabric (see our previous blog on the different techniques of faux finishing), the look is designed to mimic another material while providing a durable finish on your walls.
It’s Less Expensive
A quick web search found that a 100×68 inch slab of 3cm thick marble is over $2,200! Royalty Finishes can create the look of marble on a surface for a fraction of that cost. While having the real deal is certainly nice, it definitely doesn’t fit the budgets of most homeowners. At Royalty, we have the experience to recreate many different materials without breaking your budget.
It Makes Your House Looks Like Art
Flat paints are so boring! Like a beautiful sculpture or fantastic painting, we want to help you showcase your home. Various finishes and textures can help highlight your home’s best features (or even draw attention away from areas you don’t like as much!). Royalty Finishes has expertise in creating one-of-a-kind looks for your home or office.
We hope you’ve enjoyed our reasons to go faux! Regina just got back from a fantastic workshop in Dallas. She learned a ton of new techniques that she can’t wait to show her customers. Don’t forget about our holiday special offer…we can’t wait to work with you. We’re already booking for next year!
Faux Painting
Faux Techniques
Faux finishing is usually defined as a decorative painting finish that appears to be something else, such as stone, wood, or marble. It’s an intricate process that requires a lot of practice and patience. However, there are several types of finishes, so today we’re going to discuss the different faux techniques you might see.
Marbleizing
Genuine marble, granite, or other stone can be really expensive. It’s one thing to have for small surfaces, such as countertops, but costs can often prohibit larger areas like walls. We use a variety of stains and glazes to mimic the appearance of the stone, giving it life by adding specific shading and veins (the lines of deeper color running throughout the stone). It’s one of the most common forms of faux finishing.
Ragging (Rag Painting)
This technique utilizes various thinned out glazes and (you guessed it!) old rags to create texture and movement on a surface. When done properly, it can create a lush, fabric-like look.
Venetian Plastering
This technique is a little more advance, as it uses different tools and multiple layers of plaster to make a highly polished look that resembles marble or other stone. It takes some time and advanced skill to properly create this look, but the use of plaster allows us to create tinted looks to match your color scheme.
Color Washing
This is one of the most common types of faux finishes. It layers multiple colors or glazes that are painted on with different brushes and blended together to create a more three-dimensional look. This technique combines different shades of color to give a wall a “moving” feel.
Graining
Like marbleizing, the graining technique mimics the look of its natural counterpart…however, in this case, the final product looks like wood instead of stone. Natural hardwood can be very expensive and sometimes not be the best option for walls. This painting technique can give you the beautiful look of real wood with a little bit more durability.
We hope you’ve learned a little about some of the techniques Royalty Finishes can offer. We offer a variety of options for your home or office…these are just a few!
Also, don’t forget our special holiday offer! Read our blog to find out more about our gift to you.
Special Offers
The Gift Of Gratitude
Gratitude. Thankfulness. Appreciation. Acknowledgement. Gratefulness.
Thanksgiving means a lot of things to different people. Some consider it an obligatory family holiday. Others look forward to a day of (almost) guilt-free eating and football. Others feel that it’s something more. At Royalty Finishes, we truly believe in the gift of gratitude.
(be sure to read all the way through…we have some amazing news inside!)
My Thanksgiving Memories
Any Thanksgiving tradition my family has always been centered around FOOD! I am nostalgic for my grandmother’s chocolate meringue pie. The recipe has been passed down for four generations, but it never seems to be quite as good as when my grandmother made it. Or her cornbread dressing…YUM!
Why I’m Thankful For YOU!
Our customers mean the world to me. They give me an opportunity to turn my dreams into a reality. Every time I step into a new house for a project, I have the chance to help reinvent someone’s home. My job helps me to “feed my addiction,” if you will. I love being able to create something out of someone’s ideas. Working directly with my customers to help them reimagine their living space is such a reason for me to give thanks…and not just on Thanksgiving.
How We Express Our Thanks To You
To show customers my appreciation for them, I’m offering a FREE (yes, you read that right!) accent wall valued up to $500! Pretty amazing, right?
To qualify for this offer, the following conditions must be met:
- A painting project with a $300 minimum value must first be booked no later than 5pm on December 31, 2015, in order to be eligible for the free accent wall.
- All projects must be scheduled after January 1, 2016
- The accent wall shall have a maximum price of up to $400
- All of our finishes and designs have various price ranges. Should your option price be greater than $400, you would be responsible for the difference in cost.
