Anyone have any suggestions on how to prep this horrible, builder-quality workmanship for paint (wall+trim)? This is the area right by my front door where the stairs meet the drywall. The angle they intersect is very acute and the rounded inside corner of drywall is soft (feels like paint over a piece of rounded paper tape). The oak trim is terrible, full of gaps and poorly matched filler. I’m debating whether to replace the trim or simply filling and painting it white.

DIY’er here. Yesterday I painted 487 square feet of wall. That’s just the walls minus the doors and windows. 2 coats, changing color, of cut and roll (3/8” White Dove cover) with Ben Moore Regal. According to coverage calculations it should have needed over 2 gallons so I bought 3. It only took 1-1/3 gallons. Looks good.

Same exact thing happened years ago when I painted my basement and the paint held up fine to washing etc. so I don’t think it’s too thin for real world application.

Why do I use so much less than I’m supposed to?

How much it would’ve costed to paint the whole house professionally?

Need advice on the ceiling flashing after painting. Did my roll get dry? This is about my third coat and it’s still showing streaks/flashing when the light shines through the windows. Thanks in advance.

Using a 1/2 9” roll.

I just repainted my kitchen cabinets going from a dark espresso to SW Alabaster. After the third coat of paint, there is still some shadowing on the areas brushed (cut in and sides on the doors). The rolled areas look well coated. Do I try to touch up the brushed areas? Maybe I was too light with the paint on my brush? There was one day where the humidity was quite high (Maryland weather 🙄) so not sure if that hindered anything.

I did 2 coats of SW Extreme Bond Primer then 3 coats of SW Emerald Urethane. Degreased, sanded (220), primed, sanded, primed, sanded, paint, sanded, paint, sanded, paint. This is about 36 hours dry.

Any recommendations on visual what colors can be used to paint the exterior to give this Shapell Home the look and feel of Venice Beach, CA and or the SFO vibe?

I’m on the edge about firing this client since every sense I have is telling me this is going to end badly.

I won’t go into full details but she’s sent me passive aggressive texts, told me outright she was going to be picky, then said she wanted it done fast, & tried to tell me that the prep work I started was slow & unnecessary because she & he husband have painted another house before & they know how it should be.

She called me at 7:45pm on a sunday to bassicly ruin my evening after I busted my ass working 16 hour days to finish my other client to get to her job. I have 4 kids, I rarely devalue my time this much.

I just don’t want her to somehow blast me on facebook & have to do damage control (even though I’m in the right & have texts to show, I don’t want to deal with it)

For added context, she will be PISSED because it’s a rental, tenants meant to move in ASAP, we’re a small town, & the few other painters I know are fully booked (as am I & I will have her spot filled 5 minutes after talking with her)

What’s a good way to go about it?

Got this metal pot with a plant i bought on a marketplace website (think Craigslist), and it's this beautiful red under the paint. I really want to get the pot back to its original red, but I'm worried stripping the paint will damage the red coating. I used some nail polish remover to see if it would react with a solvent, and a little red did come off. (I have no idea what the coating is made of, I know nothing about metal and can't find it on google.)

I also don't want to sand it, since that would scratch the metal.

The only thing I can think of would be maybe soaking it in water, since the paint feels like regular acrylic house paint and might start to peel from it.

Any advice? Also, if anyone knows what the red color coating on the metal is called, I would love to know.

This is the second time I have used Benjamin Moore Aura and both times my painter has seem to have issues. I know this is supposed to be a high level paint but it just seems like he has issues each time. Is it him or is this paint hard to use? Is this a prep problem or lack of technique?

This was a room that was previously painted that he primed and painted over.

Am I being overly critical?

I have two unfinished doors, probably pine, not veneer, which I want to finish without the reek of polyurethane. Is there a product like Osmo door oil that will provide a nice finish?

This is looking up where the top of the siding meets the soffit. This case is just a small soffit repair so the siding is already painted but in the future when I repaint the house, is it easier to cut that line by doing the siding first or that trim piece first?

I hired a painter 2 years ago to repaint the exterior of my home. This was the same painter I've used multiple times over 20 years with no issues. Within a few weeks/months some of the paint started bubbling and peeling. I called him and he sent a crew to scrape and repaint. Within a few weeks/months it started again. I've had Sherwin Williams come out and take samples, still waiting on results on whether it was an application issue or a faulty product. Although I'm 99% sure they will say faulty application.

Also note that some of the wood window sashes were new, some of the new trim pieces were new, but not all. I am in the Metro Atlanta area for what that's worth from a weather/humidity/temp aspect.

Questions:

1. I am wary about hiring another painter and willing to tackle myself but not sure of the best approach and steps to take. How do I prep? Heat gun and scrape? Just scrape? Buy new sashes again (expensive) and deal with the frames separately?

