VideoPaintGuide

Cheap Paint is Expensive!

2011-09-22T16:31:00.000-06:00

What is the diffrence in the total cost of your project if you use the cheap line of paint vs. the premium line for the exterior of your home? It might seem crazy at first, but cost per gallon is a small part of the equation.

First off, I'm going to assume that you are using Benjamin Moore. If you're not . . . well, you should be.

Let's start with the products. We'll compare two grades in order to keep things simple:

Premium grade: Aura @ $65.99 Per gallon vs
Typical grade: Ben @ $39.99 Per gallon = A $26.00 per gallon difference.

Now we must consider the type of surface you are painting and the appropriate primer. These usually range from about $28.00 to $50.00 depending on what you're doing. Since Aura is "self priming" on most surfaces ,we have negated the $26.00 per gallon difference-- therefore your cost per square foot has dropped.

If your exterior paint job was 3,000 square feet for the body of the house, with 800 square feet of trim, soffits, and facia, you would need a total of:

2 coats of paint: 17 gallons of Aura @ 65.99 = 1,121.83
VS
1 primer and 2 coats of paint: 19 gallons of Ben (because it doesn't cover as many Sq ft) @ $39.99 + 9 gallons of primer @ $28.00 = $1011.81

A difference of $110.02 . . . HOWEVER, we have not even talked about the time and labor involved in the extra coat of primer, OR taken into account that the Aura will have better color and sheen retention, OR that it will last longer.
By the time you consider all the factors, you will save a lot!

Figure your time at a reasonable hourly rate... say $15.00 per hour. Then try to estimate how long it will take you to prime the entire house. If you have hired a painter to do the work you should estimate somewhere around $35.00 per hour.

Next try to figure how much it is worth "TO YOU" that your paint job will be looking like new for many more years if you use the premium stuff. Once you have assigned a value to these points, it will become abundantly clear which grade of paint is the best choice!

Even if you thought about being clever and trying one of those "Big Box-paint and primer in one" options just remember. Benjamin Moore's "Ben" outperforms those options and there are no two ways about it. When it comes to the quality of your paint, you get exactly what you pay for.

Another way to look at this: The average paint job for an exterior ranges from $4,000 to $10,000 depending on the amount of prep work (scraping, sanding, grinding, etc) needed before the paint is applied. So even if you left primer out of the equation, the cost difference is still quite negligible, leaving the increase somewhere between 1.5% and 3.5%.

How to Stain Your Deck With Benjamin Moore's Arborcoat

2011-09-14T22:16:00.000-06:00

If you really want to learn the basics about staining your deck, take a look at a few of the videos we produced for Benjamin Moore. They feature Arborcoat Exterior Stain and their prep products (Remove, Restore, Brighten, and Clean). As of this blog post, Benjamin Moore hasn't yet posted most of our videos, but they should be doing so soon. The deck pictured here is the one we "restored" and stained with the semi-transparent finish and protective clear coat.

After using these products for a few years, we have really seen how well they work. I guess you just need to watch the videos to see them in action (Restore and Brighten anyway). I could tell you fifty times how great they work, but really, I'll just let you watch the videos and see for yourself.

I guess I'll also say something about Arborcoat--we love the stuff. Since it's water-based instead of oil, it's a lot easier on us (no stink, no paint thinner required, cleans up in the yard with the hose). It's easy to use, easy to touch up, easy to maintain. This is not BS. It's really true. If you're going to go to the trouble of staining your deck or fence, go to your local Benjamin Moore store and check it out. You won't be sorry. They should pay me for saying things like this, but they don't. They pay us for making videos, but they don;t pay me to toe the company line. I guess that's the good thing about being self-employed! As far as I'm concerned, Arborcoat is the best stain out there (at least it's the best one I've seen/worked with).

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Brushing Fast With Benjamin Moore's Aura

2011-09-06T19:35:00.000-06:00

We recently painted this stucco house in Missoula's slant street neighborhood:

I was trying to make good time and get the job done, so I found myself brushing out this garage door pretty quickly.

