Finding Friday- The BEST Painting Tips!

We’ve made our way back to Friday! So many great things to share with you since the last update. In the middle of the restoration, we discovered the BEST painting tips to share with you! Time saving and those that will make your painting much easier.

So, let’s go!

This week, the flooring has been finished with only the doorway transitions left– on order–the way of Covid these days.

With floors down, painting began on the walls, doors and new trim added that required caulking and painting.

My husband had already learned new painting tips from the master bedroom paint and trim and they are simply too good not to share with you.

Here you go!

The BEST Painting Tips!

Let’s talk about the first painting tip…

The newest tip that we learned in the bedroom that helped with the kitchen restoration was—are you ready???–an 18″ paint roller and tray.

What?!! We had no clue one existed! Talk about a time saver and better coverage provider. Both were huge improvements!

It covered so well that we could have almost gotten by with one coat over the primer in the bedroom.

The second painting tip was a “new to us” caulk method.

You may not know this one either.

We found this on the Idaho Painter’s You Tube channel. Who knew that you that you could paint the walls– then tape the trim–and then caulk and paint the trim while the caulk is wet…what???!!

While the trim/caulk are wet, immediately pull the tape. It results in a perfectly straight line with perfect caulking every time.

Frog tape for the win on this one! We tried other painter’s tapes, but FROG TAPE won the award!

The third painting tip was new tools.

The first tool was the hand masker that is perfect to add the wide brown masking paper to areas you don’t want paint. It’s fast and simple to apply. It’s available in 9″ and 12″ paper.

The next tool–in walked that cute painter and in her hands was a “handy pail” with a handle on the side for the most comfortable hold and a magnet inside to hold the paint brush.

As a result…one of those for upcoming painting projects in my life was purchased. You may need one in your life, as well!

If you want to buy locally, I found one at Lowe’s and the plastic liners to fit which makes clean up a breeze.

But, then? She pulled out a new brush…short, comfortable to hold and easy to grip. Perfect. I love that the magnet on the inside of the handy pail holds that little paint brush inside to keep it from slipping into the paint.

The fourth painting tip was a product new to us.

The new French doors required painting inside and out and meant that the other set of French doors needed a new refresh, too.

Enter the new product! You may have heard of this one, but it was new to us and boy did we love using it! Jasco Liquid Mask & Seal is brushed around the edges of glass, (we found two coats was easier to remove), and let it dry before painting.

It’s dries clear as shown on the window below.

Here’s a great video that shows this one in action.

This was so much easier than using other products on the glass to prevent scraping paint off later.

As soon as the mask dries, you paint the doors/window casings. Then use a razor blade to cut and separate the painted mask on the glass from the paint on the wood frame of the door.

Then just peel the mask off.

Can I tell you, again, how much we loved this product?

The last tip is in using a paint sprayer.

The interior doors were hand painted, but my husband, the spray painter of amusement park rides at Noble Park Funland for years and years, required the exteriors of doors to be sprayed.

I’ll be sharing about that sprayer with the table restoration soon.

We love using the roll of wide brown paper masking to protect around the doors to keep the paint off of the house. So much easier than taping brown paper by itself.

When painting those doors the stationery door was masked and sprayed in place.

Our brown craft paper that we use for everything and even newspaper was used to completely cover the glass of the outside of the doors when spray painting.

The moving door was removed from hinges, laid on saw horses, and sprayed. One more tip we learned on the exterior doors was that the plastic frame around the glass needed to be primed with a “plastic” Krylon spray primer before adding the coat of paint.

We chose a great exterior black paint recommended to us by professionals and that met my husband’s approval.

Now for the rest of the Restoration Update???

Sheetrock Tim came to check the ceilings and area around the new door and decided more sheetrock needed to be smoothed…again. THANKFULLY, this only required sponging and no sander was used this go around.

Another note about painting ceilings after resurfacing–paint allows any imperfections to appear and the need for more repair to smooth those spots out. Who knew?

Whew! I’m still washing dishes and cabinets this week in response to last week’s Kitchen Organization update.

It’s been a gloriously beautiful week outside here with temperatures above 70 making siding moving closer to finishing.

What’s next in the restoration process? Check back with me each Friday to see!

Ultimately?

Restoring normalcy, cleanliness, beauty and less chaos will be welcomed.

SPRING CLEANING continues here…how is it in your home?

May it be filled with signs of spring inside and out…and if you need more inspiration there, don’t hesitate to read this one before you go.

Happy Friday, friends!