{new year’s resolution: add color to your home}

Raise your hand if you made a New Year’s resolution this year!

Making the resolution is the easy part, the hard part is actually following through! Have no fear, the team at Hirshfield’s is here to keep you accountable! All month long we’ll be bringing your tips and advice to help stick to your home improvement resolutions. We’ll be covering topics such as adding getting your home organized and picking the best “green” products for your home. This week we’re tackling the subject of adding color to your home.

Adding a bold color to your home may seem a but scary and a little too permanent for some people. The trick to stepping outside of your color comfort zone is to incorporate colors that work with your existing color scheme vs doing a complete overhaul.

Create an accent wall
An accent wall can define a space, add interest to a room and even highlight an architectural feature of your home. Kathy Basil of Hirshfield’s Design Studio offers some advice when considering an accent wall:

• Not all walls are suitable accent walls. There needs to be a reason for an accent wall and it needs to make sense in the overall design plan. A fireplace wall, a headboard wall or a window wall all make good accent wall candidates.
• Accent walls don’t always have to be paint – Wallpaper works great for accent walls.
• Accent walls allow you to incorporate bold colors into your home without committing all four walls. Kathy’s current pick for an accent wall color is a dark charcoal, or dark chocolate color.

Martha Stewart

You don’t need to put paint on the walls
Adding color to your home doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to put paint brush to wall. We

{hirshfield’s designer feature: meet greg!}

Hirshfield’s Design Studio in Minneapolis is home to not only some of the most delicious eye candy the interior design world has to offer, but it is also home to some of the most experienced and creative design professionals in the Twin Cities. Those design professionals being Kathy, Greg, Julia and Meropi. All of them are more than happy to answer your design questions, but we thought it would be fun to turn the spotlight on them and ask them a few questions!

Today, get to know Greg, one of the talented clerks at Hirshfield’s Design Studio. Like Kathy, Greg’s name has also shown up in a few of our blog posts (check out 50′s Revival and What’s New at Hirshfield’s Design Studio in Minneapolis). Greg admits that he somewhat “stumbled” into the design industry, but after having been here for 22 years we think his stumbling was pretty accurate!

How long have you worked at Hirshfield’s Design Studio?
I’ve been at the Design Studio for 22 years but I’ve been with Hirshfield’s for a total of 25 years. Although it doesn’t feel like it has been that long!

{candice olson picks her favorite benjamin moore colors}

“I believe that the essence of good design is its ability to sustain long term integrity – to become classic and create a truly captivating home.”
- Candice Olson

Candice Olson, host of “Divine Design” and “Candice Tells All,” is one popular designer! Perhaps this is why Benjamin Moore teamed up with her to develop an exclusive fan deck. The Candice Olson Designer Picks fan deck includes 60 of her favorite neutral paint colors. Including her top five to-go paint colors:

View the Candice Olson palette of Benjamin Moore Paint colors here.
Candice’s top five go-to Benjamin Moore paint colors:

Benjamin Moore Nimbus Gray 2131-50: Reminiscent of a stormy sky, a beautiful gray/blue.

Benjamin Moore Nimbus gray 2131-50

{minneapolis paint : what goes on in the lab at hirshfield’s paint manufacturing}

Take a drive down Lyndale Avenue North in Minneapolis and you’ll eventually pass the Hirshfield’s Paint Manufacturing building at 4450 Lyndale Avenue North. Hirshfield’s has been making paint here in Minneapolis since 1982 thanks to that facility and the loyal patrons who shop at their local Hirshfield’s!

Hirshfield’s Paint Manufacturing in Minneapolis

The team at Hirshfield’s Paint Manufacturing (HPM) is always working hard to make sure they are delivering the best, most innovative products. Hours of quality control, quality assurance and research and development take place in the HPM lab before any Hirshfield’s paint product lands on the shelf at your local Hirshfield’s paint retail store.

Jason Boedigheimer, operations director at Hirshfield’s Paint Manufacturing, shares more about what exactly goes on in the lab at HPM:

To learn more about what goes on at Hirshfield’s Paint Manufacturing, checkout the Hirshfield’s website.

Hirshfield’s is your local Minneapolis-St. Paul paint retailer. The paint experts at Hirshfield’s are here to help you with everything from window-treatments to paint colors. Hirshfield’s manufactures paint right here in Minneapolis.

{friday finds: Halloween design inspiration}

As a child, Halloween meant candy, dressing up in costume and staying up past my bedtime to go Trick-or-Treating. But now, as an adult, it’s the rich history of the holiday that fascinates me. Halloween originate in a time of superstition, magic, reverence for the dead and Celtic tradition – elements that have come together to create hauntingly beautiful holiday from which to draw design inspiration!

Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth.

History tells us that to commemorate the event, the Celts wore costumes and the unbleached beeswax candles used in the various ceremonies of the festival were orange in color, while the ceremonial caskets were covered in black cloths.

{hirshfield’s paint experts answer the question, “what is paint?”}

What is paint?

At one point or another, chances are you’ve used paint in some sort of application. Whether you finger-painted as a child, used watercolor paints in high school art class or painted the interior of your home, paint is a common medium for expressing creativity and adding beauty.

But what makes up the substance we refer to as “paint”? What gives it color and what separates a high quality paint from the bargain brands?

