Tips and Tricks for Painting Projects

Here at the MyFixitUp Life headquarters, we do a lot of painting, both inside and outside the house. And doing a good job painting is as important to a project as tight miter joints or hanging cabinets dead level. While there’s no doubt painting is work, knowing some tricks can save you time and thousands of dollars.

Painting’s Perception Problem

The first challenge of painting is overcoming your perception of it. Painting is often viewed as either seductively easy or monumentally difficult. The truth is, both can be poignantly true.

On the one hand, some people who haven’t painted much perceive it as a no-brainer. They spread a few cheap drop cloths, get some throw-away brushes that cost ten cents and expect a million dollar paint job in an hour. Unless you’re blind and can’t tell time, that result is … unlikely.

Other people (usually those who’ve painted a little and struggled) perceive painting to be a nettled nest of drips, runs, spatters and ruined clothes. It costs a fortune, you’re never done, and it looks terrible anyway.

The MyFixitUpLife reality is somewhere in the middle. Painting is a skill to be acquired to be sure—one that takes effort and attention to detail—but it’s not rocket science, either. The key is to tool-up and think like a painter.

Organize

Painting is no different than good carpentry or other successful home improvements in this sense. Being organized is the first key to the castle. Before starting work, get everything you need ahead of time. Whatever the job, make a list. Items on ours include:

1. Extra roller covers

2. Enough drop cloths to cover the area (see below on unconventional drop-cloths)

3. If you’re climbing to the second story, make sure your ladder is both tall enough and  that it functions properly

4. If you’re working on long walls, does it make sense to have two stepladders with a 2×10 plank between instead of moving one ladder every 2 minutes?

5. Access to water for cleaning brushes and roller pans

6. Access to the proper paint thinner/cleaner (read the paint can to see what is required before you need to clean a brush or spill!)

Prep

Clear the Decks. Assuming the walls only need basic prep—filling nail holes from picture frames, maybe skimming a gouge left over from an errant Big Wheel—the first thing to do is to move the furniture. At the very least, move it to the center of the room and cover it. Best case is to empty the room entirely.

When prepping a room, remove all switch plates and tape the screws to the plates for easy storage.