10. Skimp on cleaning: Clean walls are happy walls! Paint will not stick to dirty surfaces so clean your walls. Try a mixture of TSP and water to get rid of the grime and or cobwebs prior to painting.
Ewww...
9. Forget to spackle: Paint may look thick enough but it will not fill holes and surface imperfections. If you are priming your walls, patch and sand the obvious spots before priming and then recheck after the primer is applied. Often little dings and things will become more visible after priming. You can spot prime the patches before applying the finish coat.
Yikes! What happened to these walls?
8. Rely too much on tape: Tape is often key to a great looking paint job. However it can be disappointing to find bleed through on the trim when you thought you did such a great job taping it off. Go easy with the paint on taped areas. Just because you taped doesn’t mean you should slop on the paint. Try not to paint into the tape but along side of it.
Blue tape is great!
7. Run out of paint in the middle of a wall: Yes, I know you thought you had enough! If you are running short don’t use it all up and if possible try to stop in a corner. After you get more you can mix it in with the leftover paint from the first round to make sure the color is perfect. Remember most gallons of paint cover 350 – 400 square feet.
6. Skip the drop cloths: I’m sure you are a really neat painter. I am too! In fact with great paint like Benjamin Moore Aura it is almost a challenge to get the paint to drip! Inevitably accidents do happen. Just last week I dropped my brush when cutting in and watched in horror as it fell to the ground. Thankfully, I had my trusty drop cloth in place. Whew!
Bring on the paint!
5. Use cheap applicators: I understand most of you don’t paint every day. But spending a little more and buying a great brush and a couple of quality roller covers can make all the difference between a good paint job and a pretty terrible one. A good brush will last for years if you keep it clean and good roller covers won’t leave those annoying fuzzies on the wall and better fibers will hold more paint. A good brush goes a long way to help with cutting in.
Good brushes rarely come in packs of 5 for $2.99!
4. Dry roll your paint: What do you mean dry roll? Painting can be physically demanding but you don’t have to apply so much pressure to the roller. If you are really pushing on the roller to get the paint on the wall you need more paint on your roller! Dry rolling can make the paint look ropey from pushing the paint out to the ends of the roller or can make the walls look uneven from the lack of coverage. If while painting, you find yourself feeling like you have just bench pressed 200 pounds at the gym you are probably a ‘dry roller’.
Painting shouldn't be so hard!
3. Use too much paint: Wait a minute, didn’t you just warn me about dry rolling? Conversely, you can put too much paint on the wall. We know you really want to paint just one coat. But applying paint too heavily in the hopes of doing less work usually backfires. Unless you really like the look of some rather unappealing sags and drips. After loading your paint roller, roll the paint on the wall to distribute it fairly evenly. If you like to make “M’s” and “W’s” that is fine but the real key to applying paint is to top off the area you just painted before the paint is dry. Once a section of wall is painted, use your roller to ‘smooth out’ the paint by lightly rolling from top to bottom in one long stroke. That should help catch any heavily applied areas and really even things out. Just keep repeating the rolling and topping off as you go and you will end up with a pretty great looking paint job!
M's or W's take your pick!
2. Expect miracles from your paint job: Unless you paint professionally, you probably won’t have a perfectly flawless paint job the first time around. (I like painting 2 coats. I like to have a second chance to straighten things out!) You won’t be the first person to have some little things to touch up here and there. That’s why Seven’s carries so many things for fixing boo boo’s like Goof Off (paint drips) Artist brushes (to get those teeny areas a regular brush can’t) Ceiling paint (to cover up those accidental roller bumps).
Goof Off to the rescue
1. Stress out about painting: This is the number one thing not to do while painting. Stop by Seven’s for application and color advice. We really like to help and we want your painting experience to be relatively painless, we really do!! Remember that it is only paint.
Yawn...I'm not stressed about painting...I shopped at Seven's...
