Twinspired

painting TIPS from the trenches…

1. Painting a room uses a unique group of muscles not used for any other task. No matter what kind of shape you are in you will be sore the next day.

2. One coat paint is a DIY myth.

3. Paint the room in this order:

• ceiling (sometimes optional)
• baseboards and molding
• cut in
• and then walls.

Here’s why:

• Ceiling first because it is going to splatter on the walls.
• Baseboards and molding next because it is easier to cut in the walls than to cut in the molding.
• Cut in next because sometimes you can get away with only cutting in once but you will always need at least two coats of paint on the walls.
• Walls last because if you paint the walls first, the walls are often not dry enough to then cut in. If you cut in first, there is always some part of the wall that will be dry enough to paint.

4. Splurge on good brushes (i.e. Purdy)

5. Your best friend when painting is a small damp rag. It is not a question of ‘if’ but ‘when’.

6. Throw away paint rollers. (Carrol is one of the cheapest people you will ever meet but even she throws them away.) It is not worth the time and mess it takes to clean a roller out.

7. We never take the time to put a drop cloth on my floors. We always regret not taking the time to put a drop cloth on my floors. Take the time.

8. Take off the outlet covers. Nothing looks quite as tacky as paint on the plate covers.

9. You can spend a lot of money on paint accessories – most of the products are not worth the expense:

• A good angled brush and patience works better than most edging devices on the market.
• Heavy Duty Aluminum Foil makes the best paint tray liner (it always fits the tray you already own).
• An old plastic cup filled with paint makes cutting in much easier.

10. Lastly, with paint, don’t buy the cheapest, but don’t buy the most expensive either. Middle of the road will get the job done and last 90% of the time.  One more thing about paint, it’s a chemical. While paint companies have worked hard to make paint green, low- and no-VOC paint is an inferior product. While it’s not PC to be down on low VOC, we feel like VOC means extra coats of paint and it won’t hold up to day-to-day wear and tear.

Go forth and paint with confidence and remember the Twinspired Manifesto # 11: It is almost always reversible.