DIY: Need to do some frugal painting?

Need to paint? We finally painted our two story foyer this last weekend and it was a job. Like many Do-It-Yourself projects that are relegated to the back burner, this one began about eight months ago. My husband received a gift of free paint to review on his audio show, The Handyguys Podcast. He picked a color, selected three cans of a more expensive one-coat paint (which is preferable when you have a high area to paint and only want to hit it once), and rolled on a small area to test it.

It was pink. In the can, it was cream. On the brush, it was cream. On the wall, light pink. He tested it in several areas and still the same. So, we used one can to paint the bathroom and started the process of trying out sample paints to find the right shade for our foyer. We had the other cans tinted as close to the color we needed and then, on Saturday, mixed them with a fresh can of the paint color we really wanted in a 5 gallon bucket with a long mixing tool attached to the drill.

After several months of the paint cans sitting in our living room, we finally set a date, rented scaffolding and did it. We were done by 3:30 pm. Why did it take us so long when it went so quick? Sometimes, you pay for the convenience of getting jobs done faster when you don’t have to fit it into your own schedule and sometimes, the cost savings are worth having swatches of paint littering your wall until you can get to it. In this case, we saved what one guy quoted close to $3,000 to do. I think his estimate was high but I think we still saved at least half that.

What we did spend was around $60 on the one new can of paint, sample jars, and new rollers and $62 on scaffolding – two stackable sections with platforms and one ladder-like piece that stretched from the top platform to the top of our stairs. We were able to walk right along the wall and finish the paint job quickly, remove the scaffolding and use rollers with long poles to complete the rest. We were racing against time to return the scaffolding so we wouldn’t be charged an extra day to keep it. As soon as the top section was done, the pieces were packed up and returned.

We learned that spending the time and relatively small amount of money on the right tools made the job go much faster and more efficiently. By investing in quality paint (our favorite brand being Benjamin Moore), we saved a significant amount of time and money not having to put on several coats. Some painters will still recommend two coats, since I did see one spot I painted a little too thin; but, for the most part, one coat seemed to do the trick.

At one point, Brian pulled out a nifty new gadget that allows you to spread paint near an edge and not get it on the ceiling. It got on the ceiling. Nothing beats a steady hand and wet edge on the right size brush – a quality brush that doesn’t start losing bristles after an hour. Again, some tools are worth paying extra when you are saving hundreds doing it yourself.

Any painting tricks you want to share? I’ll include them at the bottom of the next article.

In the Phoenix, June 2010

Pictures of our project:

Tagged as: frugal painting