At the paint store earlier in the day, I spent about 15 minutes trying to help a fellow painter use Benjamin Moore's Aura Exterior Paint. She didn't get it (this was my second attempt to help her understand what slight modifications you have to do to effectively use Aura like any other paint).We even showed her our video on how to use it, but she insisted that the paint is no good, that you can't just apply it like you would any other paint.

So, being as we use this paint at every job we do and have never had any trouble applying it, I decided to grab our camera from the car and video a couple minutes of trouble-free brushing. And me showing off.

The paint is Benjamin Moore's Bittersweet Chocolate in Aura Low Lustre.

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The Most Popular Reds EVER

2011-09-06T13:37:00.002-06:00

Red has been one of my favorite trends which seemed to peak in our isolated market somewhere around 2008. The most popular shades in this category have influenced interior color schemes for centuries. In each red color trend over recent decades, certain shades have distinguished themselves and remain timeless:

Cottage Red (which is my favorite), Caliente #AF-290, Brick Red #2084-10, and Dinner Party #AF-300. You could even add Classic Burgundy, Country Redwood, and maybe even Tea #2091-10 (even-though Tea is a rusty terracotta). **

The good news is that there are only a few reds which are generally appealing and contain that glamorizing/rich look. If you're feeling the craving for red then don't get too freaked out. Your choices are fairly simple.

The psychology of red is interesting as well. Red influences us in different ways: increases enthusiasm, stimulates energy, encourages action and confidence and incites passion!

Red is a freakin' fabulous color. I hope you can find the appropriate use in your space to spice things up.

** I did not provide any links to the colors which are recommended in this article because the computer images are a very poor representation of the actual color. You should go to your local Benjamin Moore dealer and pick up the chips.

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How to Stain Your Deck/Fence: Removing the Grey

2011-06-26T22:47:00.005-06:00

Yesterday afternoon, I decided to work on a few paint projects around the house (since we decided not to work). Things went pretty quickly, though: I went over to my parents' house and removed the grey from their 3-year-old fence so my dad could finish staining it. Then I went home and used the chemicals on an old bench, sanded my 3 Adirondack chairs, and stripped my deck. It was a busy 5 hours, and I figured I would share some pictures of the projects.

The Fence:

First I used Benjamin Moore's Restore and Brighten along with my pressure washer to remove the grey and get the wood ready for stain.

The fence had been stained up to this point (the pale wood was never stained), which allowed the wood to weather.

Since it was never stained, water sat on the horizontal boards and dripped down creating tannin stains on the boards.

If I stained the fence without removing the tannin stains and grey, it would show up beneath the stain and look dirty.

I sprayed Restore on the whole fence, and pressure washed only the middle section first so you could see how dramatically it works. This picture was taken before I applied the Brighten, which, as its name indicates, brightens the wood.

Restore tends to darken the aged gray wood (as it obviously did here).

After removing all the grey, I brightened it. The pressure washer removed the grey wood, then the Brighten cleaned it up.

The wood looks great and is ready to stain.

The Bench:

This old bench has been sitting under the maple tree in our back yard for a long time. I'm not sure what it is, but everything you put beneath them turns black. The toughest parts of the fence were the areas under the trees on the other side, so I expected the same result with the bench.

Doesn't it just look like a junky old bunch of wood?

Here, I had sprayed Restore on the wood and let it work for a while. Then I started pressure washing sections of the bench to show how fast it changes.

I did the middle first just to demonstrate how well it works.

After applying Brighten to the chair, it was still pretty dark, but it looked good.

Since it was still so dark, I sprayed the bench with Clorox bleach and let it work overnight. Obviously, this brought out all the black splotches.

Adirondack Chairs and Picnic Table:

Instead of the prep products, I used our random orbit sander with 80 grit sandpaper to sand down the Adirondack chairs. I am using solid stain on them, so I only needed to remove the old wood fibers (plus, they're not dirty or covered in lichens or mildew, spo a quick sanding did the trick).

I will post some pictures of the furniture later. I stained them all solid black with Benjamin Moore's Arborcoat stain.

Check out our website, VideopaintGuide.com

How to Paint Your House: Scraping

2011-06-13T21:20:00.000-06:00

There are many useful scraping tools you can use when painting your house. For most exterior siding surfaces, we usually use 3 different tools: a putty knife, a 5-Way, and a carbide scraper.

