The 10 Supplies You Should Not Paint Without

Hey all! Today I want to share with you some tips for painting inside your home. Not that I am an expert, because I definitely am not. However, between the months of April and August last year, we painted six different rooms and I'd like to think we learned a thing or two through the process. Each "painter" is different in what they prefer to use while painting. These are the 10 supplies I personally cannot imagine painting without.

1. Drop cloth {or old shower curtain or sheet}

Really, you just want to protect your floors. No matter how careful we are, we still find some way to drip paint everywhere. In my experience, it doesn't matter what kind of drop cloth you use, as long as it protects your floors from drips and spills. We used these cloths for every paint job in our house, however we have also used shower curtain liners and old sheets in the past and they work just as well. 

A little trick to help prevent tracking paint all over your home, wear socks. Keep your socks on while painting and while on the drop cloth, anytime you step off the drop cloth, remove your socks. We always find a way to step in paint that has dripped, and then track it through the house when we need a bathroom break. Wearing socks also prevents your feet from getting covered in paint. Win-win. 

2. Painter's Tape

I've mentioned before that I really prefer Frogtape, however we used ScotchBlue Painter's Tape for a couple of rooms and I found that it worked just as well. The key is knowing how to apply and remove the tape. Sliding a credit card over the tape can help seal any small gaps. Most painter's tape should be removed while the paint is still wet. Peel it back very slowly and at an angle. This little tutorial is super helpful for novice painters.

Costco - great for so many things

3 & 4. Paint Opener and Stirrer 

I needed to include these because they're just as significant as the paint is. While I have, on occasion, used a screwdriver to open a paint can and used that same screwdriver to stir the paint, it's so much easier and way more effective to just make sure you have these supplies on hand. They're inexpensive and totally necessary {stirrers are usually Free!}. 

5. Paint Trays

Using disposable trays, or covering a tray in foil, saves so much time and hassle. You don't have to worry about cleaning out the tray and there won't be any paint left over that could possibly mix when using different colors. Invest in a good base tray, then place disposable trays or foil overtop and have easy cleanup. 

6. Sample Paint 

I'm all about trying to save money but in the case of painting, I recommend spending a little in order to save a lot. You can buy a small sample size of a desired paint color to use for testing before purchasing an entire gallon of paint. 

Paint a small amount on each wall in different areas of light. It's amazing how light can change the way a color appears. We ended up changing everything about the colors we planned because very pale blues ended up looking very, very blue on our walls. Even the gray colors that we ended up going with look blue in our home.

One of the other great things about having samples is you have an easy touch up paint when needed. Additionally, I was able to do several DIY projects with our sample paints to make some items match our home. 

Magnetic Key & Mail Organizer / Nursery Art / Letter Holder / Picture Frames / Guest Room Art / Entryway Frame

7. Handy Paint Cup {not pictured above} 

This little guy makes painting edges and along ceiling trim so much easier. Instead of going up and down the ladder each time you need to rewet your brush, just fill this pail up with a bit of paint and go. It also has a small magnet on the side where you can rest your brush when taking a break. Genius. 

8. Wooster Shortcut brush 

I don't know how I ever painted without this. Brit and I have a great system in place where I paint the edges and tight spaces, and he follows me with a large roller. This little paintbrush is the best brush for painting along the trim and in corners. The angled brush is so precise, and the small comfortable handle prevents my hands from getting cramped when painting large rooms with tons of windows and doors to go around.

Another little tip {which I haven't tried but really want to}, store the paintbrush in a Ziploc bag or plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator between coats {whaaaat???} Yes. The cold air prevents the paint from drying and prevents you from needed to furiously clean the brush numerous times. Just take the brush out of the fridge 10 minutes before going back to painting {if you've done this, tell me all about it! Please}. 

9. Paint Rollers 

The main thing to know about rollers is the thicker the wall texture, the thicker the roller. So for a flat, non-textured wall, a roller with 3/8 nap is ideal. For highly textured walls {like stucco}, a 1¼ nap is best. There are also different materials of rollers, for the most part a synthetic {or polyester} roller is what you'd use unless you're painting with latex or oil based paint {it will also say all of this on the packaging}. 

10. One-Coat Paint

When we first purchased paint for the house, we wanted the best of the best. In our apartment we always bought the cheapest of the cheap because the apartment had 50 years of paint layers on the walls already so it wasn't worth it to us to get high quality paint. 

That being said, we decided to buy Sherwin Williams Emerald paint. We were totally sold by the nice salesman that this paint is the best paint on the planet and it is the only paint we'll ever need in our entire lives. He convinced us we'd only need one coat... three coats later we finally finished the first room, then took a trip to Home Depot to do a color match of the remaining colors for the house. 

We ended up purchasing Behr Marquee, still a more premium paint, but at $40, it's $15 cheaper than Emerald and totally worth it. 

We only needed one, maybe two, coats of the Marquee, depending on the previous wall color. I believe Brit put it perfectly when he exclaimed, "Oh my gosh this stuff is like butter! It's so thick and goes on perfectly!" So there you have it, butter paint is best. 

A Few More Tips On Paint

Primer: 

We found that based on the colors we were using and the color already on the wall, primer was an absolute waste of time. The very, very successful salesman at Sherwin Williams also convinced us that primer was necessary, even if the paint was a "paint and primer" mixture. Basically, anytime he suggested something we bowed down, begged to kiss his ring, and gave him our credit card. 

To save you all the hassle, don't waste the money on primer if you're buying a one-coat paint. For us, it just ended up being an additional coat for the 2-3 coat job we already had ahead of us. With the Marquee paint, we only needed to do one, maybe two coats without using a primer. 

Color Plan: 

Have a plan for the room and think about how it complements other rooms in your home. Our home is far from the "open concept" every Fixer Upper participant requires. However, I still wanted each room to flow nicely into the next. To do this, I picked a color scheme that would allow rooms to go with each other without feeling like they all needed to be the same color.

Bracing Blue / Lazy Gray / Olympus White / Ice Cube

Also, be willing to adjust the plan. We picked up sample paints and tried out Upward and Icicle on our downstairs walls but they were soooo blue! Like really bright blue {yes, even the Icicle which appears very gray here}. We also vetoed the Master Accent idea. I was so excited to paint our back wall a darker color, but it ended up not looking right either. So we used two colors from the paint strip with LBJ's room color {Lazy Gray}. We painted the Front Room Ice Cube and Living Room Olympus White, as well as all the walls in the Master.  

Eventually, we plan to paint the hallways and staircase Ice Cube as well, but we are in no rush to paint again, even after a year of rest.

Dining Room in Bracing Blue

Front Room in Ice Cube 

Living Room in Olympus White

Master in Olympus White

Nursery in Lazy Gray

Note: the way the colors appear on the Sherwin Williams website do not look the same on our walls. 

What painting supplies are a must for you when painting? Have any of you tried the refrigerator paintbrush trick? I'm dying to know if it really works. 

**Just a little side note, I think I accidentally typed "pain" instead of "paint" in this post about 100 times... Freudian slip??

Thanks for visiting!