There were not many things worth confronting the bedlam caused by traffic in the corporate area last Saturday. Well, except for popping into H&L Rapid True Value. The retailer’s Style Up Yuh Space event was a must-stop for Design Week JA 2021. You can get design inspiration from many sources. However, the professionals at H&L Rapid True Value have perfected the art of guiding amateur and professional decorators to the products that best suit their projects’ needs.

Upon entering the Lane Plaza location on Constant Spring Road, the buzz in the store’s paint department seemed ceaseless. And no wonder, as painting is relatively inexpensive and provides the most significant décor impact. Plus, the paint team is incredibly knowledgeable and broadened how customers and the Jamaica Observer’s O-Team thought of paint.

Cornel Drummonds is the paint department team lead at H&L Rapid True Value Lane Plaza. He is a fantastic teacher and has a paint-centred design solution for every budget. Tired of your kitchen cabinets but can’t afford to replace them? Paint them, but according to Drummonds, not any paint will do. It’s great that H&L Rapid True Value stocks several specialty paints, including those suitable for furniture and cabinetry. Even kitchen cupboards stuck in the 80s can be modernised with coats of white paint.

As our paint masterclass continued, we learned that the effects of painting go far beyond brushing a few coats on a wall to complement a design colour scheme. Have built-in bookshelves? Add a contrasting paint colour to highlight the back of them. Do you keep the pantry chock-full, as the inside is otherwise dreary? Brighten them up with a lick of paint. For the adventurous or skilled, paint treatments can elevate any room and make them look professionally designed. Metallic stripes, geometric shapes, and hand-painted “wallpaper” are elegant ways of using paint to create eye-catching finishes.

Now that Design Week JA 2021 has planted the painting seed, you’ll be pleased to know that H&L Rapid True Value has a sale on all paints until the end of October. Ten per cent off Berger and 15 per cent of all other brands. Plus, customers can enjoy up to 15 per cent off on selected homeware items.

In a we-saw-what-you-did-there moment, customers could sip and paint as a part of Saturday’s in-store activations. The best artist would receive a $5,000 H&L gift card. The challenge was to replicate aspects of a painting created by local visual artist Trisane Bent. Good thing there was a curfew, or the staff would have been there all night.

As the cost of living rises, we must find ways to save without employing Depression-era austerity measures. Painting is a cost-effective home improvement solution. Armed with brushes, rollers, speciality paints and the knowledge gained from a trip to H&L Rapid True Value, you, too, can “style up yuh space”.