Careers In Painting

Becoming a Professional Painter.

Why would anybody want to become a painter? Why should young men or women even consider employment in the trades? These are both valid questions stemming from incorrect assumptions that young people have about the trades. Let’s examine why being a painter or working in trades is a great career choice based on some undisputable facts.

• Unemployment rates of University and College graduates are high,
• Many graduates that are working, have jobs not related to their field of study.
• Almost every student graduating is burdened with thousands of dollars worth of student loans. This is not an ideal way for young men or women to start their working life.

Learning a trade does not mean that you don’t have what it takes to complete College or University. You can be intelligent and still choose to make your living with your hands. In fact, more and more young men and women end up working in trades after getting another degree. We see this in our company all the time. Our average painter or job manager has some College or University education.

What Does a Painter Do?

Painters prepare surfaces and apply coatings mostly for protective and decorative purposes.

These surfaces can be wood, drywall, plaster, concrete, steel etc. Interior surfaces are inside commercial or residential buildings such as homes, offices, factories, institutions and other facilities. Exteriors of homes, buildings and other structures are mainly painted to protect them from the weather elements. Coatings come in many colours and can also be used to decorate and beautify.

There are other trades and skills that painters can learn to diversify their expertise and skill level. There is demand for wallcovering specialists, decorative and faux finishers, epoxy floor installers. Plaster and drywall finishers work hand in hand with painters in new construction.

How Does someone Become a Painter?

Some painters learn their skills working for companies mostly under the wing of more experienced painters. It takes a painter at least 2 or 3 years to acquire most of the relevant and useful skills a company uses. It’s a good idea to ask a contractor you want to work for if they have a training program. At Ecopainting we often hire young men and women with very little experience. It’s not unusual for a trainee of Ecopainting to be running our job sites in less than three years. We use our own training systems that focus on training mostly for the things we do every day. Safety training and the required certification is a part of our training program.
A young person considering his or her options, can register for a fully accredited apprenticeship program. This start with a pre-apprenticeship course and lasts three of four years. Our company encourages this training as it is very thorough and includes both field and classroom training. A successful completion will culminate with a “Red Seal”  journeyperson ticket in painting and decorating. Career options within the trade include becoming a painter, crew leader, operations manager, even an estimator.

Starting a painting business. After learning the different facets of the trade, some painters decide to become independent contractors. Starting your own business is always better when you are familiar with the inner workings of the industry. A field painter will learn customer relations, production systems, and master the efficient application of coatings.

Running a successful and profitable business can be a good career choice for painters. Keep in mind that a good technician is not necessarily a good business operator. Running a business requires financial knowledge, marketing and many other business skills. A good painter with sufficient business education has a good chance of running a successful business.

What Are the Benefits of Being a Professional Painter?

Cost savings considerations.

It is always cheaper to learn to be a painter than earn a university or College degree. Whether through an accredited apprenticeship or learning on the job, you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars to buy a career. When you are ready to join the workforce full time, you don’t have student loans to deal with.

Good prospects as a Professional Painter.

Every structure and every home will be painted at some point, then painted over and over again. No new building project is complete without the final contribution from the finish trades. While most other trades are important contributors, painters will be forever painting and maintaining the same structure. Then there is the job security factor. Trade jobs cannot be outsourced and the bulk of the work must be produced on site. Some products are hitting the market prefinished with “lifetime” coatings but painters need not to worry. These products are limited and so is their popularity.

Financial Compensation.

The earning potential of trades rivals and often exceeds the earnings of most other occupations. It addition to regular pay, some in the industry receive commissions, bonuses and incentives tied to production. This is the norm for crew leaders, operation managers and estimators. Today most of the trades offer good income and benefits. Considering the skill shortages predicted in the future, trades will be in demand and compensation will certainly increase. An experienced painter working for a good company will get paid well. Full time commercial estimators and experienced project managers are in demand already and can make a good living. The sky is the limit of course for the business painter with business training. Even though the market is competitive, running a painting business can be rewarding and profitable.

In conclusion, becoming a professional painter is a viable career with many unique rewards. Our company hires and trains young people from time to time. We encourage you to approach us with any general os specific questions about becoming a painter. Your next career could be just a phone call away.

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Educational Facility

Educational Facility Painting – Centennial College.

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Colour For Tall Walls

The Challenge of Picking Colour for Tall Walls.

