"If you add more cheap pigment, you take out more expensive resin-and that's what holds it together." Always apply two coats, and allow 2 to 3 hours between them. "There is only room for a gallon's worth of stuff in the can," says Seattle-based painter Doug Wold, owner of Queen Anne Painting. Why? Because cheap paint covers very well when it's wet-the first, and in many cases last, time many people scrutinize their work-but not so well once it's dry. Or follow these steps to calculate how much you need as a rule of thumb, one gallon covers about 400 square feet. Double your numbers if you're doing two coats. Measure the longest wall, and square that number for the ceiling.įor the walls, multiply the length of the longest wall by its height, then multiply that number by four. How Many Paint Cans Do You Need?īefore you set out for the paint store, take a tape measure and figure out how much surface you need to cover-and don't forget the ceiling. Eyeball the color at various times of the day and move it around the room to see how it looks in different light conditions. You'll get a much better sense of how your tint plays off your furniture and flooring. Get a sample quantity of paint, brush two coats on a slab of foam core (its white surface acts like primer) at least three feet square, then put it up against the wall. Colors are relative to one another and the objects around them-like, say, that new leather sofa. For A Bigger, Better Swatch, Get a Paint Sampleĭon't expect a thumbnail-size color chip from the paint store to give you a sense of how a color will look on the walls. Put their pointers to work, and you'll notice a difference in your paint job years after the tape and tarps are put away. We've assembled a couple dozen of them on the following pages, gleaned from decades' worth of accumulated wisdom from pros working from Seattle to Boston. 24 Pro-Tips to Help You Paint Trim and Wallsīut there are also a few tricks of the trade that homeowners can learn to ease the way. There's no substitute for learning the proper steps, taking time to do the job right, and improving your technique as you go. "The truth is, it is easy to do things poorly," says Rich O'Neil, who chairs a craftsmanship committee within the Painting and Decorating Contractors Association of America.
Grab a brush, a roller, and a couple gallons of latex, and you're all set, right?
After all, everyone thinks they can paint-just watch how fast the color goes up on those done-in-a-day home-makeover shows. Ask just about any painting pro, and he'll tell you that his trade has a real image problem.
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