Jason from Hirshfield’s Paint Manufacturing in Minneapolis is here with all the answers!

{what’s new at hirshfield’s design studio in minneapolis}

For some people, the first hint of a fall wind means it’s time for them to bring out the crockpot, the Uggs and a nice warm sweater. For me, the first hint of a fall wind means it’s time to stop by Hirshfield’s Design Studio in Minneapolis to check in with the team on all of the latest styles and trends for the season!

So it was on a beautiful Minnesota fall day that Kathy and Greg of Hirshfield’s Design Studio gave me a tour of the showroom and pointed out some of their favorite pieces.

Vanguard Furniture
Hirshfield’s Design Studio is thrilled to be an exclusive retailer of Vanguard Furniture! The clean design of this line is right on trend and the quality of materials is superb.

Vanguard Furniture

Vanguard Furniture

I spotted this Vanguard sofa on my tour. Kathy says she loves the subtle pattern and rich blue of the fabric – totally on-trend!

Reclaimed Wood
Reclaimed wood continues to be a trend in interior design. The rustic look and feel of reclaimed wood pieces can help anchor a room without being overbearing. And the story behind each unique piece makes it all the more interesting!

{friday finds: environmentally safe paint removers from Hirshfield’s}

Bachman’s Ideas House

knack studio

A fresh coat of paint can give new life to an old piece of furniture, an outdated room or even a home’s entire exterior! However, sometimes before you can add that fresh coat of paint you have to first remove the old layer(s). Removing old paint can sometimes prove to be an icky task and the harsh fumes and chemicals in paint remover can be less than desirable. For safe, effective removal of paint, look for environmentally friendly paint removers like these options from Hirshfield’s:

Smart Strip

Smart Strip by Peel Away
This is a 100% biodegradable, water-based paint stripper that is extremely effective for removing multiple layers of architectural and industrial coatings from virtually all interior/exterior surfaces such as wood, brick, metal, concrete, stone, plaster, fiberglass, etc. Smart Strip™ does not contain methylene chloride, any caustics, or toxic chemicals. It is odor-free and safe for the environment.

The blogger behind Isabella & Max used Smart Strip to remove layers of paint and primer from a brass light fixture.To put it in her words, “A product that actually has lived up to its claims!”

Smart Strip is a 100% biodegradable paint stripping product. It works on painted brick, all kinds of wood products, metals, stone, plaster, concrete, fiberglass and more. Great for Acrylic Paint, Latex Paint, Lead Based Paint, Oil Based Paint, Shellac, Stains, Urethane and Water Based Paints.

Smart Strip by Peel Away is available at all Hirshfield’s Decorating Centers and Contractor Service Centers.

Peel Away 7

Peel Away 7
Peel Away 7 is an environmentally safe paint remover. This is a unique, safe

{when to splurge and when to save when decorating your home}

Furnishing a home can be a major investment. You have the necessities – a table, bed, dinnerware, and a place to sit. Then you have the “nice to haves” – wall art, fancy lighting, a glam rug, and accessories to tie the space together. When you’re excited about decorating, and anxious to get started, the line can easily become blurry between the two categories. Which is why we love Apartment Therapy’s post on when to splurge and when to save when furnishing your home.

Here are some of their tips:

Splurge where your health is concerned.
This means mattresses, office chairs and work surfaces at the proper height for the job at hand. If you’re lucky you may find these items at a bargain price, but generally I’d suggest budgeting more for items which directly affect your health and comfort.

A comfortable looking office, color on the wall is Benjamin Moore Hot Apple Spice 2005-20.

We would also add that along with furniture that affects your health, products that affect your health. Consider going with a low or no VOC paint to cut down on odor. Hirshfield’s offers Preserve LOW VOC INTERIOR LATEX FLAT with Microban® antimicrobial product protection and Benjamin Moore Natura® Zero-VOC Interior Paint.

Splurge on statement pieces.
These are the pieces that you love, that you’ll take with you when you move, that make your home feel like yours. The Eames chair which detracts from the big-box store sofa, or the vintage armoire which makes putting away the laundry fun. It goes without saying that falling in love with pieces that are also functional is advisable, but it doesn’t always work out that way.

{when is it too hot to paint outside?}

Has the heat and humidity kept you inside this summer, forcing you to neglect some of your exterior home improvement projects? Maybe you’re feeling guilty (or maybe you’re not?) that you’ve chosen the comfort of your air conditioned home over your desire to up your home’s curb appeal. And now here we are, half way through summer and you’re wondering if those projects will ever get done…

Well the paint experts at Hirshfield’s are here to help clear your conscious. When it comes to exterior paint work, if the temperatures are too hot you may be better off spending the day indoors. The outside temperature should be above 50 degrees Fahrenheit before you start painting, but if the outside temperature is more than 90 degrees Fahrenheit, the paint can end up “baking” rather than drying, resulting in a less than favorable outcome.

Wind and humidity also have an impact on whether or not you should start an outdoor painting project.  If the wind is too strong, it can blow loose debris onto wet or damp paint, and it can also dry things out too quickly. If the humidity is high then condensation can form on surfaces in the late evening or overnight.  This can cause streaks, fading, or poor adhesion to the surface. If it’s too hot with low humidity, or too hot with high humidity, you can have application issues. Uncertain? Pick up the phone and call your local Hirshfield’s paint expert!