Ribbit
21-05-05, 09:50 PM
Righty-ho... my painting tips... knowledge acquired by practice and application in this ancient art. :rolleyes:
Firstly, if you've got bare plaster that you want to paint, don't just slop a load of paint onto it... paint the surface with a thinned coat of paint first - just mix the paint (I always use cheap white for this) with water until it's runny, and then apply it generously and watch it all soak in. Once that's dried you can go ahead and paint on top without half your paint soaking into the wall. Unprepared walls tend to reject paint, so it can end up peeling off.
Buying cheap paint as a way of cutting costs is rarely effective. You'll have to use several more coats to get a decent finish, do a heck of a lot more work, and will end up with a poorer result - you'll have to do the job again sooner too). If you invest in a good quality paint the finish will be far superior, will last longer, and will require less work to apply in the first place.
A painter once told me that he couldn't see any difference between a tin of cheap emulsion paint and an expensive one like Farrow & Ball. Well, he might have been a professional painter, but he was absolutely wrong. A paint like the ones produced by Farrow & Ball (no I don't have shares) has a creaminess to it that results in a silky finish, a true matt finish that will look good for longer and be a pleasure to live with. The colours tend to be more subtle and change throughout the day in a way that is pleasing to the eye and easy to live with. If you do buy a paint like Farrow & Ball then you shouldn't use a roller... the paint is way too thick to go on well that way. You'll need to paint it on with a nice soft brush (vertical strokes only)... it usually takes only two coats on top of the primer. Some of the cheaper paints require four coats to get an even finish, and are usually better applied with a roller as painting with a brush can leave horrible streaks unless you're very delicate with a brush.
If you're going white (walls or woodwork), then I've found that Everwhite from B&Q provdes a very good finish, and the fact that it doesn't yellow means you don't have to paint so often or live with yellow doors or walls from about two months after the paints dry :rolleyes: . A tip for using Everwhite satin woodwork paint... water it down to get a more even result. It can get rather gloopy and dries very quickly, so you can end up with lines all over the place. As it's an acrylic paint you can thin it with water, giving you longer to spread it about before it gets too tacky, and giving a far more level surface finish. I actually paint a final top coat that's mostly water just to give it a nice silky look.
If you've got tiny cracks that aren't wide enough to fill but still show up when you paint over them then use a mixture of water, cheap emulsion, and plaster (equal parts - although I use a lot of plaster if I want to fill dings and larger cracks). Paint the mixture on, leave it to dry and then sand it until you get a nice flat surface. It sands much easier than ordinary filler, and provides a primer at the same time so you don't have to fill and then prime. There are products on the market that do the same thing, but they're a lot more expensive and some contain substances which make the finished surface very hard to sand.
Got a hole in the wall and don't want to buy a whole new tube of filler to fill just one spot? Use toothpaste.
Ceilings - use a roller. Painting with a brush is hard work up there, and leaves lines that you can't see until you get down (by which time it's dry and you can't do anything about it).
Don't paint in hot weather... the paint dries too quickly. Don't paint in cold weather - you can't leave the windows open, and the paint takes years to dry.
If you keep on getting hairline cracks along your walls, use a mixture of all purpose sealant with water (making sure you get one that's water solluble :lol: I once bought silicone by mistake :rolleyes: ). Mix it up until you get a nice thin slimy substance (very technical eh :lol: ) and paint it on... then just paint over it as usual. You can use wood glue mixed with water on very fine cracks.
Right, I've run out of painting tips... anyone else got some to share?
Ribbit http://www.boiledsprouts.com/ratgrin.gif
Firstly, if you've got bare plaster that you want to paint, don't just slop a load of paint onto it... paint the surface with a thinned coat of paint first - just mix the paint (I always use cheap white for this) with water until it's runny, and then apply it generously and watch it all soak in. Once that's dried you can go ahead and paint on top without half your paint soaking into the wall. Unprepared walls tend to reject paint, so it can end up peeling off.
Buying cheap paint as a way of cutting costs is rarely effective. You'll have to use several more coats to get a decent finish, do a heck of a lot more work, and will end up with a poorer result - you'll have to do the job again sooner too). If you invest in a good quality paint the finish will be far superior, will last longer, and will require less work to apply in the first place.
A painter once told me that he couldn't see any difference between a tin of cheap emulsion paint and an expensive one like Farrow & Ball. Well, he might have been a professional painter, but he was absolutely wrong. A paint like the ones produced by Farrow & Ball (no I don't have shares) has a creaminess to it that results in a silky finish, a true matt finish that will look good for longer and be a pleasure to live with. The colours tend to be more subtle and change throughout the day in a way that is pleasing to the eye and easy to live with. If you do buy a paint like Farrow & Ball then you shouldn't use a roller... the paint is way too thick to go on well that way. You'll need to paint it on with a nice soft brush (vertical strokes only)... it usually takes only two coats on top of the primer. Some of the cheaper paints require four coats to get an even finish, and are usually better applied with a roller as painting with a brush can leave horrible streaks unless you're very delicate with a brush.
If you're going white (walls or woodwork), then I've found that Everwhite from B&Q provdes a very good finish, and the fact that it doesn't yellow means you don't have to paint so often or live with yellow doors or walls from about two months after the paints dry :rolleyes: . A tip for using Everwhite satin woodwork paint... water it down to get a more even result. It can get rather gloopy and dries very quickly, so you can end up with lines all over the place. As it's an acrylic paint you can thin it with water, giving you longer to spread it about before it gets too tacky, and giving a far more level surface finish. I actually paint a final top coat that's mostly water just to give it a nice silky look.
If you've got tiny cracks that aren't wide enough to fill but still show up when you paint over them then use a mixture of water, cheap emulsion, and plaster (equal parts - although I use a lot of plaster if I want to fill dings and larger cracks). Paint the mixture on, leave it to dry and then sand it until you get a nice flat surface. It sands much easier than ordinary filler, and provides a primer at the same time so you don't have to fill and then prime. There are products on the market that do the same thing, but they're a lot more expensive and some contain substances which make the finished surface very hard to sand.
Got a hole in the wall and don't want to buy a whole new tube of filler to fill just one spot? Use toothpaste.
Ceilings - use a roller. Painting with a brush is hard work up there, and leaves lines that you can't see until you get down (by which time it's dry and you can't do anything about it).
Don't paint in hot weather... the paint dries too quickly. Don't paint in cold weather - you can't leave the windows open, and the paint takes years to dry.
If you keep on getting hairline cracks along your walls, use a mixture of all purpose sealant with water (making sure you get one that's water solluble :lol: I once bought silicone by mistake :rolleyes: ). Mix it up until you get a nice thin slimy substance (very technical eh :lol: ) and paint it on... then just paint over it as usual. You can use wood glue mixed with water on very fine cracks.
Right, I've run out of painting tips... anyone else got some to share?
Ribbit http://www.boiledsprouts.com/ratgrin.gif