Left to Right: Hook scraper, carbide scraper, putty knife, 5-way.

They all work well for scraping different paint types on different surfaces. I am also showing the hook scraper here since it's popular, although we don't use them much.

The carbide scraper can remove a lot of paint fast--it tends to shave tough paint off, smoothing out edges easily, but the blades are expensive and can break if you hit screws or nails. The carbide scraper works more like a shaving razor than a scraper, and really bites into whatever you're scraping with it.

I highly recommend them, though, despite the cost (around $8/double-sided blade right now in Missoula).

The standard hook scraper has a steel blade that you can sharpen, so it lasts a long time. It also doesn't cost much and won't break against nails or screws. If you examine the edge of the blade, you can see that it's really not a blade at all. It's more of a thin piece of steel.

The downside with hook scrapers is that they aren't very sharp and dull pretty fast, especially if you're dealing with old oil-based paint (since it's tough and often really hard). If you can master the technique, you can use an angle grinder to sharpen hook scraper blades fast and get a lot of work done. Still, I like the carbide better and tend to use them until the blades break.

Take a look at this short video we took today demonstrating the use of a carbide scraper:

Also take a look at my brother scraping the same area with a 5-way:

These are just a few ways to remove paint on this particular surface, but you can apply these techniques to most any surface.

Return to the previous article, How to Paint Your House: Assessing Your Job

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How to Paint Your House: Assessing Your Job

2011-06-12T22:26:00.004-06:00

Before gathering painting materials or buying paint, you should walk around your house and give it a good once-over. Look for loose and peeling paint, cracks, holes, broken siding, mildew, etc. It's a good idea to get a handle on what you're going to face before starting work. With this series of articles, I am going to show you some different problems you will probably encounter on your own house (I'll use some of our paint jobs to demonstrate).

Today we started preparing a new house up in Missoula's Rattlesnake neighborhood. This place hasn't been painted in about 10 years, and unfortunately, the last painters thinned the paint out with water so far that they didn't really apply a coat of paint. It has siding with wooden windows and trim. It also has 2 decks, which we'll look at later. The siding isn't wood--it's Masonite, which is basically pressed/glued sawdust. If you keep it sealed, it will last a long time. When it gets exposed to moisture, it tends to swell up a bit, puckering up around screw holes, or on the bottoms of siding boards.

This siding is close to the ground and may have been hit with a mower.

A puckered nail hole where moisture got to the siding. Also note the thin coat of paint.

You can see how splotchy the surface looks. This is also the southwestern side of the house and gets blasted most of the day with sun. And as you can see, the soffitt is tiny, so the siding gets wet every time it rains.

Since they applied such a non-coat, the film couldn't hold up against the weather. See the streaks of discoloration that ran down from the window? We are going to protect the siding so it hold up better this time.

The old paint is chalky and cracked in places. Most of the butt joints in the siding actually held up just fine, but there are some like this one. We'll remove the loose caulking, prime the siding, re-caulk the crack with Big Stretch, then paint it. Some paint manufacturers recommend priming both before and after caulking, but since Benjamin Moore's Aura is self-priming, we dont prime the caulking a second time. In fact, I'd be surprised to find very many people actually priming before applying caulking, let alone anybody doing it after.

With this house, the painting process is simple:

1. Scrape/sand all loose/peeling paint/caulking/filler.

2. Prime all bare wood and broken down old paint

3. Caulk all cracks, fill all holes

4. Prime all wood filler

5. Paint

Check out the next article in this series, How to Paint Your House: Scraping

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National Lead's Dutch Boy Lead Paint

2011-05-11T14:07:00.003-06:00

Recently, we got a question from someone who was interested in dating a can of Dutch Boy's white lead paint like we showed in a previous blog post on antique paint cans. As I looked into it, I found some cool and interesting information about the origins of Dutch Boy and their lead paints and figured I would link to those sites for those of you who may be interested in the funny history of lead-based paint in America.

I call it funny because they marketed lead paint as the be-all end-all in paint (which I guess it was in its day).

Take a look at "Dutch Boy's Lead Party" on Weaselmouseonmarketing's blog. It shows how crazy they were about lead paint in the 1920s (including how they marketed it as being kid friendly!).

