You could say we had a lot of work before us but I am excited to say that we worked non stop and now have 99.9% of the projects in our house finished. FINISHED.
I cant believe I just wrote that.
Oh yes, did I mention I painted our master bedroom twice recently too?
With all the projects on the go, and while living in a diy fixer upper for almost five years we have learned a lot.
Most recently I have been painting all of the indoor spaces I mentioned above and in five years have touched every square inch of this big ole house with my hand dandy used and abused paint brush.
I thought I would take a quick break from all things paint related and mess and share with you what my top three painting suggestions are.
1. Do not throw out your old sheets, you will need to re purpose them as drop cloths. If you have tossed them already then go ahead and purchase half a dozen sheets from your local thrift store. Use them as drop cloths while painting your home. Keep them in a special place in your home and just throw them down when painting your spaces. These sheets usually will put you back .99 – $1.99 and are well worth it. You can throw them in the washing machine when you are done and you can reuse them for years. If you come across a sheet that is a bottom one and has elastic in it, grab that too. I find those to be so useful if you are painting furniture in your home especially. Simply turn it inside out and put a paint can or something heavy in the corners to stretch it out and put your piece of furniture in the middle of the sheet. The lifted corners of your sheet will contain the droplets of paint from flying up and around your living space. I also love crib sheets for this same reason. They can also be used to cover soft fabric items when you are painting a furnished room and some are the perfect size to cover a dresser or a small kitchen island, like in our case. 🙂
2. Plastic ziplock bags will be your best friend when you are painting. We hardly every purchase plastic bags because I prefer to reuse containers around here, but when painting and painting a lot, those little ziplock bags will be worth the expense! By placing a paint brush into a bag and sealing it shut and laying it flat, you can afford to get distracted by the kids and take the dog for a walk while in the middle of a painting project. If you are redoing an entire home like we have, plastic baggies will save you from purchasing new paint brushes on the daily. If you are doing bigger projects that need multiple coats of paint, take your sealed paint brush that is zipped up into your plastic baggy and push all the extra air bubbles out, smooth your brush bristles inside the bag until they are nice and flat and put inside your refrigerator. You can simply come back to your paint brush in a few days when work is done, when the kids dont need you and when you can give your painting your full attention. Think of all the money you will save on buying new paintbrushes!
3. Keep an old box handy and use it as a spill proof tray when you are tackling a painting project. Keep your paint can and messy brushes inside of the cardboard box at all times. Your carpet and hardwood will thank you. Say goodbye to splattered paint and flicked droplets, that cardboard box will keep things neat and tidy for even the messiest painter. If you get drips of paint down your paint can? Who cares, your tray will save you. If you need to move from one spot to the next when you are painting an entire room? Simply move your tray along with the inside of your foot. You will feel like a soccer star and you will have a mess free work space!
These are my top three painting tips that I use every time I take on a project. Except for that one time when I wanted to spray paint a giant desk in my teenage bedroom and my weakling arms couldn’t take it out of my bedroom so I just spray painted it, and everything around it, including my brand new carpet. It all ended up a beautiful shade of hot pink. SORRY DAD!
IF you want to save yourself a lot of spills and paint mishaps, try following these easy steps that take seconds more to follow. From my experience, kids, life and pets have a way of messing up painting projects and these three quick tips are sure to help you. I wish I had of known to use the cardboard box as a tray when I was painting a console white in our living room. Our dog knocked over an entire can of white paint on to our tan carpet and my father in law saved the day with his steam cleaner and half a dozen roll of paper towel. #travesty
For an environmentally conscious gal like myself, I love using items I already have on hand, to avoid using items like paper towel and extra cleaning products. It feels good to re purpose things like old sheets and cardboard boxes instead of tossing them out too. 🙂
I hope these tips help you out and save you from making some costly mistakes when refreshing your space! If you have any painting tips of your own, I would love to hear them!
Now, back to completing the last .1% of our home projects. I cant even believe we have gotten that 99.9% off of our to do list completed in the last few weeks!
I cant wait to show you our progress and to share some super exciting news with you shortly. Hope you all are enjoying your Monday!
Happy DIY-ing!
