I’ve written plenty on What Not to Do for a Small Business. The premise is: live first-hand an experience that sucks and then, to squeeze an ounce of positive from it, write about it with a bit of wit and then send it out into the world. A soul might catch a giggle and, perhaps, if lucky, only live vicariously through the school of hard knocks. This post comes to you after lessons learned within my business, but instead of on the business side of things, more specifically in the craft of painting.
While I may be open to monetization on the site from Frogtape and Scotch Blue, that hasn’t come to fruition as of yet, so I’m free to shout: “I DESPISE tape when painting.” I only use it when absolutely necessary (like painting right next to carpet) and still curse up a storm on the day I remove it. Maybe it’s my application, but I would rather spend my time painting carefully (with a high grade angled brush) than spend my time touching up where the tape shouldn’t have covered, or scraping where the tape didn’t do its job. Above is a picture from when novice painters, who didn’t trust themselves to paint trim freehand, taped off the wall. The wall had been painted with a Flat sheen a few months prior by a different crew. This brings me to the next point…
I DESPISE Flat sheen! I know, it hides imperfections on walls. I know, it’s inexpensive. But you can’t touch it, like ever, if you want it to look nice. Oh, and you can’t wash it a little if you break rule number one. The deal with a Flat sheen is it absorbs moisture. This translates to mean the longer between the time a wall is painted and a touch-up need occurs, the paint on the wall held any moisture it was exposed to, which makes it an entirely different entity than the same paint still existing happily in the can somewhere else in the house. The picture here shows a matter of months difference between the original Chatura Gray and the touch up spots I tried to make on Flat sheen. While I painted the entire bottom half of the room again, I created my mission to conform the masses to quit using Flat sheen on walls.Â
Rant #3 may be pointing out the obvious, but I have found it needs to be said: The order in which you paint the items in a room are a big deal. Deciding to paint the ceiling after the walls are painted isn’t a cool decision for anyone involved. Neither is realizing the trim should have been painted just after the last wall is rolled. Putting in new flooring and then painting the walls is also the opposite of awesome. (What is awesome, though, is a ceiling with color: see pic. Where are my gutsy friends with the perfect space for this?!)
A good rule of thumb is to envision your finished room starting from the top, then moving down. Ceilings do, indeed, suck to paint, especially right at the beginning of a project when you want to see some progress fast. However, beautiful new crisp-colored walls and sharp flooring will not get the wow they deserve with a stained or yellowing ceiling. Crown molding should come second if you have any. And, yes, caulking will be needed above and below. Houses get old and settle, like boobs and balls. Gravity does its thing. Painting the trim at the bottom of a wall should be done last as far as painting is concerned.
When planning your walls, consider things like: am I going to hang all of the same pictures and artwork all in the exact same spots? If you are going to switch it up, fill the holes before painting starts. Are new appliances arriving? Getting these before cabinets are painted and flooring is installed is a good idea. I’ve seen appliances that fit differently, exposing some previously unexposed surfaces. I’ve also seen appliances scrape new floors. (Yes, it’s eventually going to get scratched but that first one really stings.) New flooring seems to be a great last step, unless there will be staining involved. I’ve seen stain flick up onto already painted walls and trim, so in this instance, just know extra paint will be needed on hand for touch ups.
Lastly, I’ve recently encountered the mixing of different shades of a similar color in one environment. While I appreciate the efforts in creativity, we Normies of the world should stand back and appreciate the talent and knowledge of interior designers. I have no clue how much it would cost to hire a designer, but I know the paint companies pay good money to an employee to create color scheme booklets offered for free wherever paint is sold. While it may feel artsy to choose a few different shades of the same color, the other end of this equation is grabbing the wrong paint tray or touch up brush because they all look relatively the same. If the colors chosen don’t look different to the naked eye, confusion is being added to the equation for no good reason. And, while I strongly support utilizing various colors within one room or structure, I know without reservation that the majority of humas should not be mixing colors together all willy nilly without any professional guidance. Just this past week I watched Requisite Gray turn tan, Cloak Gray turn purple and Grayish Gray turn pink, all because Charcoal Gray was applied to the floor. True story!
The common thread in all of these lessons was a finish line that kept getting moved further away. When the momentum of a project halts, quality work starts to decline. So…
What To Do in Painting = Begin the project with a clear vision of the desired end result.