We need to watch three aspects of painting, the brush, the paint and the technique.

Let’s start with the brush. Even using the most seasoned professional and the best bucket of paint on the market, you can’t get that fabulous look with a bad brush. It’s really best to spend a little more for a really good brush. You’ll find yourself with a quality finish and it’ll save you time and loads of frustration. A low quality brush will leave you with brush marks and also runs the risk of opening up at its sides, making painting clean edges an impossibility. Also, bristles tend to drop and stick onto the painting surface. To avoid brush marks, always choose bristles that are relatively soft. The length of the bristle should preferably be at least 2-inches or longer.

Now let’s move on to the paint. You’ll want to choose paints that have a certain amount of “body,” or volume solids. Using these types of paints will result in less brush marks. Also look for the paint’s ability to flow easily. If the “flow” is poor, brush strokes will not be smooth, again resulting in brush marks. This can usually be solved by thinning with the recommended thinner. Drying time is another important factor. If the paint dries extremely fast, you won’t have enough time to smooth out any brush marks.

It’s all in the technique. Be sure to use sufficient amounts of paint on your brush. Dip only about 1/3 the length of the brush into the paint and lightly touch the inner side of the paint can to drain off some excess (but not too much). Apply and distribute the paint with horizontal strokes before smoothing it out with light long strokes, lifting off lightly at the end of the stroke.

Sometimes yes and sometimes no. Here’s the deal.  The more sheen “shiny” a paint is, the easier it will be to take a wet rag and wipe off. However the more shiny it is, the more imperfections in the sheet rock and texture you will notice. Also shiny paint usually is not the best choice if you like to pull out a brush and do a touch up here and there. The wet sheen will not blend with the dry sheen and if there is any light on the touch up you will see a sheen spot.

Just because a paint is flat does not mean it’s cheap. The guts of a high quality flat paint can be much better than a junky semi-gloss. High quality flat paints will hold their color and sheen and will touch-up very well.

Recently, I went to a customer’s home in Frisco in which we completed a full interior job, 2-years previously. They were putting the house on the market and wanted freshen up the entire interior. They just assumed, like most, that the stored original paint wouldn’t match for a perfect touch-up. We pulled a can out of the garage, touched it up, and they were amazed that it blended right in. It saved them about $3,000.  If the  walls were originally painted in an eggshell or satin, they would have to repainted most of the walls.

Ok here’s what you do.  Make sure that the lid and the rim of the paint can don’t have any crude on them.  Then knock the lid on real tight.  If you use a hammer be sure not the bend any of the metal.  A rubber mallet is better suited for this.  Now just turn the paint can over and the paint will seal it self in the can.  It is as simple as that.  If your kids are anything like mine then don’t store it in the house.  You’ll walk around the corner to find your little sweetheart is the next Picasso.  I keep mine in the garage.  The down side to that is the extreme hot and cold will shorten the life of the paint.

This is a question that we are constantly asked. There are many brands out there and of course you hear everyone espousing that brand x or brand y is the best. The truth is that most brands have a low end, mid grade, and top of the line products. So don’t be as focused on the brand as on what line you are buying. Also pay attention to who they market to. Here are some uselfull facts on some great paint manufactures that you might want to take into consideration.

Sherwin-Williams www.sherwin-williams.com
With over 900 retail stores in North America Sherwin-Williams is a house hold name. You can find one in nearly every major city if not 4 or 5 of them. With the amount of commercials they run one would guess that there main market is do it yourselfers. Yes there super paint is good, but remember they have to pay for that marketing some how. One thing that about SW is that they have a product line for everything. If you told them you need primer for moon rock they would probably pull a gallon out for you. They are also very well trained. I have talked with David King the store manager at the parker location in Plano, TX on a number of occasions and have been impressed. One of their products that we love at DFW Painting is their softsuede paint. It goes on so easy and looks great. It definitely blows all the other suede paints we have tried out of the water.

Kelly-Moore www.kellymoore.com
Kelly-Moore says it is the Painter’s Paint Store. They are the largest employee owned paint store in the US with around 150 retail stores in 9 states and around 2,000 employees. Their main market is contractors but they advertise and do a decent bit of DIY’ers as well. If you want to use KM I would suggest their Acrylic Interior Flat Wall Paint 550 for flat interior painting and their 100% Acrylic Low Sheen 1245 which is actually a satin sheen for exterior. Both are great products that you can’t go wrong with. Be sure that you prep your house correctly before you apply these paints.

ICI Paints www.icipaintstores.com
ICI is the largest paint manufacture in the world. Have you heard of Glidden, Raulph Lauren Paints, Liquid Nails, Devoe, Dulux (one of my favorites), or Sinclair? Those are just some of the brands that they own. The history and innovation of ICI runs deep. Just one of their creations is epoxy coatings. ICI in general sells to the DIYers thru vendors such as Home Depot. Since their stores are geared more toward the professional painter you won’t see them running adds on the tv and probably haven’t noticed your local store. You can find one on the website I listed above. A great plus for those that use ICI paints is incredible technology at fair prices. They have a great business model. I’ll tell you right now that there 2402 which is a 100% arylic for exteriors and their 1200 velvet matte for interior painting are among the best.