Also see Wellwooster.com's pages on Lawrence C. Earle, the artist who originally created the Dutch Boy logo. It's a good resource on National Lead, the company who created Dutch Boy Paint.

Also, as a side note, I have to say that while in the "good old days" Dutch Boy was good paint, today it is sold at Sears. Do I need to say more? Buy good paint.

Check out our website at VideoPaintGuide.com

Selecting the perfect White

2011-05-05T09:46:00.006-06:00

Selecting a white? Some people spend a lot of time trying to decide which variation of white to use. While there are a few "rare" cases that actually call for a specific shade, hue, or tone of white (like a white bookcase that is intended to match the white trim that it's next to) yours is probably not such a scenario.

The fact is, most off-whites will look white, especially given the lighting in your space and adjacent colors. The likelyhood of Benjamin Moore's OC-17, Decorator's White AF-20, AF-5, or the ready-mixed, standard "white 01", and about fifty other whites, looking white is 100%.

Don't overthink it.

I see it every day, so take it from me . . . Take a deep breath and just pick one. It will work, and you will love it!

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Grayish-Blue is the New Trend and I Love It!

2011-04-13T16:19:00.006-06:00

I have seen a lot of color trends over the years, but the veracious craze for Gray-blues or Gray-blueish/greens is epic in comparison!

The top of the list in popularity are AC-18, 1567, AF-555, and HC-161. You can click on the colors to view them on Benjamin Moore's website, but check out the actual color chips available from your local dealer, because your monitor cannot display the real deal.

There are a lot of options out there--just be sure to keep it "dark enough" and "gray enough" to maintain a rich sophisticated look. That way you don't end up with a baby blue (unless that's your intent). Take a look at a blue with a slight bit of sage. You may find that it tames blue's otherwise loud nature.

Color Selection Tips

2011-02-07T08:42:00.037-07:00

Trying to pick a color? Many customers in my store, Turner's Paint Store, have difficulty selecting the perfect color for their paint projects. One of the biggest reasons is a conflict between the color they want (or the one that works best with their stuff) and their fear of it being too dark.

I hear it almost daily: "I'm looking for a light red?" When the fact is, based on Light Reflectance Value (LRV), there is no such thing as light red. When you lighten red, it turns pink. Same thing goes with green and brown. Brown turns into mauve. Green turns into lime, mint, or teal. Sure, they're in the "green family," but they have changed to something else from the baseline Forest Green or Thalo Green.

Note: I could apply this to more color options, but I'll keep it simple for now and cover more colors in another article.

The point here is: people are usually happier with 1-2 shades darker than their first color choice. That, or they just end up picking a safe beige out of frustration and cut their losses (which often ends in a "blah" result instead of the fresh new look they were looking for).

Here is a bit of "perspective" for your color pallet:
1) LRV is rated on a scale of 0-100, with 0 being black and 100 being white.
2) The physics of design state that light defines the space, while color defines the shape and form. So rely on your lighting to define the size of the room, not necessarily the color.

Lets take the room you're painting, for example. Assuming the floor and ceiling are not going to change, take a moment to calculate the square footage of "finished" wall space that will be changing in LRV. After you have figured the total square footage of wall space (multiplying wall height x wall length = square feet of wall), add all the walls together. Then subtract the windows, doors, art work, and furniture that will cover the walls. You are now left with the total square feet effected by LRV. This is usually between 25-35%.

This means that your gut-level attraction to a color which probably has a LRV somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 is only going to have a fairly minor impact on the total sum. This is because you are only reducing 25%-35% of your space by 50% LRV which can most likely be compensated by adding one 40 watt bulb to the average living room.

In kitchens and bathrooms this is especially true since they are almost always well-lit and have little finished wall space. So if you're itching to add some spice but are nervous about dark colors, these are your opportunities to turn up the heat.

If you haven't seen it, take a look at the Color Language brochure from Benjamin Moore. Read this and you will have an instant boost in confidence and inspiration.

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How to Paint: Using Benjamin Moore's ADVANCE

2011-01-28T17:05:00.003-07:00

We recently produced this video for Benjamin Moore--it highlights ADVANCE, their new water-clean-up interior oil-based paint. It's great for trim or any other place where you might want the look of an oil, but don't want the stink and trouble associated with it.