If the walls of your home are very tall it can make rooms appear cavernous or too large to be comfortable in. Strategic use of colour can make your walls seem shorter, bringing them into better scale with the rest of your furnishings. Colour consultants and designers earn their keep by solving these space problems. The right colour can be as obvious as a white or as complicated as a two tone solution.  

Why Scale Down Walls

High ceilings can be an attractive feature in many homes, while low ceilings can have an almost claustrophobic effect on the same room. So why bring a tall ceiling down into scale?

Tall ceilings work best with certain decorating styles, such as contemporary. They work less well with country or cottage styles, where you want to inspire a comfortable feeling in a space. In those rooms, a very tall ceiling actually undermines your decorating style, undoing the look that you’re after.

House painters will use tall ladders or scaffolding to reach these high walls. Creative thought should be exercised to better take advantage of this difficult work. Major walls in a home don’t usually get painted often after-all. Paint, combined with wall paneling, chair rails, or other elements can help to visually bring a wall down in size, matching it to its surroundings.

How to Scale Down Tall Walls Using Paint

There are a few different ways you can use paint to help scale down a tall wall. Some of these methods can be combined with others to create unique looks that detract from the wall’s height.

Warm colour on Hallway walls

Warm Colour Tones

Colour plays a big part in how something is perceived. Warm colours like yellow, tan, or red visually contract when we look at them. This makes something appear to be closer than it really is. Cool colours visually recede, which makes them look further away. While a cool, crisp white might be your preferred wall colour, trading it for a warmer ivory can instantly make your walls appear smaller than they are.

Two-Colour Wall

Using two colours on the same wall can be an attractive way to break up the height and bring it down in size. Pick two shades of one colour. This can be a warm tan and a rich chocolate brown, for example.

Paint the lower half of the wall the darker shade, and the upper portion of the wall the lighter shade. Divide the two colours with a neutral-toned molding through the middle. Depending upon the height of the wall, you can make this dividing strip at any height; think about placing it at a shoulder or even eye level, rather than the traditional chair rail height to truly bring a wall down in size.

Adding Texture

Texture can help further bring the wall down in scale. When you combine warm colours with texture, you really help make the wall seem cozier and more in keeping with its surroundings. A few ways to do this include:

• Putting up beadboard or another type of wall panel on the lower half of the wall, and painting it your darker colour. Use a solid, light colour on top with no texture to break up the wall.
• Using a dark colour on the bottom of the wall, but instead of using a single colour of paint up above, consider painting vertical stripes or using wallpaper to help add interest.
• Faux-painting the wall to give it the appearance of fabric, stone, or leather in a warm colour. You can also use faux paint on just a portion of the wall, such as the lower half to add gravity and draw the eye downward.

Bring Your Walls Down

Using paint to create a visual effect that lowers the height of your walls is a great way to polish and perfect an interior scheme. If you have a home whose furnishings are out of keeping with the height of the walls, consider using paint in any of these ways to get them down to size. Talk to your paint contractor about this and ask for their suggestions. They probably painted hundreds of tall walls and have seen different approaches that designers and homeowners used.

Tips for choosing room colours, by Sarabeth Asaff .

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Lighting And Colour

Lighting and Colour when Decorating a Home.

Natural or artificial light will affect the colour and the final look of freshly painted homes.
Colour in a space should not be chosen until the volume of lighting is examined. Where the light comes from makes a big difference. Natural light from a big south facing window is not the same as light from a small light bulb. Furthermore, a light fixture is more important than it’s main function of lighting up a space. It is one of the important elements that needs to look good in a decorated space.

When planning a project, a designer will consider issues such as energy efficiency and cost. A colour consultant will have other questions:

• What is the purpose of lighting in the space?
• Can existing light be used to highlight important decorating elements?
• Can colour be used to brighten up a room without changing any lighting?
• Is painting a large surface like a ceiling solve other lighting problems?
• Will a smart colour choice turn a previously plain wall into a focus wall?

The important thing to remember is that light itself is not visible. It helps us see other things. In the case of interior decorating, it helps us see things differently. In the last few years our painters must have painted hundreds of rooms in homes in Benjamin Moore’s “Chantilly Lace”. This is a very bright white that can instantly brighten up a space.

