Painting Tips for Moms

My house is peeling. The paint, that is. The whole thing needs to be exfoliated and painted. But that takes time and time without kids underfoot. Which, as a stay-at-home-mom, is impossible. I was telling my neighbor about my idea to spend a few months painting my house myself. Like painting a couple of hours during the day and then cleaning up and doing it again the next day. She's an artist and a teacher and has been painting her house for 5 years, so she had some tips for me.

1. Use a Cart. Keep all of your supplies on a wheeled cart or wagon. Then you can take everything with you as you paint and have a place to store it out of a kids reach when you're finished. I was going to keep mine on my front porch and then I won't have to run around for an hour looking for all my supplies.

2. Use Glad Press'n Seal Wrap for Brushes. When you are done for the day, wrap your brush/roller in the Glad Wrap and pop it in the freezer. When you're ready to paint, put the brush in the sun to thaw while you prep your wall and then it's ready to go. And since you don't have to rinse your brush every night, it wastes less paint.(Not a paid endorser, just a wrap lover).

3. Use Clear Coat. When you're painting between wall and trim, tape off your trim and apply a clear coat to seal the tape. Then paint the wall. You'll get a nice clean line.

I should mention I'm not a professional. These are just things I've learned from painting things. And in my house, everything has a coat of paint on it. Except Barkley. Unless he gets too close to my paintbrush.

 

 

Fun with house painting at Sherwin Williams.