5 Painting Tips for the Truly Amateur: A Farmhouse Update

Whew!

We've been busy bees around our little farmhouse lately! All the flooring is torn up, walls are washed, and we just finished doing all the painting on the first floor.

Five rooms are done, and I've learned some very important tips when it comes to painting your home.

Disclosure: Some of the links provided in this post are affiliate links. **

Tip 1) Call Your Mother-in-Law.

Seriously.

Unmarried ladies out there: Even more important than finding the right man to marry is finding the right mother-in-law.

I'm kidding. But only a little.

My wonderful selfless mother-in-law, upon receiving my breezy, casual phone calls that were really more like the cries of a baby-bear in the woods ("HELP! I'm in over my HEAD!"), came running as just a mama bear can.

She spent the better part of a week painting with us and sharing her expertise, not to mention her spackle and ziplock bags and sandpaper... which were all things that I hadn't thought of bringing along.

If you're reading this, Mom... we couldn't have done it without you! Thank you a billion!

Making painting a community event- inviting a few friends or family members to share the work- makes a huge difference... both because many hands make light work, and also because it's more fun to work together.

Tip 2) Buy Quality Paint.

It may be tempting to go with the cheapy-cheap stuff you can pick up at a local department store, but trust me on this. Not. Worth. It.

Painting is time consuming as it is. Don't make it worse by using junky paint and then needing to do it all over again.

Read more about why we went with Diamond Vogel paints in this post here.

Tip 3) Prep Those Walls.

The walls and ceilings in our lovely little farmhouse are old. And in all honesty, they'd seen better days. Smoke stains, age spots, nail holes... we had it all.

We began our painting project by washing and repairing the walls and ceilings. We used TSP- a heavy-duty cleaner that doesn't leave residue, to wash the grime off of everything (and honestly, I had no idea how dirty the walls were until I got started!)

It wasn't glamorous at all, but taking the time to clean and spackle the walls before painting is important to helping your paint to do it's job and look fabulous.

Tip 4)  Get a Good Paintbrush.

The sign of that we found a good paintbrush? When even I could paint around woodwork without making a giant mess of things.

I'd really, really recommend this baby- Wooster 2-inch short handle paintbrush.


My mother-in-law and I "fought" over it the whole time.

Tip 5) Don't Forget the Ceiling.

For about three minutes, I considered not painting the ceilings. I mean, it's a lot of extra work, and then you have to buy more paint... and who really even looks at the ceilings, anyway?

Honestly, though, painting the ceilings made a huge difference in each of the rooms we painted- that new coat of paint makes them brighter and so much cleaner-looking. Those ceilings are important, and you will not regret painting them. Trust me.

Even if you're a total amateur, like myself, you can be successful in painting your house- whether it be just one wall, one room, or if you're nuts like me and get the entire thing done in about a week. A little paint makes a huge difference! Go for it!

DISCLOSURE: In order for me to support my blogging habit, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog. You may see a full disclosure by clicking on my "About" page. I will only promote products that I use, enjoy, or take a shine to. All opinions and reviews are my own and are not influenced by any compensation I may receive.