apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

You can also cover the ridge of the paint can with masking tape to prevent paint from getting in there. Use several short pieces of tape and stick them edge to edge over the ridge (rather than trying to go lengthwise).

Tip--If you have to sand a painted surface, it usually comes off in sheets that look horrible when painted over. Instead, Wet your fine sandpaper with diluted ammonia before sanding. The paint won't sheet but it will get a little glossy and smoothed over. Then, you can add another coat. This is great for old chipping paint or if you get an errant kitty hair in your wet paint. This is the best tip I ever learned when painting my cabinets.

I just found these tips after spending the weekend painting. Sigh. I'll remember them for next time, though!

For pouring paint, just buy one of these: http://www.ronhazelton.com/tips/images/606t-b2lg.jpg

They's like $3 at the hardware store, and they keep your paint from getting a skin on it without requiring you to put the lid back on. Not to mention the clean pour you get.

I'll add my two cents.

Buy the best roller you can find. Then you won't have to remove fuzz from it. A good roller will last through a *lot* of paint projects. I painted 3 rooms with the same roller (4 colors and two coats - plus primer on two walls).

Same for brushes.

My cutting-in brush is an "Evolution" brand that I got from the Miller paint store around the corner from me. It's bristles are tapered to fine points and painting with it is almost like using a Sharpie pen. I've totally stopped using tape since I bought the brush, so it's literally paid for itself many times over - but it wasn't cheap, it was around 20 bucks.

Wooster Advantage brushes are good too, if you can find them.

Look for special brush/roller cleaning tools. You can get a tool that looks sort of like a comb for cleaning the brush. Makes it go a lot faster. For rollers there's a tool that will squeegee the paint off when you're done and also make cleanup that much easier. I found a tool that does both for about a dollar.

To keep paint out of the rims of cans you can simply punch a hole in the rim of the paint can. Any paint that collects there will (should) run back into the can. I found a "spout" like thingie at the Miller paint store - it snaps into the rim of the can and when you pour, the plastic spout (looks more like the inverted rim of a baseball cap) keeps paint from going all over the front of the can, too. Best 2 bucks I ever invested.

If you need a bonding/hiding primer that will stick to almost *anything*, the best I found is Zinser "B-I-N". Just open all the windows while it's drying (45 minutes) cause it stinks (alchohol based). I used it to paint my outdated kitchen cabinets that were (are) covered in a horrible faux veneer (1973 vintage). No sanding needed. :->

Now, if someone can tell me how to paint beadboard without any brush marks or roller stippling, that'd be awesome.

Before using a brush or roller, wet them in the solvent of the paint (water for latex, mineral spirits for oils). That will make the tool work much better.

if your painting goes for more than one day, remove excess paint from the roller or brush, then wrap it tightly in plastic and put it in the fridge. The next day, just give it a little time to warm up and use it again. No cleaning needed between coats.

Boomer -- I wouldn't bother cleaning a roller unless it's an expensive lamb's wool one. Throw it away -- most roller covers are meant to be disposable, and they'll never work well after they've been cleaned and dried off. Always clean brushes, however, and invest in good ones. Store them wrapped in their original cardboard or in folded newspaper so they don't lose their shape.

Use angle brushes turned on edge into a point (and a steady hand) to cut in and get a clean line next to moldings. So much faster and even neater than taping everything.

At $10 for a roller cover it's not something I'm going to just toss out.

Painting help please? I painted a room in my apt a while ago and made the mistake of waiting until the paint was dry to lift the tape. When I started taking it off, the paint peeled with the tape, exposing the color beneath. Is there any resolution short of repainting where the tape pulls off the paint? The tape is still up!

missmary -- get out a utility knife and really carefully (and not too deeply) break the line of the paint at the edge of the tape.

boomer -- I agree, the $10 covers are probably good ones. But anything less expensive (most roller covers these days are $5-$7, I think) aren't really made to be reused. That's why they have cardboard centers.

Alex - anyone who is paying $5-7 on a roller cover and tossing it after one coat is throwing money out the window. Much better to buy the "expensive" roller covers since they're cheaper in the long run. Even a $20 cover is cheap compared to a one-use roller cover.

And it's that much less trash going to landfills.

True about the landfills, and that plagues me (but being green about painting is a whole other issue). Most expensive rollers are not made for latex paint. The really expensive ones are lambswool, meant to be used with oil paints and finishes. You have to match the type of paint to the material of the roller cover (just like brushes).

That's why I recommend saving a used roller in the fridge between coats of the same color, rather than washing it. You shouldn't need more than one roller per room (or less, if you're using the same color throughout). If we're talking about painting tips, painting with a used and dried roller will give you a bad paint job, as the fibers will end up crusty and hard, no matter how well you clean them. Just like you can never fully get paint off a piece of clothing, you can't get paint out of roller fibers.

any tips for painting outside surfaces?

the surface of our deck is currently covered in dirty, chipping grey paint. we tried washing it with a power washer, mop, and scrub brush to get some of the dirt off and it only looks marginally better. i want to give it a new coat of paint this weekend -- how clean should it be before hand? and do i need to scrape or sand or prime first? (or all three?) and how many coats do i need?

not much experience painting here, if you couldn't already tell!

Ben Moore recently came out with a waterborne satin impervo, it "settles" like it's oil-based brother (less brush marks, b/c it spreads out) but dries ultra-fast and cleans up with soap and water. It's a little more tempermental in terms of application but the results are fabulous. Work quickly in nice even long strokes and don't over brush or it will get ropey. The finish has a great lustre, not too shiny and feels so smooth and luxurious, especially after 2 coats and sanding in between. I love it! I both a Pratt and Lambert satin trim finish paint but it felt so gritty and rough, I decided to get the the color matched in the BM impervo and painted my mullions and sashes all over again. Absolutely no fun (for those who do paint), but totally worth it.

"Tape pull" can be caused by a lot of reasons. Most common being dust, dirt or grease between layers of old and new paint (remedy: clean with TSP prior to painting) or using a tape that is too sticky (remedy: use a low tack usually green-colored tape or a brand called EasyMask rather than blue tape, which also often leads to "bleed" when trying to paint crisp lines.