How To Buy Paint

If it needs brightening up, paint it (your spouse and children being a big exception). Painting is a lot cheaper than buying something new, and so you may want to get familiar with a few terms and tips before you come out to Stewart’s Hardware, or your nearest paint store.

One of the first things you’ll need to know is exactly what paint is best for your project. You have two basic choices: latex, and oil.
Latex paints can be cleaned up with nothing more than soapy water. That’s a real advantage, as paint tends to go where it’s not supposed to. It keeps its color fairly well, and sticks to most surfaces without a problem. It dries fast, and has fewer odors—and a great plus is that it’s the cheaper option.

Oil paint can’t be cleaned up with water—you have to use a paint thinner or solvent to wash out your brushes and scrub at unwanted spots—but it heals very well, meaning you can usually get away with only one coat of paint. It sticks to plastic and metal much better than latex does (which tends to crack, split and peel over time on smooth surfaces) and it takes so long to dry that you’ll have plenty of time to apply more paint before the wet edge sets.

Once you’ve decided between oil and latex, you can move on to choosing a finish, also known as sheen (like the effect you get when you use hairspray, yes). At one end of the sheen scale, we have flat…which is just that: flat. It has little, if any sheen and looks quite dull (or muted, if you prefer). It will effectively hide most imperfections in the surface you’re painting, but it will effectively show dirt as well. And what’s worse, it doesn’t like to be scrubbed. So use it in appropriate places (the kids room is NOT a good idea …).

A little higher on the scale, we have eggshell. Yeah, it resembles the look of an actual eggshell—smoother than flat, since it does reflect a little light, and but still hiding problem spots. It will stand up to light washing, so you may want to use it for the walls in your house or office. If you’re looking for something a little more sheen-y and washable, try satin! It’s typically used for bathrooms, kitchens and…oh yes, the kid’s room, where certain miniature people mistake grape jelly for paint.

From there, we move to the really shiny folks: semi-gloss and high-gloss.

Semi-gloss reflects up to 50% percent of the light it receives, so think twice before using it on the walls. You might want to use it on doors, window trims, or cabinets, as it takes cleaning very, very well—and these surfaces tend to gather quite a bit of dirt.

Finally, we have high-gloss paint. With the amount of light it reflects, you won’t want to use it on a surface that has flaws that you’re trying to hide. It will show them up like the tattle-tale you couldn’t stand in kindergarten. It’s best used on areas and things that get lots of mistreatment and need to be cleaned all the time.

There is another choice you’ll have to make, and that is, “what color?” Fortunately, that’s up to you, as we’ve just about run out of time for today. We’ll leave a couple of tips for you though.

One, if you’re painting a room, remember that the lighter the color, the bigger the room will look, and two, don’t forget that color can look different in varying amounts of light. Very different. So before you slosh that brush all over your living room, check how the color will look in the morning, at noon, and in the evening first.