You don't have to watch the video in tiny format--you can take it to regular, full-sized YouTube if you want by clicking on the video once it starts playing:

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Smoothing New Texture to Match the Old

2011-01-27T18:15:00.155-07:00

In the Rattlesnake job, the taper textured a few damaged areas in an attempt to match the existing texture. But as often happens, his end result was rough and didn't really match. You might experience something like this on your own painting projects, and chances are that if you do, you don't know how to fix it.

In this picture, you can see how rough his texture turned out compared to the yellow wall on the right. If we painted it at this point, the texture would be too heavy, and it would draw every eye to the patch.

In the following picture, you can really see how rough the new texture turned out. It doesn't really look anything like the old wall.

So to fix it, all we need to do is get a wet rag and lightly rub away some of the new mud. Here I am using a rougher rag since its fibers will work like mild sandpaper.

When you wet your rag, don't use too much water--it dissolves drywall mud pretty fast. if you get it too wet, you risk removing too much mud and ruining your new texture. Just get the rag wet, wring it out, then ball it up so you have layers of rag between your hand and the wall. Err on the dry side at first, then go to the wall and start gently wiping in circular motions along the edge of the new mud.

In the following video (which I took from my phone, so it's not to our usual high standards) you can see how I do it:

Notice the scratching sound the rag is making--I am erring on the side of caution by not using too much water. It's still wet enough that it doesn't produce sanding dust, but it's not dripping with water either.

Just rub your way across the wall, taking down the high spots in the texture. Re-wet your rag as necessary (it will be), and keep going. You can see how much mud I removed--and it is starting to resemble the old texture.

In the following pictures, you can see that the taper created large stringy lines that don't really resemble the existing texture, Well, once we paint the new mud, it will mostly blend in and go away. If someone stands in front of the wall and intentionally examines the surface, they will certainly be able to see the patch, but for everyday life, it will look just fine.

Take special care along the edges where the new texture meets the old--smudge away the mud as you feather the edge. You want to avoid leaving any hard edges, since they will draw your eye.

The main goal is to level out the textures--then when we apply a couple coats of paint (Benjamin Moore's Aura yet again, in this case), they will blend into each other.

My brother Josh finished up painting the wall--it ended up matching perfectly.

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Questions

2011-01-25T11:29:00.001-07:00

I have recently received a few questions about paint and paint-related things. And I have been happy to help people with their painting projects (or in the case of a gentleman yesterday, with identifying the antique pint cannisters he bought someplace--they were ceramic paint cans made by the International Paint Company, a company that produces yacht paint, of all things).

So please, bring on the paint questions! We want to help you out.

Also, if you're interested in our new furniture venture, contact me through the VideoPaintGuide. I recently carved and stained this Poplar rectangle to go with the Enchanted Dresser:

I made it to go with the dresser (which as you can see, is now in the Baby Room).

I also carved, stained, painted, and sealed this Fish Switch Plate Cover for the baby's room.

Check out our website at VideoPaintGuide.com

The Enchanted Dresser

2011-01-20T17:19:00.003-07:00

Clyde in the baby room.

With the baby girl on the way, my brother Josh and I carved, painted, stained, and sealed this unfinished pine dresser, transforming it into an Enchanted Dresser fit for a fairy princess (or a prince, if the doc is wrong!).

I stained the entire interior blue--I like the contrast with the green.

We're considering producing/selling more custom-finished furniture along this same line. If you're interested, contact me here.

A lone crow perched on a branch of the tree.

Josh carved and painted the dragon on this side.

I figured the dragonflies and flow could work for a boy or a girl.

The Clyde-View. He is such an exhibitionist.

Painting a Bedroom Blue Using Regal Select

2010-12-15T08:34:00.002-07:00

Josh cutting in around the door.

Today we're painting a bedroom blue. As always, we're using Benjamin Moore Paint, although instead of our usual Aura, we're using Regal Select. It's another premium paint, and even though it costs a little less than Aura, it is still self-priming on most surfaces, and gave us good coverage.

We would have used Aura in this case, especially to ensure great hide with such a deep, bold color, but when we had the custom color matched, they only had Regal Select in quarts and not Aura. And since we started with Regal, we just decided to use it since the paint tech would have had to custom match the initial custom match in order to switch products!

We were both glad to try it out, though, since we rarely would ever choose to use a lesser quality paint than Aura (Aura always works really well for us, generally performing better than one could expect, in pretty much every situation). For us, using Aura is a sort of an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" kind of thing.

This is a color sample we brushed out on the wall. Notice how we
feathered the edges, leaving no thickness at all. Once the wall is
painted, you won't know we ever sampled anything.

We patched the holes in this wall using Vinyl Spackle--it dries fast and
sands smooth (these walls are smooth finish with no texture).

After laying out our drop cloths, patching holes, and caulking cracks, we
cut in the edges of the room with 3-inch brushes.

A bit blurry, but this is Josh cutting in the edge of the door. Notice that
he is not using tape to try and mask an edge.

All cut in and now we're ready to roll.

We did mask the baseboard since it is staying the same color. The
tape won't give us a perfect edge, but it helps keep most of the blue
off the light trim.

Josh rolling the walls.

The first coat is complete--note how well it covered the old color.
We applied a second coat, which deepened the color.

Regal Select.

Check out our website at VideoPaintGuide.com

Antique Paint Cans and Equipment

2010-12-09T16:26:00.004-07:00

This week we dropped in to see our dad at the University of Montana paint shop (where he is the foreman). Here are a few shots of the antique paint cans and tools he has collected over the last 30 years:

The UM stencil isn't old, of course.

Some old paint cans! I wish I had some of that sand finish for the baby room.

Note the 3 tiny detail brushes on top.

Back when Dutch Boy was good paint. The one on the bottom is white
lead and weighs a LOT more than you would expect. Also,
apparently "Adehsium" is the stickiest thing on Earth!

My dad has a lot more old paint stuff, which I need to get some pictures of. It's interesting to me to see how things change over time, especially marketing. Some of these cans have to be about a hundred years old, although I suspect most come from the 1920's or so. Most of the old brushes were made of horse hair (which is something you don't see in the US these days).

The giant brushes are wall brushes from before the days of rollers--you used
them to paint the entire wall from top to bottom, not just the edges like we do
today.

I wonder if "General Paint" is still around? I bet it's not! From the looks of the label, the soldier means business. That or he is just saluting the customer.

This one isn't so antique (maybe from the 60's?), but I think it's pretty damn funny.
"Tempo Buckeye" gets the job done. Or something.

Big Bucket is a pretty funny name, if you ask me.

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How to Use ARBORCOAT Waterborne Exterior Stain

2010-12-02T20:00:00.001-07:00

Most people have already seen the ARBORCOAT video we created for Benjamin Moore, but I wanted to stick it on the blog as well so it will come up. And if you haven't seen it, please check it out, favorite it, share it, etc. Yes, I am a shameless promoter of the videos, although they are pretty damn good, if you ask me.

Josh in the rattlesnake house.

2010-12-01T10:25:00.000-07:00

This is the master bedroom in the house we are working on in the rattlesnake. It's the same one that had the bear poop outside.

The paint is Benjamin Moore's Aura, as usual, in a custom red.

How to Clean a Paint Brush

2010-11-29T19:52:00.003-07:00

This Brush Cleaning Video is our first independent video produced for the VideoPaintGuide. Hopefully it teaches you the basics about cleaning paint brushes. Please, if you like it, share links to the video and bug other people to check it out. Even more than the videos we produced so far for Benjamin Moore, we need to get hits for this video. The baby's future depends on it!

Check out our website at VideoPaintGuide.com

From Dog Room to Baby Room 2

2010-11-28T14:48:00.003-07:00

So I got all fired up last night and applied the first coat of Bittersweet Chocolate to the walls of the transforming Dog Room. Even though the pictures don't do the color justice, you can pretty easily see how well Aura covered in one coat.

Justin brushing a straight line without tape.

I always move too fast when someone is trying to capture me painting. You can see how I first went around the room, brushing in the edges. You should brush about a brush-width, which is enough for a roller to get close to corners but not hit the ceiling.

This is especially important if you aren't painting the ceiling (I have zero room for error when touching the ceiling since I don't have touch-up paint for it).

Justin with brush in hand.

I always feel like such a cheeseball when posing for pictures, but I guess you might as well see me on site. Note that I painted the edges of the walls surrounding the window and ceiling and left the rest for the roller to tackle. I could have brushed it since it's such a small area, but rolling goes a lot faster.

Wow, my hair sure looks sharp and pointy tonight! Just for the record,
that's not my goal. I need a haircut.

Again, I brushed in all the edges of the walls then rolled the big spaces.

I didn't get any pictures of me rolling, but we'll leave that for a video or 2 later on.

This is one coat of Aura--it still needs the second application to be perfect, but this is one hallmark of a great quality paint.

It is now well on its way to becoming a different sort of place.I still need to finish up the second coat and the trim. Then we can move in the the baby stuff.

Note that I a didn't use a roller tray. Instead, I am used a 5 gallon bucket with a roller grid, as well as a 2 foot Wooster roller pole.

The professional roller setup.

In future posts, including in videos, I will demonstrate the benefits of using this sort of roller setup and not the roller tray (at least for most projects, anyway).

These shots are so blown out that I am a bit embarrassed to post them, but it's so bright and snowy outside today that it just blasts through the blinds. I guess I should use my good camera and not my phone.
The Droid camera is only so good despite what they say.

Okay, this picture is ultra dark, but short of setting up some lights or waiting for the sun to go away, I haven't been able to get better pics off the painted walls so far.

Still, look how well it covered!

We're thinking about putting up a vinyl wall decal of a tree of some sort, although we need to decide where we will put the big dresser so we know which wall(s) to do it on.

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Snuggie Jingle Bells

2010-11-28T13:06:00.001-07:00

Even though this blog is dedicated to teaching people how to paint, I just had to share such a hilarious and frightening commercial.

From Dog Room to Baby Room

2010-11-27T18:02:00.003-07:00

Since we are expecting our first kid in February, it's about time that I started getting the baby's room ready. In our case, we are converting the Dog Room over to what my wife likes to call the Nursery. I prefer to call it the Kid Room (it seems more fun that way, and somehow calling it a nursery makes me feel like we should also have a study, a butler's staircase, and a parlor).

Note the large sample color areas I brushed out.

The room was a sort of bland yellow in its time as the Dog Room, and since my wife and I both like to go bold with color, we decided to paint the walls a very dark brown. We first tried the above color, a custom brown that we decided was too light and too grey-ish, especially since we are going to decorate the room in a sort of "Where the Wild Things Are," monsters, faeries, and mystical forests theme and we wanted a dark background to set the stage for the kid's imagination to go wild (hopefully in a fun, good way!).

My Great Dane Clyde standing in the
Dog Room before its transformation into the Kid Room

We decided to test out a darker brown and went with Bittersweet Chocolate, 2114-10, from Benjamin Moore's Pottery Barn Fall 2010 Color Selection. It's a pretty dark brown (about as dark as it gets while still being brown), and we like it for this room since we don't know whether or not our kid is going to be a boy or a girl.

Also, we want to light the room up with funky lighting, so we chose an eggshell sheen in Benjamin Moore's Aura. Most people think that if you use such a dark color, your room will end up ultra dark. Well, it will, but actually, if you add a little sheen (like the eggshell or even satin) and light it properly, the room won't feel like a cave.

Of course if you decide to paint a room ultra dark brown, you better not be afraid of a little color! It's easy for me to just re-paint something if I don't like it.

Still, just sample your colors on your walls to make sure you like them--you can save a lot of excess work and money on paint you don't like by sampling.

At this point, I sampled the 2 colors all over the room, something most people don't do enough when selecting color. Put out a little money, buy a few samples, then put them on the wall. Just make sure you apply it smoothly and don't leave any runs or heavy edges since you will see them in the finished project.

Note that I painted a large area in order to sample each color.
You don't need to do such big swaths, but bigger can be better,
especially with a major color change like this.

I have had customers who worry that if they go dark or bold (say with a bright orange or red) that they will have problems later on when they want to change colors.

