Painting your home should not have to be a long, drawn-out saga. It shouldn’t have to cost you a truckload of money to do it either. A painting contractor in Sacramento came up with some brilliant ways to creatively paint your home without having to spend thousands of dollars or hours doing it. All that you have to do is have a little ingenuity and the willingness to do a little bit of work, and you are all set. Wondering how to paint your home without paying a ton of money? We have put together some basic ways that can cut costs and time.
1 Use a Roller
One of the best ways to spread paint across a surface is to use a roller. When you go to the hardware store to purchase your roller, take the time to go through the ones that are available and find the correct one for the job that you are doing. As you may already know, the roller itself is not what you use to paint. You use a “nap” to cover the roller, then dip the nap into the paint to work. There are different sized naps that provide different types of painting finishes. For example, for walls, wood, and even metal, it is best if you use a thinner nap like a ¼ inch nap. For smooth surfaces, like windows or plastic, you are better off using a thicker nap like ¾ inch.
For the best results, use latex paint with a primer base for indoors, and oil-based paint with the primer already present for outside painting. The difference is that latex paint, is water-based so when the outdoor elements hit it, it will quickly dissolve and wear away.
Simply use a paint tray to pour some of the paint in, then put your roller horizontally into the paint, and roll it a few times on the tray. This will get the paint onto the roller, but remove excess paint, and you can go right to painting from there.
2 Use a Paintbrush
Using a paintbrush may seem a bit old-fashioned, but if you do it correctly, your job will turn out amazing and look fantastic. The best way to use a brush is to dip just the tip of it into the paint can or whatever container you are using and slowly brush the paint onto the surface.
When you are painting around trim or other areas that are in close proximity to each other, make sure to delicately glide your paintbrush so that you only hit the area that you want to paint. When it comes to corners and window seals, it is very easy to overshoot the paint and get it onto the next surface. This ends up looking pretty awful and causing a mess. The best way to avoid that is to simply be careful.
3 Use a Sprayer
A professional painter in Sacramento had a bit of great advice when it comes to using a paint sprayer on a painting job. “Only use it if you know how to.” There are plenty of training aids out there that will teach you or somebody else the proper way to spray a house with a paint sprayer. Because they are hooked up to an air system or other means of power it is not a good idea to try and paint your home if you do not how to use one. In some cases, you can get a couple of cans of spray paint from the paint store and try to patch up bad spots on your current paint job, but unless you know how to use a sprayer, you might want to practice on somebody else’s house first, if they will let you.
4 Use Sponges
Another way to paint your home or do touch up painting where there are repairs needed is to use a sponge. Of course, you probably wouldn’t want to paint the whole outside of your home with a sponge. That might take a very long time, but if you use it to do minor corrections around the home, you can blend the paint in fairly easily without causing the mess that a paintbrush will. Sometimes using a brush or a spray can on a small area causes more harm than good. Using a sponge to do touch up jobs is a safe way to avoid blotches and messes.
5 Hire a Professional
In the end, the best way to paint your home without paying a whole bunch of money and making a huge mess is to hire a professional painting contractor. You can shop around and take your time when you look for one. In most cases, getting your home painted is not an emergency, so you don’t have to rush it. All you have to do is meet up with as many as you need to find the right person for you. Some painters are very reasonable and do great work. You won’t have to endure a bunch of people in and out of your home for several days. When you find a contractor that you like and that does good work, let all of your friends know because sometimes great painters are hard to find.
