(OT) Who likes to paint??

[Dinghy]

Just curious if anyone here actually likes to paint the house, or if it's just a necessary job? I don't like the actual painting, but I'm always excited about the end results. Today I painted our bedroom ceiling, the laundry ceiling and the doorway in the computer room. Tomorrow I'm going to buy paint for the bedroom walls and hopefully will start painting after hubby goes to work tomorrow night. There is nowhere to move the furniture to, so I have to just pull things away from the wall enough that I can squeeze me and the paint brush in between. Not looking forward to this at all! The walls are white now, and I'm going to be gutsy and paint them green. The decorating shows always say "don't be afraid of color", so I'm taking a chance. I'm hoping it will add a little warmth and character to the room. It's a real small room, so there isn't much that I can do to change it other than the color and new curtains. We'll see what happens!

 

[booger]

Me!

I almost didn't open this thread. I read the title and thought to myself, "I love to paint! Oh, wait. I love to paint houses. They're probably talking about painting pictures."

Something about a change--permanent, yet temporary. Yeah, that's it. I love it because it's a temporary permanent change. Just tell me I'm not the only one who loves the smell...

 

[Gingergirl]

booger

I also put this thread off as I thought it was about painting pictures.

So now that I have the subject right...I like to paint walls, and even furniture, but NOT when there is carpet on the floor. I've been S-L-O-W-L-Y painting our house, including trim and doors. Trying to do trim against carpet is most painfully. My hands cramp, my knees get stiff and my eyes start to cross. I still have one large room to do and by the time I finish, it will be time to recarpet. Good thing you say?

I'm pretty sure that the carpet piles will not match and the two layers of primer and three layers of enamel will have created a truely awful line. I forsee removing the old baseboards and replacing them with new baseboards(that I will also have to paint.):

Tips?

Not sure I have any. I have used latex, acrylic, and oil paint; flat, eggshell, satin, semi-gloss and enamel. I've tried rollers, pads, and brushes. I've used painter's tape, paint guards and drop cloths of plastic, paper, and old sheets.

What I have settled on is PREP: wash everything, sand everything, patch everything, prime everything. (Well not everything, but don't rush or slough this off.)

Personal taste is: roll only with a paint stick (incredibly quick, no dripping...if tuned up...and easy to cleanup.) I use a paper drop cloth when rolling. Everything else I do with two rather expensive angle cut brushes, 1 1/2 inch and 2 1/2 inch. I don't use tape, or paint guards...just a few sections of newspapers and a slow, steady hand. But I am SLOW. It takes me about 2-3 hours to cut in the walls for the ceiling, coners and trim with the 2 1/2" brush in a 10' X 11' room.

Now to the fun part. Most of our rooms are a version of camel and white. But in the bedrooms, I done one a french blue, and the other a soft green. I like them all.

Oh, and another unsual thing I did that is really nice. Our family room was a sort of "colonial" thing when we bought it, false beams and all. So I painted the walls a sort of soft white (plaster-look) and the corase trim, sections of 40" high panel board, the "beams" and the CEILING a taupy camel. Made the room much more interesting a more colonial look.

AND one more, in the front hall with staircase, painted the walls and the ceiling the same camel, added a thin crown moulding, and painted the moulding, trim and doors white. (The staircase was not a good design, so I painted it the wall color to sort of blend it away. Very effective and much more elegant.)

Wordy, wordy, wordy. I'll shut-up now. (Good Luck)

 

[Dinghy]

Well I bought the paint! I'm still not anxious to get started. I think I'm going to paint the window frames and doorways first, then the walls. That way I won't get white paint on the green walls. It looks like I'm not going to have to put a second coat on the ceiling, so that's good news.
I got a real shocker this morning. My son and youngest daughter are painting the outside of the house for my husband's Father's day present. They picked out the colors and bought the paint yesterday. They borrowed ladders from a neighbor and have been scraping and painting all day. I didn't know anything about it, therefore I had nothing to say about the colors! I had already picked one out a couple weeks ago, and it's not what they decided on. This is going to be scary!!!!

 

[Gingergirl]

Oh Dingy, how sweet , BUT how scary Hope you like it when it's done.

 

[HoofTrimmer]

I love to paint. Good thing too. Okay, I did until we had new cupboards installed in the kitchen. We have to use oil based primer and oil based paint. Yuck. I have to sand each coat to smooth it when it dries. Yuck. Plus, "I" never make anything easy and have chosen to two tone the doors.

