How to Paint Countertops

It's been 3 years since I painted my kitchen countertops and I'm still in love with them. This was the best DIY project I have ever done. Love Love Love.
 

Exterior Paint Trend 2020

Exterior Paint Update

I am not a professional painter by any means and my laborer's are all family members who have less experience painting then I do. I am posting this to my blog to show one thing, that is, you can do hard things if you do enough research and ultimately, jump in and give it a try.

I watched many how-to videos on YouTube. My favorite was a youtuber called #TheIdahoPainter. I watched his videos over and over until the techniques and supplies were seared in my brain. I took notes like I was preparing for a major exam. Then I started collecting supplies. I also tried a few things that I hoped would make it cheaper, and possibly easier. I have some hits and misses. I certainly was learning as I was going.

Let me just say, it was not an easy task. It's certainly not for the faint of heart. The preparation work took as long, if not longer than the actual painting  did.  I have old wooden windows that needed a lot of TLC before they were ready for paint. Not to mention puttying all the siding and repairing any rain gutters and trim that needed to be fixed before painting. We actually added additional trim to highlight the peaks of our house.

One of the hardest tasks was picking out the paint. I didn't want to match with my neighbors, and I also didn't want to be too bold, but I wanted to be on trend.  I googled over and over trending colors. I watched lots of home improvement shows, and ultimately I went with the colors that made my heart sing. I then had my husband photoshop our home with the colors we chose to see what it would look like. If you don't have photoshop, there are some free painting apps online to add colors to your house photos to see what you like. Sherwin Williams has a free one I found worked pretty good.

This part of the painting project was essential because I couldn't really make final decisions on where I would put the 3 different colors I was working with until I saw it on my house. I tweaked, and moved, and changed the colors over and over until I found a look I absolutely loved.  I wanted to use two colors with a white accent on the trim, but deciding which colors go where took some time and planning. My husband and I have been planning this paint job for a long time, but finally pulling the trigger on it was so exhilarating.

We did choose to use a paint that had primer already in it because we wanted be sure it would coat smoothly.  We rented a sprayer from a local company. This was a challenge in and of itself because it is first come first serve. We were at the location 10 minutes before they opened to ensure we could get it on the day we planned on painting. We were committed and planned to buy a paint sprayer if we couldn't rent one. Luckily we were the first one there on our painting day, so the odds were in our favor.

We did buy an extension wand to use with the sprayer and that was the best $35 we spent since there were many spots we couldn't have reached without the extension wand.

Don't forget to power wash the entire house before painting. This is a key element, and the house needs to be completely dry before painting so the power washing needs to be done a day or two earlier. 

Do you want to hear about one of my misses? Oh, well that is a whole post in and of itself. I'll post the misses in a later blog entry, but needless to say, not everything went smoothly, but we are a roll-with-the-punches kind of family. We made our misses work.

We thought we could get the entire thing painted in one day, but it actually took 2 very intense days of working non-stop to get it finished. 

Prep Work is Essential for a Great Paint Job

Extension Wand Is Worth It's Weight In Gold!

We ran out of daylight before we finished. Day 1 was a success.

We called in all the family to help one day 2. 3 different fine tipped paint brushes in the hands of 3 different people, where able to go around and touch up paint as we went along.

Replacing the old exterior lights really helped update the look.

When I was really high up, I kept my dear husband close to steady the ladder

It ended up coming in about $500 over our guesstimated budget, but once we got started there was no turning back. We actually didn't know how much paint we would need, so we bought it as we went along. We are lucky enough to live close to a hardware store, but we bought paint 4 times in one day. The paint was so expensive that we didn't want to over buy.  Since we are amateur painters, I'm pretty sure we used more paint than a professional would have used while spraying on, but if our amateur painting cost us extra money on paint, it was worth it since we saved so much on the over all cost of having a professional come in to do it. Especially since we were using 3 colors. Every time you add another color your price goes up substantially with a professional paint job.

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#DIYISMYHAPPYPLACE

https://youtu.be/nUYVruuXtXE