Learn From My Stupidity
There was a time when I thought I knew everything there was to know about interior painting. I knew how to make newly installed chair rail look seamless. I could paint crown moulding without putting down plastic or using painters tape. I could roll a new coat of paint onto our living room walls in just under four hours. I loved painting so much that I would sometimes just randomly decide to repaint a room. For fun! Because painting was fun!
And then we moved into a much larger home.
And while most of that much larger home was filled with walls that had only been attended to by the builders, there were some rooms where there were . . . issues.
Apparently the previous owners of the home got in a bit of a domestic dispute, split up, and abandoned the house in the middle of painting the master bedroom.
Or at least I think this is what "the middle" looks like when you forget to apply common sense to a painting project.
And before you try to say that maybe they were really smart but just hadn't finished, uh, NO.
But no worries! I knew everything there is to know about painting! I could handle the mess!
The day we moved in, I marched right past all the boxes that needed to be unpacked and headed straight out to buy some paint. I planned to have the entire house beautifully in adorned in fresh, vibrant paint by the end of the week.
Hahahahahahahahaha! I was so naive!
Sometimes I have to learn lessons the hard way. This was one of those times.
As I stood at the paint counter with visions of a leisurely week of painting in my head, the employee at the paint counter tried to make a recommendation. "You may want to consider using the paint with primer in it."
"No, thank you," I told him. This was two years ago when paint plus primer was just starting to appear in stores. It cost nearly $10 more per gallon than the paint I had been using at our old townhome. Why upgrade? Especially considering I had only once used primer before and that was when we installed a brand new wall in our foyer. Of course you have to use primer on new drywall. The walls at the new house had already been primed, though. I could see the coat of basic contractor white paint on them!
Three days later, our family room was looking better.
But that was THREE days later. It took three full coats of paint to get good coverage. Three. Full. Coats. Of. Paint.
By that point in time, I was starting to not like painting so much.
But I continued on, regardless.
I didn't learn any lessons from Round One of painting, so Round Two was equally time consuming and painful. All I was doing was painting white walls a creamy off-white color, but it STILL took three coats to get good coverage.
And then it was time to tackle the master bedroom. By then, I had started to realize that *maybe* I didn't know everything. Maybe I did need to consider using a different paint. Maybe I would benefit from a paint that had primer already in it.
I'll be honest. I expected that it would take four coats of paint to cover up that red mess that reminded me of dried cow blood. And that was WITH a quality paint plus primer. Without it, I figured it would be something like eight coats of paint.
I was wrong.
Two coats, people. TWO COATS. It only took two coats to turn that messy, streaky, dried cow blood into a beautiful neutral shade of beige. Even better, I was able to turn the ceiling a tranquil shade of blue with just one coat of paint.
The paint plus primer may have cost more per gallon, but it covered SOOOOO much better. Our over-sized bedroom was completely painted in just one day and I only needed one gallon of each color.
(Just to compare--I went through three gallons of paint in the family room. The family room is half the size of the bedroom and I didn't paint the ceiling in there. Go Team Paint & Primer!)
Because of this experience, I can tell you with the utmost certainty that when Glidden says their DUO Paint + Primer can help you get great results while saving you time and money, they are telling you the truth. I will never again use a paint that doesn't have primer in it. NEVER. NEVER. NEVER.
I recently grabbed a can of Glidden Duo Paint + Primer for a new project. Glidden DUO is available only at Home Depot and comes in all of the colors from Glidden's vibrant color pallettes. Just a few hours into my project, I can already say ::swoon:: It's some great paint that covers really well, even when the surface you're painting isn't in the greatest of conditions. You'll have to wait and see exactly what I'm up to, but it's safe to say Glidden Duo Paint + Primer has definitely put the fun back in painting for me.
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Thursday, March 1, 2012
Reader Comments (8)
I've tried regular Glidden and I hated it, so I swore I'd never buy it again. I do love the Behr Premium though. Sooooo much!!
Can't wait to see the new project. Give us hint....... .What color did you pick?
We used DUO to cover up a red room as well ... :)
Interesting. I have me some dark colours to cover up here too. I'll remember this....
so we will go to home depot for glidden when we paint my bathroom, eh?
:)
I am so jealous that such a thing exists. When I was in college I repainted my bedroom in the house I lived in for two years. The person who lived there before me had painted the walls and ceiling an incredibly bright green. Covering bright colors on a ceiling is not fun.
I have started shelling out the extra money for paint-and-primer-in-one and I haven't had any ... uh... interesting stories like yours. BB's room paint was purchased already (when I thought I was re-doing his room HERE instead of THERE) and I'll just be sticking with it for the rest of the house. Well, minus the unfortunate main bathroom which is BRIGHT TURQUOISE as we're just re-using the gray we have, which my husband wouldn't listen to me re: the kind of paint to buy. What do I know? ;)
Good to know, I would have never guessed!!!