In this post I will provide some of the basics on painting, which is an aspect of many home improvement projects.

Painting vs Staining: You might be wondering what is the difference between painting and staining. In a nutshell, painting involves covering the wood with paint where afterwards you cannot see the underlying grain of the wood. When staining, you cover the wood with a stain which covers and protects the wood, but you are still able to see the underlying grain of the wood.

For example, if you look at the simple but stylish bench project on this blog here you’ll notice that you can still see the grain of the bench, which was been stained.

Oil Based vs Water Based Paint: When choosing paint, the main decision is between oil based and water based paint. In general oil based paint is a little more durable than water based paint. However, to clean oil based paint off of any surface or off your paint brushes you have to paint thinner or a similar substance to get the paint off, which can be very annoying and time consuming. I for one just throw the brushes away since it is too much effort to clean them if oil based paint has been used. With water based paint, you can simply use water to clean the surfaces or clean the brushes. In general I have found water based paint is fairly comparable to oil based paint. Due to this and how much less effort is needed to clean water based paint, I almost always use water based paint.

Paint Can Basics: This is very simple, but I wanted to point out a few things when using a paint can. First, to open a paint can you can use a flat head screwdriver (which is a little clunky and often misshapes the can), or you can use a handy tool created simply for opening paint cans. The tool kinda looks like a key and can open a paint can very easily. I keep a few as they get easily lost.

You can find a five pack of these paint can openers here on Amazon: 5 Pack Paint Can Opener, Bottle Opener, Metal Paint Can Opening Tool, 5 Pack Steel Paint Can Tool with 2 Built To Last! Brand Gear Ties

Once you get the paint can open you will want to stir the paint so that the paint has an even consistency. When you buy the paint they will normally give you a few paints stirrers. You could also buy paint stirrers in bulk, a pack of 200 paint stirrers can be found here on Amazon: SHLA Group HDPS10 1 Gallon 200 Pack Paint Sticks That are for Crafts and Mixing, 200 Pack, 200 Pack

Lastly, to close a can of paint you put the cap back on top of the can and hit the cap a few times with a hammer. Make sure the can lid does not have any paint to avoid splattering the paint.

Paint Brushes: When choosing paint brushes you get what you pay for. I used to buy cheap paint brushes. However, what would often happen was that the bristles would come out while I was painting and get stuck in the paint. Then I would have to pull they out, or if I didn’t notice until too late they would be stuck in the paint and I would have to sand them out and paint that section over again. To avoid this extra hassle I started buying higher quality brushes. Purdy is a good brand, you can find a three pack of these brushes on Amazon here: Purdy 140853100 XL Brush 3 Pack