We’re running short on cash and have decided to paint our five-room house to freshen the rooms for the holidays. But we don’t know where to begin. We know what paint colors we want, but we don’t know all the supplies we need. Where and how do we begin?
— S. MacKay, Bolingbrook
Romeo Julian, who is in paint sales at Home Depot, 1232 W. North Ave., says your “laundry” list should look like this:
– paint brush
– roller
– roller handle/frame
– roller tray
– Spackle for filling holes
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– medium-grade or standard sandpaper
– masking tape
– two to three sheets of 9-by-12 dropcloth
– disposable mask (in case you’re allergic to the smell of latex)
– roller extension pole to extend your reach to ceiling
– (and, of course) paint
Julian estimated the cost of these supplies to be about $40 for one 9-by-12-foot room, including paint.
“The choice of paint is up to you, but you’ll exert less energy and get more wall coverage with a quality paint,” Julian says.
And how does one know a quality paint from an inferior one? “The price is the indicator,” Julian says.
Julian likened quality paints to quality shoes. “Buy a pair of Fila shoes made in Italy and a pair of discount shoes of the same style. They look the same, but they feel and wear differently. Paint is the same way,” he says.
“People who don’t understand buy a cheaper paint at $5 or $6 a gallon and then wonder why the color doesn’t match up with what they selected. They end up coming back to the store for two more gallons of the same paint before they get the color it was supposed to be and end up spending $15 to $18 . . . when they could have made one trip to the store and paid the same amount for a better-quality paint that would have given more coverage and the color they expected.”
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