We have painted a total of 9 rooms since we moved into our home two years ago, one of those rooms twice. I’ve used a variety of paint brands, styles, types, sheens, and colors. I’ve used Behr, Valspar, Sherwin Williams, and Benjamin Moore. I’ve used a variety of brands and style of paint rollers, and cages. And slowly but surely I’ve learned the best ways to tape, and cut in ceiling lines.
Our final room that we just painted was the Nursery, and I have to say that it was an accumulation of my favorite products I’ve used painting in any room so far.
Now, one of my favorite part about blogging is sharing my failures, lessons, success and must haves with you guys. I’m HUGE on research for almost every project and products so if I can share my experiences with you and that helps you out, I’m all for it!
Here’s my little round up of favorite goods that made painting the Nursery a breeze!
1. Get the cutest best helper you can find.
Taping trick:
Start at the corner of one of the walls and roll the painters tape along the wall while pressing in a downward and unrolling direction. When you begin each wall, make a “loop” under the roll (wish I got a close up shot of this for you…), this makes guiding the tape easier than having it pull directly from the roll to the baseboard, and use your finger to guide the tape along the wall. Keep an even pressure to ensure the tape is being applied evenly to the baseboard with no tears or gaps. You want to use the wall as your guide.
One great reason why this works so well is it allows you to tape an entire length of the wall with no tears or rips in your tape, meaning to paint leaks.
When you finish a wall go back and press along the seam to ensure a tight closure between the tape, and the baseboard.
When its time to pull the tape (when your paint is still wet after your last coat) remove the tape at an angle to “cut” the paint and leave a clean straight line along your boards.
Clean, perfect lines
Thanks hubs!
He does the taping, while I do the cutting of the ceiling lines and you can see my tips and tricks for doing those
here.
Some of my favorite products to use for any painting project (anything from signs, to furniture to painting rooms) are Purdy brushes. For painting our Nursery I wanted to try out their roller covers and roller frames to see how they compared to the ones I’ve used in the past. My husband ended up being the one using the roller, he said it was really great, was comfortable and made painting easy. It has an attachment piece that you can add an extender pole too for higher heights.
The biggest trouble I’ve had with certain frames in the past is a few things – causing blisters (I press hard), uncomfortable handle design which hurts your hand, and having the roller cover start to slide off the frame while rolling (that “slipping” issue). None of these happened using Purdy’s frame and roller. *AWESOME*
A few other tips, we have textured walls, knock down to be specific. It’s been a nightmare to learn the best way to paint on textured walls. The first room we ever did was our living room and we were baffled how difficult it was to get full coverage over the varying depths from the texture. Well, the biggest tip is using the proper nap – with textured walls/knock down using a 3/4ths inch nap it really helps! Be prepared though, a thick nap SOAKS up paint.
Anytime you use a new roller cover you should always treat it to remove excess lint. I typically just make a circle with painters tape since I have that on hand and rub back and forth going over the whole roller. Another trick is using a clothes lint roller, or even doing a “combing” motion with a 5 in 1 tool.
Now to the paint. I have been happy with almost all the brands and kinds of paints we’ve used for the rooms in our home but haven’t found my “go to” one prior to painting the Nursery.
I tested almost 10 different shades of "taupe" for the nursery until I found my favorite one.
The winner was Cedar Key in Benjamin Moore. It complements grey really well, but didn't have any grey undertones in the paint. It has a subtle appearance of brown tones and in certain lights has a warm feel to it with a touch of pink. It complements the grey hallway really well that her room opens up too.
I have used several brands of paint throughout our home as I mentioned before, but Benjamin Moore is now my go to paint for my home. The Regal Select is an excellent line of paint from BM. It's low VOC and low Odor (a true low VOC even after tinting has been added).
It is a paint and primer in one, which typically leaves the paint quite thick and I haven't loved using those, but the BM line had excellent coverage while still going on smoothly. We had a lot of test spots of different sheens on the walls and it completely covered those spots with two coats of paint. We almost didn't even need two coats, but better safe than sorry.
I cannot say enough for Benjamin Moore's paints, and their stores too! I was very impressed with the assistant manager that helped me in my local BM store too. He took the time to explain each line of BM paint and why someone would choose that specific line. I choose the Regal Select as it was reasonably priced, but still of their higher quality paints.
For two gallons it cost us just over $80 with a military discount. We still have about half a gallon left too.
Have you ever used Benjamin Moore paints? What about Purdy brushes? What are your painting must haves?!
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