For example, if you book a job with me to paint your kitchen cabinets, I would paint a FREE accent wall in your dining room! Or we contract to faux finish your powder room, and you get to choose a FREE accent wall finish in your bedroom! The combinations are endless!
I am happy to help answer any of your questions about painting, whether it’s your cabinets, walls, or furniture. Royalty Finishes offers free estimates and sample finishes for all of your projects, because your happiness with the final product is our goal.
Where Painting Is Art And Your Home Is Our Canvas.
Faux Painting
Do-It-Yourself Or Hire A Pro?
Sometimes DIY doesn’t always mean “do-it-yourself”. Often times, it can end up meaning “did it yucky”. People often throw around the question of do-it-yourself or hire a pro. Some projects that have online tutorials, like baking, decorating ideas, and workout tips, often work out great for the users. However, there are some things, like faux painting, which you shouldn’t try on your own. We have some reasons why it’s better to hire a pro.
The Two E’s: Equipment & Education
Faux finishing requires specific techniques and those techniques require specific tools. Some patterns and specialized looks cannot be created without certain pieces of equipment. These pieces aren’t often available to the public
Regina trained at Vigini Studios in San Antonio on how to create customized looks for your home or office. She also continued her painting education with Faux Effect classes with Master Teachers. Regina even takes “continuing education” courses so she’s always up-to-date on the latest trends and techniques. This kind of experience just isn’t something that can be learned from a YouTube video or Pinterest tutorial. She has spent over ten years perfecting her technique and that’s difficult to duplicate.
It’s Easier To Start From Scratch
It’s difficult to remove ingredients from a recipe once it’s been mixed together. It’s kind of the same way with a home improvement project. Trying to correct a mistake can sometimes require more time, money, and effort than starting with a blank slate. Too-thick paint, removing wallpaper, tearing up tile…it all increases the workload.
Tiiiiime Ain’t On Your Side
Not quite like the Rolling Stones sang it, but you get our drift. It’s really easy to underestimate the amount of time required to complete a project. When you’re in a time crunch, whether it’s upcoming holidays or company coming to visit, it’s easy to overlook certain details. Your time is important…Royalty Finishes know this and we work with your schedule.
Getting In Over Your Head
Seeing a gorgeous paint scheme in a magazine can definitely get your DIY going. However, if a technique or style is beyond anything you’ve every tried before, it’s best to leave it to the pros who do it on a daily basis.
We hope we’ve been able to give you a touch of an idea of why it’s better to go with a professional than to attempt to try faux finishing yourself. While you might get close to what you imagined, it’s definitely more difficult than it looks. We want you to be happy with the finished product and we’re confident we can help transform your home or office into something spectacular!
Uncategorized
Refinish or Replace? Your Guide To A Cabinet Remodel
Cabinetry can be a work of art. Setting the doors and hinges, making sure everything is level…it’s all an intricate process. However, it’s an incredibly daunting task to undertake when it’s time to update or replace cabinets. We’re here to walk you through why refinishing your cabinets is a superior option than a total replacement!
We ran a little experiment by utilizing an online cabinet cost estimator from a major home improvement store. We chose to use a 24-linear square foot galley kitchen (where the cabinet/countertops run parallel to one another) as our test subject to base our data. The cabinet estimator prepares three cost estimates for good, better, and best qualities, each with increasing “perks.”
Cost
This one is ALWAYS the biggest kick to the wallet. For the galley kitchen mentioned above, the least expensive cabinet replacement option was approximately $8,500…before taxes. That’s a great vacation, a good stash towards your kid’s college fund, or a chunk in your retirement account! By choosing to refinish your cabinets, you can get the same look and feel for a fraction of that price…it can save two-thirds of that amount to refinish instead of replace!
Labor
This point ties in with the cost factor, but the estimate we pulled did not appear to factor in labor costs. With Royalty Finishes, the cost you’re quoted includes everything, from time to materials. We don’t want to nickel and dime you…we’re upfront about our pricing so there are no surprises at the end.
Quality
Most homes incorporate quality cabinetry when they’re newly built. Granted, many homes built in several decades ago may not have the most fashionable cabinets now, but there is no denying their sturdiness. However, modern day replacement cabinets, especially the less expensive options, are often made of particleboard and laminate…nowhere near the quality and sustainability you’re looking for! By refinishing you can change the entire look of your existing cabinets without compromising on quality and durability.
