Painting the Common Areas of Your Home

In the majority of cases, the simple reality is those homeowners chose the wrong paint. Unless you want to make shrines out of your common areas, you need to put at least a modicum of forethought into choosing your paint.

Common areas are the rooms and hallways in a home that experience the most shared traffic. Traditionally, common areas include bedrooms, bathrooms, living rooms, kitchens, and hallways. However, any area that is frequently used by a number of people in the home may be considered a common area for the purpose of this discussion.

Threats to Common Areas

In the war against dirt and scuffs, common areas are fighting battles on a number of different fronts. The main issue with keeping common areas clean revolves around high traffic; whether from family members, visitors or even pets. Children and animals are the usual suspects when it comes to scuffing up paintwork in common areas; however, footfall alone is more than enough to cause damage over time.

When people are constantly trekking through certain rooms and hallways, they bring with them dust and dirt that can cling to paintwork. The process may occur gradually or take one errant brush against paintwork with a muddy shoe. It is virtually impossible to monitor and actively protect your common areas every second of the day, so a more proactive attack is needed.

Before you choose paint for your common areas, it is a good idea to take a tour of your home with a critical eye. Look carefully at your walls and trimmings to get an idea of which areas are experiencing the most traffic and bearing the brunt of dirt, dust, and stains. Knowing where your paintwork is vulnerable will help you decide which types of paint are going to offer the highest level of protection for your money.

Painting to Purpose

Each common room or area is built with a particular function in mind. You don’t typically bathe in the kitchen or cook in the living room, for instance. With that in mind, painting every common area with the same type of paint is not always the most practical solution to your problem. It is better to first think about the purpose of the common area, and then choose a paint that will achieve the finish you want while offering the protection you need.

By way of example, both the bathroom and kitchen are common areas where you expect to see wet conditions and spills. Therefore, using flat-matte paint in a bathroom is not recommended, as it absorbs moisture easily and typically does not protect against mildew. For similar reasons, you wouldn’t use this type of paint around cooktops, as cleaning splashback from water and grease will become problematic.

Semi-gloss and high-gloss paints provide greater moisture resistance, and many products also have a mildew-resisting additive to provide additional protection. However, the sheen does not really suit larger surfaces, so you may want to opt for an eggshell paint for bathrooms and kitchens. If you really want to splash out, you can purchase bathroom paint that typically costs twice that of latex-acrylic paint.

Although high sheen paint offers the most protection because it is easiest to clean and resists moisture well, it’s just way too shiny for most interior walls. For your family rooms, such as the living room and hallways, a satin finish can withstand the pressures of high traffic. An eggshell finish stands up well in dining rooms, providing a clean and smooth finish ideal for areas that do not experience an overly heavy flow of traffic.

You may get away with a flat-matte finish in your bedrooms, so long as you make sure to use a semi-gloss or high-gloss for your trimmings. The problem with bedrooms is that walls often suffer from staining caused by moving furniture around. This issue is easily remedied by purchasing an extra quart of paint to touch up your surfaces when needed.

Nevada Paint Consultation

At Nevada Painting Company, we can offer you a consultation on your common area painting project. Sometimes it takes an expert eye to really identify the vulnerabilities in heavy traffic areas and offer effective solutions. You want your paintwork to last, so trust in a company that serves Nevada homeowners and businesses with respect and diligence each and every day.

Call Nevada Painting Company today if you would like advice on painting your common rooms or to book a consultation on-site. We offer affordable prices on professional work that keeps our customers coming back time and time again.