How to Choose Colour when faced with Different Lighting Situations

After spending hours, driving from paint store to paint store, sorting through hundreds of colour chips, you have finally made your choice. The paint is mixed and you are now ready to paint. You apply the colour, only to find out it is not the same as it was on that colour swatch in the paint store. Before you go back to the store and complain to the clerk, the culprit may be the light that your room is receiving.

• South facing rooms receive the most natural light. Walls across the windows can be painted with darker colours. Dark colour will absorb more light and can be used to dull the effect of a very bright room. For the same reason, a light colour can look almost white. It may be a good idea to use a shade darker than the intended colour.

• North facing rooms receive considerably less light. Using lighter and warmer colours will compensate for that. White can look grey, especially on the window walls. Using a creamier white can help “warm it up”. If a darker colour has to be used, it will have less of an effect when used on a window wall.
• A room facing east will look brighter during the day when it gets a lot of sunlight.
• A west facing room will look dull in the morning but warm and bright in the afternoon.
• The architecture of a home, will affect the influence natural light has on colour. A bright, open space home can take advantage of the effect that natural lighting has on a colour scheme. At the same time, smaller homes with small windows will rely more on artificial lighting.
• Different types of artificial lighting have a different colours and their interaction with the painted walls have to be carefully considered. Incandescent lights have a warmer yellow effect. Fluorescent light produces a slightly blue colour. Halogen lighting is the closest to natural and it looks white.

After narrowing your choice to two or three colours, it’s a good idea to buy a litre of each colour and paint some “test patches” in the areas that they will be used in. Test areas should be on two or three walls in each room for a more real representation of the final result. Make sure to check these colours during different times if you light source is a window. Your painting contractor should be able to provide sample service for a nominal charge.

To engage the services of a Colour Consultant in the Greater Toronto Area book a consultation with Ecopainting and we will connect you to an expert.

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Colour Psychology

The Psychology of Colour (as told by your Painter)

It might be too much to ask house painters to know about colour and colour psychology. Yet we deal with colour daily. We sample it, buy it, apply it, cover it, change it, and depending on the customer, answer for it! We don’t need a psychology degree, but we witness the psychological effects a colour change can have.

When describing a colour, a colour consultant might use such terms as “sophisticated”, “soothing”, “happy”. At the very least the terms “warm” or “cool” will be used when describing a colour for a home or room. The reason we use designers or colour consultants is because we trust their knowledge. They studied the theory and psychology of colour. They can tell us what colour works with that big sofa, or what to do with that ugly bathroom. When it’s time to sell a home, they know how to create favourable first impressions. In a work space the right colour can increase productivity and employee morale.

Our perception of color is influenced by our personal associations. Colours are seen as warm or cool mainly because of those associations. Yellow and orange are associated with heat and fire. The sea, forests and trees make us feel cool. When grey skies and rain surround us, we tend to draw in. Bright blue skies, a colourful garden, flowers and green forests have the opposite effect.

There is a lot of scientific research recognizing that there is a distinct relationship between colour, mood and behaviour.

The following facts demonstrate the psychological effects of colour.

• People actually gamble more and make riskier bets when under a red light as opposed to a blue light. That’s why Las Vegas is the city of red neon.
• A recent survey in England found that red is the least favourite of colours for front doors. It suggested that if you are selling your house, a green door will help sell it faster.
• London England’s Blackfriar bridge reduced its suicides by 33% when it was painted from black to green.
• It is found that women were more likely than men to have a favourite colour. The same study found women to prefer soft colours while men prefer bright ones.

Cultural Influences, beliefs and Upbringing Have an Effect on the Way We See Colour.

In most Asian cultures, yellow is the imperial colour and has very similar cultural associations as purple has in the western world. In China, red is associated with luck and prosperity. White in China is symbolic of death and mourning.

In Europe colours are strongly associated with political parties and social movements. Blue is mostly synonymous with conservatism, black with anarchism and red with socialism.

Green has always been used by organizations and groups concerned with the state of the environment because of its abundance in nature and its association with it.

At times of political and economic uncertainty, the safe comforting colours like beiges and browns are more popular. At times of rampant optimism, bright greens, aquas, even yellow greens are the colours of choice.

Colour marketing groups are able to capture the mood of the consumer and capitalize on it by directing their members marketing campaigns based on their findings. The popular colours of today are usually the forecast colours of a few years ago.

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