I had not thought that painting a home was anything that really required much skill, but according to both friends and family, many people approach both color and paint with timidity.  For example, I was surprised to discover the color of a home’s walls can be a deterrent in buying a home. Color can always be changed, and painting is so simple and fun, I do not know why it is not considered more often. If a dream home has all the bones you want, but the paint is garish, just paint it.  If you feel inspired, but fear for your home’s resell value later, you can always go back to neutral colors.  One gallon can of good paint is often sufficient to cover an entire room.  When transitioning from a much darker color to a lighter one, or in dealing with a large room, more paint may be needed, but leftovers are great for touchups, and I tend to keep old cans on hand for many years just for this purpose.

Using Old Paint

Throwing away old paint in a trash can is costly and not advisable.  Many trash services simply won’t take old paint left in a can, and it is definitely not great for the environment.  There are recycling centers that reuse this old paint for charitable causes, where all colors are mixed to create one new peculiar shade, often a kind of beige.  However, I keep my latex paint for years, until every drop is used.  There are always touchups every spring, and having those old cans means I do not have to worry about continuity in my colors.  I simply make sure my can lids are sealed tightly by hammering them on and then store them in the cool of my basement.  To date, I have not had any mold grown in any of these cans, and mold would be the only thing that would ruin the paint.  Old paint can separate pretty badly, however, but this is easily remedied with some vigorous shaking. I simply make sure my cans are sealed tightly and shake the cans from top to bottom, back and forth, upside down and topside, and I even put them on their sides on the ground and roll them with my foot like a barrel.  After all this shaking, I unseal the can with a paint can opener, and use a wooden stirring stick to complete stirring the paint around. If the paint has become a bit thick, as it sometimes does, I simply add a little water and mix again.

Picking the Right Shade

In general, when picking a new paint from the many beautiful sample chips available, I find what I want and go just one or two shades more saturated from that color.  The  reason I do this is because paint tends to become more light reflective once it covers a wide area, like a wall, and therefore will be much lighter than what your eye sees on a tiny square of plastic.  As a rule, however, darker colors tend to lessen the space of a room and lighter colors tend to widen them, so small spaces often look larger from lighter paint, while big rooms tend to shrink with darker shading.  This being said, however, when adhering to historical coloring, these rules sometimes get broken.    

Matte, Eggshell, & Gloss

Different types of paint finishes do different jobs.  Matte is a very specific finish, is very light absorbing, and is best left as an artistic accent.  My milk paint is best described as a type of matte finish paint, and is really fun to paint with and touch once it dries, but I have limited its use to specified pieces of furniture. The use of matte is a creative choice, but does lend itself to historical pieces.  However, using a matte paint, while fun, can later prove to be laborious, as it does not clean very easily and absorbs stains readily.  Eggshell is the preferred paint for most surfaces, inside and out of the home.  It is a nice medium between matte and gloss. You do not really notice any shine with eggshell, but do get the same cleaning benefits of a gloss paint, as little sticks to it.   Gloss paints, like matte, should be used sparingly and as artistic accents.  This being said, gloss is not really as shiny as what one might assume it to be, and I prefer it for woodwork and trim.  It is a nice way to make accent pieces stand out from their backgrounds, without anyone being able to figure out why they do, and like the eggshell paint, is easy to clean.

Rollers vs Brushes

Rollers are a great way to cover a large area smoothly, but I always follow up with a brush to get to the edges of my walls.  Often, if you use a combination of the two you can avoid using tape all together. I also use brushes where thinner or smaller areas need paint, like wood trim and baseboards.  Whether you are using a roller or a brush, however, never get too much paint at one time.  Pans are great for eliminating excess on rollers, simply roll several time on the shallow end of the pan to wipe off the paint. Similarly, wiping a brush inside the rim of a can is a great way to remove excess paint from a brush.  Glopping too much paint is messy, will take forever to dry, and often will peel straight off.

Color Matching: Machine vs. Human

I always prefer to have my paint mixed by the same guy, Terri, at my local paint shop.  Terri has a true eye for this sort of thing, and has been mixing my paint for years.  I always get great advice from him and will be truly sorry when he retires one day. In expectation that one day I may no longer be able to call upon his services, I have tried several color matching machines in various home supply stores and compared them to paints Terri has mixed for me.  I have found them to be fairly accurate, but they do come with one caveat: be careful about what surface your color sample is on.  The machines tend to pick up on the other colors reflected on a paint chip sample. For example, if you take in a shade of red on a white piece of a paper, the machine will pick up on the reflection of the white and the resulting color, no matter how close it seems in the store, will eventually dry into a paler oxidized version of the original shade.  Similarly, a purely blue paint on a green spoon would make the resulting blue have some green-blue tint, rather than the original pure color.  Though it may seem small, if you have ever had to finish half a wall with a paint sample that is even a little bit off, it will be noticeable in natural light and look streaky.

There is no way to really ruin a room through color, though.  Sometimes you make mistakes and pick the wrong color or shade, but you can always change it back.  The most expensive gallons of paint will cost you around $40, and many brands are much less.  Paint is something that is an extension of the home owner’s creativity and personality.  Much can be discovered about a person simply by the color of their walls.  For me, my home often is my vacation resort, and the color is both a reflection of where I want to be and how I want to feel every day.