The Crazy Simple Life

                                                          Photo by ecothran

Paint, paint, paint - I love paint.  

Paint is inexpensive, paint wipes up easily when it spills, paint doesn’t require use of a power tool (which often means waiting for The Philosophers help), in short, paint rocks.  Paint truly is one of the fastest and most economical ways to transform a room.  And paint isn’t just for walls…I recently went on a furniture painting marathon where I painted most of my furniture black…dining room chairs, a chaise lounge, a lamp, a clock, that out-of-date gold fireplace door and my front door. 

Why black paint?  Black is the new brown...the sleek "in" color that can be used to tie together an entire room.  Black paint also makes furniture look new and hides blemishes.

The key to painting is to take your time and use the right tools. Some tips I find useful:

• Use a small angled paint brush for wall edges and trim
• Use a thin piece of cardboard (like those marketing flyers that come in the mail that you are constantly putting in the recycle bin) to create a barrier between the surface you are trying not to get paint on (such as trim) and the surface that you are trying to paint (such as a wall).  Hold the cardboard in one hand and your paint brush in the other and move the cardboard as you paint (much easier than all of that blue tape).
  
• Line paint trays with tin foil for easy clean-up
• Invest in more expensive paints that only require one coat OR apply two coats
  
• Use roller brushes on flat surfaces as much as possible and only use paint brush for edges/trim (roller brushes apply much smoother and have less risk for drips)
  
• Use spray paint for furniture
• When using spray paint:
• paint outdoors, put flat cardboard under object to be painted to avoid accidently painting ground, cement, grass, etc
• spray paint evenly on surface
• do not spray in one spot for too long, this will cause paint build up that leads to drips
• when possible, avoid spray painting vertical surfaces to help avoid drips 

Of course, there are a ton of great tips and more advice on HGTV (my fav!), but these are my reliable tricks that get the job done every time. Making a space fresh in only a few hours can uplift the room easily and that is the true decorators bliss.