After all the prep work is done on walls, ceilings, and the outside painting is very satisfying.

HoofTrimmer

 

[ShepInTheValley]

Hey Dinghy - anxious to hear how the kids' paint job turned out.

 

[Dinghy]

Well, it was interesting to say the least. Son scraped and painted all day until supper time. Daughter scraped and painted about 3 window frames, got bored, and went home. I figured son would get stuck with most of it! My once white window frames are now a khaki color, and the rest will be some sort of maroon. We have an old brick house and they are trying to do the victorian colors thing. I don't know if I'm going to like this!!!! I sure wish they would have talked to me first. Oh well, it needed done and this saves me from having to do it all. I'm going to try and help them this weekend if the weather holds out.

 

[ShepInTheValley]

Wishing you the best of luck... I really hope it turns out beautifully... but I'm with you - I'm pretty picky what color I want my house to be, LOL.

Keep us posted.

 

[Dinghy]

Maybe I can take before and after pictures. I'll be really surprised if it gets completely finished though. Most projects around here never do!

 

[rugmaker]

Dinghy, don't tell me that you are hooked on those make-over shows?? I was...Christopher Lowell, trading spaces, etc.

I sponge painted the kitchen with 3 different colors and it turned out so well, I kept going from room to room. No more bland walls.
I got my husband into the act. I have a beautiful oriental picture of a tree at sunset. The black tree against several shades of orange. I told my husband that I wanted the walls one of those colors of orange. I was really scared, but he said okay and had the paint specially mixed to match the painting. It's a small dark room with no windows. It has bookcases on two walls and a black futon couch. It turned out fabulous. We both love it. My daugther calls it the "Halloween" room. (black and orange). We have added black and gold accessories and wicker screens. It may not be everyone's taste, but it changed a very bland room into something special. We have a large gold framed mirror on one wall that reflects the other wall/entrance.

My daughter wanted her's done gothic/renaissance-like with deep wine colored paint. I thought that I would sponge on the dark burgandy paint and then go over it lightly with a milder color.
She liked it after the first stage and so we left it. We hung up wine colored drapes with pulls and beige lace valances and edging. We hung up those black cast iron candle holders with mirror backgrounds. Very unique, but not something that I really like to show off. Too many red blotches on walls looks a bit like a crime scene. Lol

I always heard that you shouldn't be afraid of color, so I wasn't. It was a drastic change, but the good news, it isn't permanent!
We had fun, my family thought it was cool.

We've mellowed a bit since then, but did redo the kitchen cabinets, removed the carpet from the bathroom and refinished the old wood floors. Our house is very plain from the outside, but people will never forget the inside. So have fun!

 

[Dinghy]

Hi Rugmaker,
I wrote earlier, but it must have gotten lost in space somewhere! You sound just like me! I'm hooked on the decorating and landscaping shows. I watch them every night when I come home from work.
I had surgery last fall and layed in bed watching those shows for days. Finally I couldn't take it any more. I got up at 3:00 a.m. and tore the wallpaper off the bathroom walls. Then a little at a time I sponge painted the walls. After I was back on my feet, I sponge painted the hall and stairway too. Painting that way hides a lot of flaws in the walls. Plus it's rather unique. I don't know anybody else that has done it.
You have to take a chance once in awhile. If you don't like it, paint over it and start over! My husband never complains about what I do, he usually likes it. He hates painting, so he's glad that I'm doing it and he doesn't have to.
I figure there are worse habits to have. At least paint is sort of cheap and it keeps me off the streets!!!

 

[ShepInTheValley]

LOL - you guys are gonna motivate ME to start painting, which needs to be done desperately!

 

[Dinghy]

Go for it Shep!!!!! I'm going to pop a movie in the vcr for my grandaughter to watch while I paint some more of the wood work in my bedroom. We'll still be spending time together, but I'll be getting something done at the same time. She loves watching Mrs. Doubtfire so she'll be happy. She's been watching that movie since she was a year old. I'm so sick of seeing it after 7 years that I'd rather paint!!!! We used to watch it almost every night. She'd wake up when she heard me come home from work and would insist on coming in my room to watch it. That went on for months. It's still her favorite movie after all these years.
Well, I'm going to dig out the ladder now! Have a great night!