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Chicago's Painted Ladies Competition recognizes value in repainting a home's exterior

Earn bragging rights for your home by entering the Chicago Paint and Coatings Association's 38th annual Chicago Finest Painted Ladies and Her Court Competition.

This "beauty contest" for homes and businesses recognizes that owners are hanging onto their homes because they cannot walk away from their low interest rates and recognize the shortage of homes coming onto the market.

This contest encourages not only the more traditional Victorian style homes and businesses to participate but other styles as well. The home or office must have been painted between Labor Day 2022 and Labor Day 2023.

Examples of other styles include Tudors, Georgians, Colonials, etc. Also, other creative projects will also be considered as separate categories, such as gazebos, entry doors etc. A list of categories can be found on the online entry form.

The CPCA is a nonprofit trade association made up of member companies who are manufacturers, raw material suppliers and distributors for the paint and coatings industry.

"Repainting a home's exterior adds important equity to a home's value when owners are ready to sell. Even in challenging times like now, paint provides a cost-effective fresh look to the exterior of homes and businesses," commented Christopher Wrobel, CPCA spokesperson.

The entries are judged on how the paint and colors chosen were used to enhance the appearance of the property. Also taken into consideration by the judges is how well the colors fit the neighborhood and/or the area that surrounds the structure. The trend of paying more attention to choice of color and detail seems to be part of current living. In some instances, entire neighborhoods have been inspired to freshen up their homes and there are hundreds of colors or shades of colors to choose from to create a better looking home or business.

The Chicago and Northwest Indiana areas are divided into five sectors: North, Northwest, West, Southwest and South; and two categories "nonprofessional" and "professionally painted." Entrants are requested to submit before and after photographs or high-quality digital pictures printed on high quality paper to ensure accurate color representation. Paint chip samples must be submitted along with the official entry form. Winners are selected from the categories found on the entry form.

Not every category may produce a winner each year and more than one winner may be selected from a category. Once selected, the winners will be notified by phone. As in the past, the home or business owner will be awarded a professionally photographed picture of their home or business that is matted, framed, and presented at a special dinner in the fall. In addition, a Grand Prize winner will also be selected and will be honored with an engraved plaque.

Applications are on the CPCA website www.chicagopaint.org.

For further information, email director@chicagopaint.org, or write to Chicago Paint & Coatings Association, 360 W. Schick Road, Suite 23-#191, Bloomingdale, IL 60108.

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