Customization
Custom cabinets are really expensive. Created an individualized look for them can also increase the cost. At Royalty Finishes, we are able to create unique and individually tailored looks to meet your tastes. We aren’t some big box store with a small set of designs. Since each job is unique, we’re able to create a look just for you!
We hope you’ve enjoyed our take on how refinishing your cabinets is a far better choice than installing new ones. Don’t forget to take a look at our portfolio to get some ideas before setting up your free consultation. At Royalty Finishes, painting is art and your home is our canvas!
Cabinets, Kitchen
Colors for Painting Kitchen Cabinets
When a client brings us into their home for a project, they want to ADD character to their home, transforming drab cabinets, flat walls and mundane doors to something beautiful. Realtors are often leery of custom finishes and faux paint and how they may affect resale value in a home. We couldn’t disagree more! A properly done custom cabinet refinish will turn outdated cabinets into new modern cabinets for only a fraction of the cost, while increasing your home’s value to potential buyers. Don’t be afraid to be creative in your home. One important factor to keep in mind is experience. We don’t advise learning on your kitchen cabinets. Hire an expert. The cost is minimal to replacing cabinets and you will have a fresh clean look that you will love! Check out these great ideas to update your old oak cabinets to something more modern.
Colors for Painting Kitchen Cabinets
Off White / Cream – White is always a perfect color for kitchen cabinets. You can either go straight white, off-white or cream. White cabinets brighten a kitchen and make the space feel much more open and light
Antiquing and Aging – Antiqued neutral colors, at least for the time being are in and as long as the paint job is clean and done well and the color choices are mild and neutral shades, aging or antiquing the cabinets, shouldn’t be a hindrance for resale.
Colors – Safe colors, if you really want to go with a color, would be light olive or sage, ultra- light blue and pale yellow. Dark red might look good in some kitchens, but might be a little too bold if you end up needing to sell your home later.
Light Gray & Black – Light gray is so in right now and we love it! Black is also a great color for kitchen cabinets!
The most important thing, besides color, is to make sure that your paint job is done well and that the cabinets look clean and polished. Even if you choose to distress or antique the cabinets, I would do minimal distressing and minimal dark wax. You don’t want to give the impression that the cabinets are dirty, especially if they are newly painted.
Faux Painting
Faux Painting
How to Give Your Home that “WOW” Factor
Any material can be replicated with paint and some know-how. Faux techniques can provide the finishing touch for a particular style. A leather look makes an unusual finish, ideal for a masculine study or in modern décor schemes. Metallic finishes of chrome or bronze effectively complement contemporary and antique décor respectively.
Warm Tuscan finishes that evoke antiquity are ideal for rough walls. They create a multi-layered, textured effect in glowing, earthy colors. The versatile Tuscan look can set the tone for an elegant living room or provide a cozy, lived-in feel to a kitchen with a terracotta tile floor. A rustic stenciled border of acanthus or vine leaves completes the look.
With faux painting techniques you can endow furniture and features with an antique or distressed appearance to enhance a room’s atmosphere and character. Co-ordination is the key in interior design. Faux painting helps achieve that unity. Paint can simulate the deep glow of a patina that may take centuries to develop naturally. Color washes and treatments provide texture, banishing that sharp, ‘too new’ look, while crackle glazed dry to resemble old varnish.
Properly done faux painting is an to give your home the “WOW” Factor. Not only is it economical, but it’s a creative and fun way to make your home uniquely your own.
Floors
Painted Floors
Should You Paint Your Floors or is that Cray Cray?
The new trend is painted floors. They are striking, fascinating and well…awesome. People will walk in your room and gasp…and say, “ We love your floors and you will pat yourself on the back and know that you are the trendsetter in the neighborhood! However, a poorly prepped and painted floor will make you home look like the a “Pinterest Fail.”
Here is the sure way to make them great and not a fail. If your wood floors are in bad shape & need to be re-done anyway then you should go for it and not feel guilty! Painted wood floors can be elegant or funky, bold or understated. They are really versatile. Thing is, this trend is not forany house, any room and it works in some houses, some rooms, somespaces.
My very general guidelines for the go ahead on painting your wood floors is for use in:
- cabins
- beachy, rustic, or old (100+ yr old) homes
- eclectic, one-of-a-kind homes
- artist, designer, or photographer homes & studio spaces
- guest houses
- very contemporary homes
- offices
- kids rooms and play rooms
- sitting rooms
If your space doesn’t fit into any of those categories, traditional flooring is probably best. But if you are looking to make a statement in a room and want more than a bold paint color, painted floors might be the answer!
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