More painting tips

As I was (re) painting a wall in my living room this evening, I was thankful for the nearly full gallon of extra wall paint leftover from when we painted the living room two years ago.  I'm usually a cheap skate and try to skimp saving as much money as possible but, when it comes to paint, more is better. If a quart is going to cut it close, buy the gallon. You never know when you may need to repaint a portion of the wall. Even with today's excellent, computerized paint systems it can be hard to get an exact match. You never know when you may need to touch up around damage.  Also, cans that are really close to empty tend to dry up quickly so if you just have a little bit of paint left, save it in a (labeled) jar rather than the paint can.

Other suggestions: If you need more than one gallon to complete a job, blend the cans together as you go (add part of the second can to the 1/3 or so left in the first can).  Or, stop painting at a corner and start a new can on a new wall. The same goes for repainting part of a wall, stop at the nearest corner, not smack dab in the middle.

If you do run out of paint mid-project, double and triple check that the store gives you the same shade the second time. I had a disaster when I had to repaint a room a third time after realizing the paint store gave me a slightly different shade that I used to put a second coat on my bedroom walls!

Happy painting!