Tippy Tuesday #4, Le Paint Station

I LOVE painting furniture, not so much walls.  However, since I am the resident painter, the job of painting "le walls" falls on moi.  

What I HATE doing .  Prep work.  Some prep is absolutely necessary.  Filling nail holes, fixing wall texture, cleaning dirt off......What isn't always necessary, a BIG FAT MESS.  

One of the easiest ways to make the whole job easier is to plan your clean up ahead of time.  When I paint walls, I make a little "self contained" station, that way, when I finish, I can clean up quickly.   Here is what you need:

• Big HUGE Garbage bag
• Paint Tray, not disposable kind
• Roll of Aluminum Foil
• Painters Rags or big roll of heavy duty paper towels
• Plastic Grocery Bag, or roll of Saran Wrap

This method also works especially well if you have to start and stop a few times.  You can use the big huge HEFTY bag to keep air out of your paint.  

Start by opening the bag out wide.  Put your Paint Can and your tray INSIDE the bag. For wall jobs, I don't typically use disposable paint trays, I use a sheet of aluminum foil instead.  I do this because when painting a wall, I use a lot of more paint.  If the paint starts to gum up in the tray, I don't have to worry about changing out the tray.  

 I also put the paint can INSIDE the bag, this way, I don't have to worry about any drips coming off, getting on my drop cloth, kids walking through it, dog tracking it around, etc.

 

I always have a Painter's Rag laid out before I open the can, this way, I have a place for my lid to "land", and I am not worried about it getting paint on anything else.

I like to have a box of these on hand for every paint job. They are cheap and easy to tote around, plus they are made for cleaning up paint, so they won't fall apart.

 

When I am finished with the painting for the day, or the time, I simply wad up the "tray" and put it in the bag! 

Oh yes, and you probably all know this trick, but if you have to leave your brush for a bit, you can wrap it in a plastic grocery bag, or piece of Saran Wrap.  You can also place a bag over the paint, then pull the Hefty bag over the tray.  Self contained paint station is ready for you when you are ready to come back to it!

 

Linking up this post with these lovely blogs: