I love to paint, many of you know I paint art but I also love to paint anything really. My Mom and her Mom both painted inside the house and did wallpaper so guess who they taught to do both? Yep, the artist. I started painting and wallpapering when I was 9 years old. During and after High School I did house painting for money and got a lot of work because most people hate to paint. Well I am here to give you some tips that may make it less of a pain in the butt to do.

First, and I cannot stress this enough, the work will only be easier if you use the best materials you can find. By that I mean a damn good brush and at least half way decent paint. If you scrimp on these two things you will hate painting the whole time you are doing it. A good natural hair bristle brush will last forever if taken proper care of. I have artist brushes that are over 30 years old and still quite nice to use. The brush in the photo is a 3 inch, hand made American hog bristle brush and it just lays that paint down so nice you don't have to keep brushing. It is a breeze to paint with a brush like this one. it cost 28 bucks but it is well worth it.

I use a plastic milk jug with a part cut out near the spout as my paint bucket, It is very light, I only put in a small amount of paint and it is quite easy to hold as I paint up on a ladder. I don't know why people take up a whole gallon of paint up on a ladder with them. That's 9 pounds of weight and rather hard to control while painting. And it is asking for trouble if you spill it. A coffee can works nice too. If you only have so much paint in your bucket you won't dip your brush to far into the paint and then you will have paint only on the edge of the bristles where it belongs. This makes brush cleaning a breeze.

Now I am priming right now and a good primer is a joy to use, strong tinting and good strong covering power are necessary. I am sanding rust smooth and then painting a heavy primer base and then a second coat of a good exterior paint over with a spray gun later.

So here are some tips for you.

Painting inside rooms is a breeze if you have a plan of action. First do your ceiling. Paint the edge of the ceiling where it meets the walls Then roll the rest of the ceiling from the middle out towards the edges. While that is drying, paint the corners where the walls meet and around any baseboards and then last paint the edge of the walls where they meet the ceiling. Then if you are painting woodwork do that last.

Now here is a little trick with the brush when painting where two surfaces meet. Many people will load up the brush and try to place it as close to the corner and brush sideways. Instead of trying that, place the brush about an inch away from where the two surfaces meet and paint while sliding the brush into where they meet and you control the brush better right off the bat and see what you are doing at the same time.

Once the walls are edged out then roll the walls from middle to edge.

See, wasn't that easy and fun?

Now painting doors can be fun with the same idea of having a plan of action. Flat doors I just roll out, it makes a nice smooth surface and brushed flat doors show the brush marks more than paneled doors with many surfaces. On panel doors you want to work the inside panel surfaces first, again, start at the edges and then the larger flat surfaces, painting from the center out to edge again. Then paint the higher raised outside pieces of the door that create the whole outer door structure.

Painting windows is a pain for many but I really like this job a lot.  In fact I was famous for not taping windows and never getting messy. First again paint edge work first. Use an angled brush for this work. Close to the glass, use that little trick of pushing the brush edge into the edge surface. With the angled brush this is even simpler to do. Then paint all the flat surfaces of the window.

See, wasn't that just a breeze with that nice brush and good paint you bought?

Outside painting is just a bit different. Paint all your windows, then any architectural elements that edge the large outside wall surfaces, then either brush, roll or spray the large areas. Work from the top of the house down to the ground.

If you are painting the whole outside then start with the front and finish that whole thing before moving to the next because that will be seen by you and everyone else the most so get one job done that looks nice and then move on to parts less seen. That way, if you have to stop for any reason at least one damn part of the job looks done.

After all that, the only thing I can say is clean that damn brush real good.

Oh yeah, music, you must always paint to music, it does help give your brush stroke a need to dance more.