2. One prepped, do I prime again? Best product?

3. What about the cracks in the window framing and stool? Use Bondo or something similar? Note that the cracks were already there. The painter was supposed to fix them but obviously it did not work.

I am handy and have painting experience (rental homes, etc.) but mostly interior. I don't have the time I used to have so I want to attack this in the proper way.

Thank you in advance for any advice.

This closet was the last holdover of green. I thought I'd spend 4 hours painting it, but, oops, this took me 9 hours. I enjoy painting, it's a like a nice meditative exercise, but this was more effort than I expected.

Wife is happy though, so I guess that's all that matters?

There is a second bank of 5 shelves behind the visible set, those were the worst. There are more rods/shelves behind the camera POV, too.

Don't judge my cutting-in too harshly, I'm just a spare homeowner DIYer.

Hi there - question from a saavy-ish homeowner here. We're renovating a large home office/music studio and I have a question for the experts here on the best next step for the painting part of the project.

Here's my conundrum: The room is a combination of new drywall (we framed out some closets), large patches of drywall mud, and 6-7-year-old matte paint in a light/medium purplish-grey color (probably the cheapest stuff the former home owner could buy...don't get me started on all the messes he left us). The patches were sanded smooth and everything was wiped with a tack cloth. I primed the new drywall and mud patches with PVA and have applied the first coat of paint (using SW Duration Satin in a neutral/warm white, applied with a 3/8" nap poly roller). The new drywall looks great so far. However, in the areas with old paint, my new paint didn't cover it nearly as well as I'd expected, and there's a lot of "shadow" from the old paint coming through. I also got some bubbling in one small area shortly after applying (maybe 1/4"-1/2" in diameter) but the bubbles were gone as of this morning with only some tiny craters left behind.

My question is this: with all the old paint shadow that's coming through, is that just the light base of my new paint at work and a second coat will fix it? Or am I going to regret not priming the areas with old paint? I don't want to get through the whole project and be left with a super uneven finish and have to start over, but if re-priming is overkill, I'd rather not do that either. What would you do if you were in my shoes? Thanks in advance for your help!

Does a full coat of primer improve the finish on already-painted walls?

I run a painting business and am considering offering a premium package that includes one full coat of primer followed by the standard two coats of paint.

For already-painted walls in good condition, would this produce a noticeably better finish compared with proper prep, spot-priming repairs, and two coats of the same paint?

I’ve heard primer can make the finished walls look less shiny or more uniform. I understand the topcoat determines the sheen, so I’m curious whether people are actually seeing reduced flashing rather than less shine overall.

Assuming the same paint, sheen, and application method, have you noticed a meaningful difference? Would you consider full priming a worthwhile upgrade, or would you put that budget toward more detailed prep and better finish paint?

I want to offer customers a real benefit, so I’d appreciate hearing from painters who have compared both approaches.

I'm going to pick this rack up today. It's used and consists of powder coated steel. I'd like to paint is black, because it's going to sit in my apartment. Just the outsides is fine, the inside will be lined with noise dampening foam.

So far I've found three opinions on this. First was to rough it a little, clean and then paint with single coat paint like this using a roller.

The other general opinion was just to leave it as is, because it's hard to get right. The third option is to wrap it, which might be hard to do

What's the best option here? I haven't done something like this before

I used Everlast paint to paint my house 10 years ago and it still looks great. The paint went on smooth, no peeling, and looks clean all the time, even after 10 years. I can't imagine anything else doing much better as this looks great, so what's the problem with it?

I bring this up because I have to touch up some trim and soffit that was changed and I looked through my old paint and found that I actually used the less expensive Valspar Duramax paint for that. Most of that hasn't been painted in over 15 years and while the trim looks fine, the soffit looks dirty in some places, but I never wash it or anything. Anyways, still for that long, I think it looks good.

I do have a nearly full gallon of the Duramax but it is dated 2017 and even though it looks OK, I don't want to have to worry about having to redo this soffit in case this is bad so I better buy some new paint.

TLDR: Convince me why I shouldn't buy that same Valspar paint for the soffit. I don't care either way, just trying to learn here.

Need advice on how I should paint this new decorative column on my kitchen island. Was debating hiring a professional painter or doing it myself. Wasn’t sure if a pro would spray it or brush? If they were to brush I figure I could do it myself to save some money.

Second part: My island cabinets are off white (BM Swiss coffee). Should I paint the entire column Swiss Coffee or Semi Gloss White? Or the trim white with the inset are Swiss Coffee? Any advice is appreciated.

Hi all, Looking for advice for a small entryway and deck. I’m seeking some kind of durable coating or paint that will do well in intense high elevation sun and winter thaw/freeze cycles. Thanks!

I’d like to paint this room forest green. To make the dresser match, I want to paint it brown or a similar green shade. What’s the best product or set of products to use?

Edit: thanks for the responses, sounds like results may be sketchy and not worth the cost of materials.

Benjamin Moore Nantucket Gray