Savvy Secrets for Painting

Your Two Chums love to paint!  Painting completely makes things new!  Through the years, we have learned many things about painting and want to share some of those tips with you.

1.  When painting a wall, use a primer  before you put the finish coat on the wall.  Using a primer ensures that your finish paint will adhere well.  You can ask for the primer to be tinted to your finish color and this might prevent you from having to put two coats of your finish color on the wall (your primer acting as the first coat).  A primer is an absolute necessity if you are painting an oil base onto a water base or the other way around.

2.  When choosing paint colors for your home, make sure that your palette harmonizes.  By all means, use color, but choose carefully as you go from room to room.  It also helps if you have a consistency of color with the woodwork throughout the house.

3.  If the color you choose is a new one to you, buy the smallest amount of paint that you can and bring it home and sample it on the walls.  You can paint it onto a board and move the board around the room to see how  it is going to look in different parts of the room or simply paint it on in 3 or 4 places – places with differing amounts of light.

4.  If you are painting your walls red, or any dark color, plan on putting on three coats.  That would be a primer, first, tinted to the color of your finish paint and then two coats of finish paint.

5.  Don’t start using your paint until you make holes in the rim of your paint can.  Simply hammer holes in three different places around the rim (which will be closed up when you put the lid on the can).  This will ensure that any excess paint will drip back down into the paint can and not go tumbling over the outside edge.

6.  An easy way to ensure that you do not get paint on your hardware is to put aluminum foil around it.  This will keep it pristine while you have a ball with the paint!

7.  Keep  a bit of your paint for touch ups.  They are usually needed no matter how careful you are.

8.  Be sure to use a drop cloth, whether you are using a paint brush or a roller.   Nine times our of ten, a roller is going to splatter just a little bit.  There are great, inexpensive drop cloths on the market now that are more like fabric on one side and plastic on the other.

9.  Spilt water based paint on the floor  or woodwork?  Have denatured alcohol on hand to clean it up,  It is the best solution and does the trick nicely!

10.  If you are in the middle of painting and have to stop for the day (or a few hours for that matter), if your paint is water based, wash the brush out in some luke warm water.  If your paint is oil based, wrap your paint brush in a piece of Saran wrap, tightly, and put it in the freezer.  Unwrap it when you need to use it and it will be good to go.  If you are finished your project and need to clean your oil based paint brush, you can use some paint thinner to do just that.

Remember a little can of paint can really be a little can of magic cleverly disguised as paint. Don’t be afraid to try painting something in a bold or fun new color and you’ll see what we mean.  It will being you joy, new love for the room or object you painted and a sense of abundant living!