I don't worry about that at all, especially since we only use ultra high quality materials. 99% of the time we use Benjamin Moore's Aura, which has excellent hiding properties and will usually cover just about any color in 2 coats. In fact, we usually get about 95% coverage in the first coat.

The 2 browns here are each just single coats of Aura.

In another post I will discuss using only premium quality paint for your jobs, but for now, just trust me. Better paint will save you time and give you better results.

And in this case, since it is a Kid Room, we also want to use environmentally friendly paint like Aura since we don't want to expose either my wife or the baby to hazardous VOC's and other nasty stuff.

In this picture you can see how grey-ish the first brown looked, even though on the chip it appeared to be very dark.

The Bittersweet Chocolate will provide a better backdrop for either blue or pink accents.

In this room, we are not going to paint the ceiling (I'm being lazy). I'm going to just leave it white since it's in good shape and doesn't need a new coat of paint. On that note, I think keeping a light ceiling is almost necessary when you go with such a dark color in a bedroom. You might be able to get away with a dark ceiling in a larger room with a high ceiling, but in an average bedroom, I suggest keeping the ceiling light.

I will actually start painting the room tomorrow and will return here to show you a little bit of the process as well as some of the tools we use. If you come up with questions, please ask since that's why I am here.

Bear poop outside a job this October

2010-11-25T21:08:00.004-07:00

We are still working on this remodel project up the Rattlesnake in Missoula (the interior parts of it, anyway). This was taken some time in mid-October, when the bears were down around town before winter set in too hard. Someone else stepped in it.

Another shot of Justin, in case you wanted one.

2010-11-25T21:05:00.004-07:00

Not that you really need another picture of me, but here you go. If you want to know more about me in general, visit my personal web site, my other blog, or visit my J. Barba Painting web site.

Another picture of the ADVANCE shoot.

2010-11-25T21:03:00.003-07:00

This is my brother Josh Barba (fellow painter of J. Barba Painting Inc.) and my friend Josh Turner of Turner's Paint Store, in Missoula. If you have seen the ADVANCE video, you may recognize that we had not yet painted the orange kitchen beadboard when I took this picture.

Check out our website at VideoPaintGuide.com

On the set of the ADVANCE video shoot.

2010-11-25T21:00:00.004-07:00

We recently produced a product demonstration video for Benjamin Moore. This video shows you how to work with ADVANCE, their new oil-based, water clean up, low VOC paint. It is quite a good product, and I recommend it if you need something durable around your house (especially if you prefer using oils, but want to get rid of the paint thinner, bad smells, and significant yellowing). We should be posting the ADVANCE video on here pretty soon.

2010-11-25T20:41:00.004-07:00

This is a shot of me, Justin Barba, taken on a recent job site with my phone.

Using Benjamin Moore's ADVANCE

2010-11-24T19:25:00.007-07:00

This week we worked on a nice remodel project that included the preparation and painting of these simple 6-panel doors (16 total doors). We also sanded, primed, and painted this bookshelf, which had previously been factory stained and sealed. For all the trim and the bookshelf, we used Benjamin Moore's ADVANCE, interior water-clean-up, oil-based paint. It's a great choice if you want the durability of an oil but don't want the smell and trouble usually associated with traditional oil.

Unfortunately, the bookcase proved to be difficult for my Droid to properly capture. Still, I think you can see the nice finish we ended up with in the end.

For more information on how to apply Advance, take a look at our instructional video on it. It will show you pretty much everything you need to know about using it.

Check out our website at VideoPaintGuide.com

Welcome!

2010-11-24T14:49:00.002-07:00

Hey, I'm Justin Barba, Professional Paint Contractor, and your connect on VideoPaintGuide.com. We're putting together instructional videos related to all aspects of house painting, and getting them online as fast as we can in order to help people learn how to paint. Along with my dad, journeyman painter John Barba (he has been professionally painting since 1966!), and my brother Josh, we have developed quite a few tips and tricks we plan to share with you. We may do so through short videos, instructional videos, or on the blog here, depending on what you may want to know.

Questions? Feel free to hop on here and fire away. If possible, we'll put together a video showing you how to do something, or I might just answer you with a blog post or a quick video response via YouTube.