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Over
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Painting Outside The Lines
When selecting interior and exterior paint for our homes, we generally limit our considerations to color and type.
Here are some additional tips and ideas that fall outside the norm.
Exterior Porch Ceilings:
Do you know that a type of wasp called a dirt dauber supposedly won’t nest on the color blue? We painted our
porch ceilings a light blue to see if this was true and it worked! Although these insects are very common in
our area, our porch ceilings are devoid of their nests. The house pictured to the right was 3˝ years old when
the photograph was taken. Give this tip a try and avoid having to clean ugly nests off your porch ceilings.
Magnetic Paint:
Magnetic paint is a dark-gray basecoat that transforms a plain surface into one that attracts magnets. You might use it
on one wall of a kid’s room to display artwork, or you could create a message center in the kitchen. The instructions
say to apply two or three coats, but we found that three coats work much better. The picture to the right shows a wall
with magnetic paint applied. Not very pretty, is it? However, once the magnetic paint is dry, you can paint over it
with regular paint or even apply wallpaper. The picture below shows the same wall in action—holding important papers
in the area above a desktop. Note that flat, strong magnets work best. Stay away from magnets with some weight to them.
 By the way, don’t worry about applying magnetic paint to a wall near the computer. Its magnetic properties come
from metal shavings that have been added to the paint, and it won’t damage nearby electronic components. The paint
used in the photos is by Kling Magnetics (www.kling.com). Other companies such as Rust-Oleum also offer this product.
Chalkboard Paint: Rust-Oleum, along with various other companies,
also offers a paint that converts surfaces into a usable chalkboard. The Rust-Oleum product can be
applied to metal, wood, masonry, drywall, plaster, glass, concrete, unglazed ceramics, or hardboard.
Some companies offer a combination magnetic/chalkboard paint. Search the web for magnetic or chalkboard
paint and you’ll discover several suppliers.
Take a look at your plans.
Can these functional paints serve a purpose in your new home?
Is there a subject
you’d like me to
cover? Let me know
by sending an email
to
tracy@tracystips.net.
All past issues of
this ezine are in
the Ezine Archives
on our web site.
Click here for Ezine Archives !
Copyright © 2008
Tracy DeCarlo - All
Right Reserved
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