Services

Color Consultation:

Color consultation is our strong suit. We have been blessed to work for years with the best people in this field to accomplish trademark results and numerous “Best Painted House in America” awards. Our team of the area’s most respected colorists can work with you on any level you like. They can present complete color schemes based on the house’s architectural history, surrounding buildings and plantings, or just help you refine your own color choices and perhaps tweak the placement of colors on your building. This can make a quality difference and adds a nice comfort level to your project

Doors:

We love doing doors. There’s something about them. They say it all, and you’ve got to get them just right. Door restoration painting and varnishing are a long-time specialty of San Francisco Local Color. Our technical staff will evaluate the best way to bring your doors back into their original condition and then guide you in selecting one of the many finishes possible. We can handle door hardware refurbishing if your door needs it.

Varnished Doors: We will carefully advise you about refinishing a varnished door.  We sand into the sunburned areas, then stain to an even appearance. We then apply multiple clear coats and finally we apply wax to soften the look of the varnish as well as protect it.

Mirror-Painted Doors: The black mirror finish doors made popular in Great Britain a century ago are still the most popular as is the dark green used in Amsterdam. White and bright colors can also be realized in a mirror finish for a more contemporary effect.

Using special filling materials such as Swedish putty from Schreuder Paints of Europe we can build up the extra smooth surface that is essential in obtaining a true mirror-finish painting result. We can also use Schreuder’s superior hi-gloss European oil enamels to create the final mirror finish.

Lead Remediation:

We are certified in safe lead-removal Lead Safe Renovation. Our crew has been trained to properly handle hazardous lead and debris.  SFLocal Color properly disposes of these materials with EPA handlers and independently recycles thinners and sludge whenever possible.

Our Repair and Painting Certificate (RRP) number is R-I-18499-10-26513.

New Custom Home Painting:

San Francisco Local Color will competitively bid interior painting including cabinet finishing for contract builders of new homes. We have thirty years experience in the Bay Area doing every kind of fine paint finishes. Our foremen and teams are highly professional and highly reliable and non-intrusive during the busy final days of construction. Our color designer can spec colors with the builder or the future owner. We do the best work at the best price

Restoration:

The commitment to service and a willingness to solve the causes of previous paint failures has been a hallmark of San Francisco Local Color’s work. Use of the latest technology in window and wood restoration epoxies, paint removal, superior paints, gold leaf, decorative detailing, and the supervision of other related trades has lifted the burden from the client to the hands of experienced professionals.

During the early days of the Colorist Movement, Local Color made its name from its development and implementation of innovative and revolutionary restoration methods. Our use of technological innovations in window and wood restoration epoxies re-wrote the “best-practices” for how Bay Area homes must be renovated before a single drop of paint is applied. Now, as then, problems are traced back to the root cause, handled at their source and carefully restored to structural integrity and longevity.

Rotted wood results when sun, water, fungus, insects or some combination of these invade good wood. Some of the individual cellulous fibers of the wood are destroyed leaving a soft and crumbling condition. If not addressed properly, the process will continue until all of the original wood is gone.

  1. The destroyed wood is uncovered by stripping and carefully digging out down to the point of salvageable wood.
  2. The remaining salvageable wood is treated with many coats of a thin epoxy liquid that penetrates the wood fibers and consolidates (hardens) them making them unappetizing to future invasive organisms  and the elements.
  3. Voids in the wood are filled with a malleable and sculpt-able epoxy material. Sometimes a form must be made to contain larger areas to be filled. When the epoxy dries it can be further sculpted, sanded, primed and painted.

The filling material is engineered to move with the wood it is attached to, adding great stability and long duration to the repair.

San Francisco Local Color is one of only two painting contractors in California licensed to use Advanced Repair Technology’s wood repair system products. This technology is used in window repair, and in repairs when the future permanence of the repair must be assured.

Gold Leaf

A thirty-year veteran painter of all three architectural styles of Victorians and Edwardians, San Francisco Local Color has been there through every style trend in house painting since 1973. Recently, more owners are “going all the way” with their painting projects to protect their investment as homes have soared in value. This often means adding a touch of gold leaf after the building has been restored to soundness, protected from the elements and properly painted.

Leafing is a very personal expression of luxury. We suggest viewing gold leaf as one would personal jewelry. Whatever is the right amount to accessorize without being showy is the right amount to leaf. There are several colors of gold leaf that we can show to you.  We can give you our advice on which will work the best with your color scheme. Silver or copper leafing is also effective and stunning in some applications.

Our gold leaf artisans are experienced and notably fast, which keeps the cost of leafing as low as possible.

Local Color has long been known for its excellence in gilding. Here is a video of master craftsman, Chris Shneider showing you how-to properly apply gold leaf.