One thing about the days getting longer and the light getting brighter: It makes winter-tired walls, windows and woodwork look dingier than ever. I have a theory that one of the primal human urges of spring is a desire to mix a luscious new color and splash it over everything in sight.
There is a tremendous satisfaction in making something look brand-new and sassy instead of grimy and dispirited. The paint stores, well aware of this basic human need, are responding with all kinds of sales, new gadgets, and good advice for the neophyte as well as the advanced painter.
Advice, as we all know, is one of the cheapest commodities on earth. Good advice, on the other hand, is more difficult to come by. But if you want your paint job to come out looking splendid for the least amount of money and time you can possibly spend, you need to ask yourself some questions before you ask the knowledgeable guy behind the paint-mixing machine.
What condition is the surface in? Does it need to be spackled or sanded? Is there rust or grease or dirt encrusted on it? Is it a shamefully weeping section of humid wall? Does it have vinyl wallpaper on it?
These problems all have good solutions just waiting for you on the shelves of your local paint dealer.
Consider, too, that a paint job can only be as good as the body beneath the skin. What's under the surface? Plaster? Wall-board? Wallpaper? Each must be treated differently, and mended differently.
After you determine what surface you're working with, your first trip should be to a paint store and a hardware store, to read labels and compare prices.
Before you go, make up your mind how much time, money and effort the job is worth to you. Living as we do in an imperfect world, you may not have the inclination to prepare a wall as if Michelangelo were going to use it for his next mural. You may just want to do a quick fix over those nauseating wallpaper lambs gamboling with big-eyed children, or slap a good vinyl coat over that unfortunate accident with the spaghetti sauce in the kitchen.
If you have holes that need repair, don't despair. Patching has become a good deal easier with the advent of latex- and vinyl-based patching compounds. The old days when you laboriously mixed plaster-of-Paris to the right consistency and hoped it would "take" are gone. Even large holes can be easily mended with products like Bondex Super Patch, which costs between $5 and $6 a quart, may not need sanding if you put it on carefully, and can be painted immediately if you're using a latex paint, or after a 24-hour drying time if you're using an oil-based paint.
Some spackles and patching materials come in a handy caulk gun, so you can walk along shooting the holes in the wall with one hand and smoothing the surface with the other. Manufacturers have made an effort to provide you with containers that allow you to save the leftovers for future jobs, instead of re-investing in the whole kit and caboodle every time.
You say your last paint job ended with the cat tracking that nice sunshine yellow all over the slate floor in the hall?
You can do a good deal to prevent the inevitable disruption of painting from taking over your life. Use drop cloths, plastic tarps, or newspaper secured with tape to cover the floors and furniture. you're painting all the walls of a room, give yourself a clear space all the way around by moving the furniture into the middle of the floor. Be sure that you have a way to ventilate the room to minimize paint fumes. A breeze box or window fan, wedged securely into a window with pillows stuffed into the side gaps, is a great help in blowing the new-paint reek outside, and has the added advantage of making it possible to shut the door into the room so the walls can dry in peace.
If you're tackling a ceiling, try to arrange things so the ladder can be moved through pathways. If your ceiling is low, as most are these days, you may not even need a ladder. Try using a roller-extension -- a kind of handle that screws into the base of the roller, available for about $3-$5 in most stores and worth every penny. And an old-fashioned kitchen stool-chair, if you have one, is a good height from which to paint, and more pleasant to stand on than a ladder. But whichever you choose, make sure you're climbing and standing on a firm foundation.
Many's the Sunday painter who has graced the emergency room with a broken arm because she or he didn't take a few sensible precautions like making sure the ladder had a secure footing or that small children and large dogs were excluded from the area.
The best thing that's happened to painting equipment is the proliferation of paint-pads and rollers engineered to do special jobs.
Look for spatter-shield rollers, which keep the paint from flipping back into your face as you roll. Can't get that last little bit in the corner? There are special corner pads to pat it to a precise edge, and small corner rollers to do the job with a minimum of paint and frustration. There are foam pads to help you edge around windows and baseboards, angled pads to help with special situations, like woodwork, and adjustable trim pads to customize the paint to your particular crevice or trim.
The pads cost between $3 and $6, depending on complexity, and most are reusable if carefully washed.
An even less expensive alternative, if you don't want to invest in corner pads or trim gadgets, is to accomplish essentially the same thing by patting the paint on very carefully with the straight-edge of a disposable foam "brush." These come in widths from 1 to 3 inches and generally cost between fifty cents and $1 a piece. The disadvantage is that you need to exert more skill in order to do a good job, as opposed to letting the tool do it for you as the specialized pads will. There's even a product called "Glass-Mask" that makes the tedious job of painting window trim easier. No more of the old masking-tape and razor-blade routine -- just paint this stuff on, paint the trim, and peel off the mistakes.
The selection of roller pads has kept pace with the new paint technology, not to mention surface-finishing fashions. Rollers can had in short, medium, and long fibers, in textured wiry surfaces that bristle like a horsehair sofa and leave your walls looking fashionably "distressed," and in a variety of widths to suit everything from woodwork to The Great Wall.
Most cost between $2 and $6, with the roller-cradles costing about the same amount. Roller pans for specific jobs -- wall, ceiling, and textured paint -- can be had for about the same amount.
What kind of paint should you use? Latex or oil-based? Satin, matte, or semi-gloss? How much do you need? What's the difference between the various grades? Is the extra money for high grade paint really worth it?
This is, once again, a function of what your individual job requires. If you can use a latex paint, you have the advantage of soap and water clean up -- easier on the temper than the mineral spirits or turpentine required to clean up oil-based paint. There is some price variation between the two, but some jobs are better done by one or the other.
This is another place where asking the right questions of someone who knows what's what about paint can save you time and frustration. How long do you want it to last? Will it be exposed to weather or small sticky fingers or kitchen grease? You're asking for problems if you put a matte-finish paint in an area where the walls have to take punishment from grease or children. A gloss finish will be easier to wipe clean. But if you want a luscious deep apricot to glow around the family Renoir, you may want to choose a matte finish -- no distracting reflections to compete with the pictures on the wall.
When you have listed all the problems and needs -- surface preparation, amount of coverage, how long you want the paint to last, and how much you have to spend -- take your list to a hardware or paint store, and spend some time reading labels.
The paint people expect a do-it-yourself purchaser, and they are careful to tell you right on the can most of the information you need to do a safe and successful job.
In addition, the industry has responded to consumer concern about toxic residue and vapor with "environmentally responsible" products. You may want to safeguard your health further by using a vapor mask, especially if you need to strip off old paint.
And finally, you may want to avail yourself of the great selection of colors now available. The new paint machines can produce everything from fuchsia to fauve green without any difficulty. Like the man who makes your eyeglasses, the paint mixer will give you a little card with the exact proportions needed to mix more of the same. This is important, because while most paint places will accept unused, unopened cans of standard colors for return, if you buy more custom paint than you need, you're stuck with it.
More painting information
If you're still feeling insecure about making an investment in paint and having it come out poorly, more help is available.
*Videos: Many paint companies and hardware stores now have videotapes on how to do a good job that demonstrate and advise step-by-step. And the home improvement section of the local library will provide you with a number of good books written on the subject by experts, aimed at helping the inexperienced do-it-yourself to do-it-well.
*Books: "The Complete Painter's Handbook," by Gregg Sandreuter, has especially good pictures of mending and surface-preparation techniques. "The How-To-Do-It Encyclopedia of Painting and Wallcovering," by Bob Percival, includes a good rundown on which paint to use for which job and why, as well as good photographs of blistering, mildew, and other unsightly problems, along with their cure. Lutz and Peterson's "Complete Guide To Painting Your Home" also includes good information on estimating the amount of paint, deciding which paint to use, and dealing with little things like window woodwork.