Painting Party

December 28 2011,

We've been busy painting last week and this week. When there is a little bit of down time, we tackle a few walls each time. Last week was a section of the foyer and hallway.

The time consuming part is not the painting but the prepping of the walls. We have bad plaster on some walls, and when this happens, when we try priming the walls, the paint peels after it dries.

To make matters worse, the paint that we bad bought, was streaking badly.

We went back to the store and discussed the issue with the store owner, and he suggested buying Benjamin Moore Aura paints. Our original paint was $25.00 a gallon, and this special one was $60.00 a gallon. Before we jumped to the conclusion that it was the paint, we bought new roller frame, new rollers, and the streaks were still there.

With the Benjamin Moore Aura paint, we redid the wall, and there were no streaks at all. What a big difference. This paint is expensive, but it has primer built into it, and the paint is easier to work with.

Streaking on wall

Below is a small wall that we painted. I wanted this 3 feet by 3.5 feet wall be colorful, because our other walls are all off white. This orange color is call "citrus blast" (color # 2018-30). We bought a pint of paint with this color. It cost us $6.50 for the paint, it was worth it. It is on the bright side, so a small wall was appropriate.

Splash of color (citrus blast #2018-30)

We had gone to a friend's house over Christmas and saw these triangle on their handy man's workspace. We inquire what these things were, and he explained that they were call "Painter's Pyramid" and that it will make painting quicker.

Painter's Pyramid

You put doors, cabinet, small furniture on these pyramid, and then you can paint things in half the time, because you can get it off the ground or saw horses without having to wait for it to dry. It is a brilliant idea!

Hubby and I decided to set it up for our pine doors and did a trial run in flipping the doors before we painted to see if it was even feasible. As we flipped the door, we noticed little dimples on our doors. Darn. These pyramid left little dimple marks where it had been resting. Hubby concluded that the pine doors were too soft for these pyramid to rest on. So now, we are back to waiting an hour after each side of the door is painted and then flipping it over. Brilliant idea, but just not for us.

Painter's Pyramid resting on solid pine doors

This whole thing has certainly been an adventure. We're still painting doors. We can only do two at a time because we only have two sets of saw horses. The house had all brass hardware, and we are getting rid of the brass hardware (hinges, door knobs) and changing them all to satin nickle. Slowly but surely, we'll get there. After all the doors are done, I think we'll be tackling the trims.

Happy Painting,
Quilt & Bitch