Painting the Town- Actually Just the House

We recently moved to a new town and to a new to us house.  The paint colors were not quite what we would have picked so there has been lots of painting going on!  I am color challenged and made frequent phone calls to my very talented Sister-in-law for direction.  I learned a few things that I want to remember for the next time that we have to paint. 

Paint chips don't work for me.  I really need to see samples painted onto a large piece of poster board and tacked to the wall where I'll be painting.  Valspar and Benjamin Moore paints have some of my favorite colors. 

Under the direction of my decorator SIL I painted the back of the living room shelves a bright spicy orange.  I tried two different kinds of paint there.  The first kind:  Behr Ultra went on thick and creamy- very nice.

The second kind- Valspar- ick.  It was thin, runny and splattered and dripped everywhere.  The color I picked for this spot was a Valspar paint and Home Depot's match wasn't quite right- that is why I ended up going with the Valspar.  I also had to paint four coats of paint and that was over primer and a layer of the Behr.... so, in the future to save time I'll be using Behr paint when choosing between the two brands.

I also found the ONLY paintbrush that I can paint a straight line with.  It is called Ziber and I get the two inch angled sash with the long handle- the short handled version had softer bristles which I didn't care for.  This paintbrush is at Home Depot.

The previous home owners had a good tip if you want to upgrade your switch plates.  They had painted them (and the screw tops) with Rust-Oleum Hammered paint and primer in one spray paint.  It's an inexpensive way to jazz up the 25 cent white plastic outlet and plate covers.  It gives them a rustic metal looking finish- I think there are six metal finishes to choose from.

We broke down and hired a painter to help us get things moving.  It was pretty sweet to go about my daily routine and at the end of the day have two more rooms painted!  Those are the tips I want to remember for the future... hopefully we won't be painting too much more for another ten years or so :)