Top Five Expert Tips: Painting

(1) Choices – Literally millions of color combinations along with a word you will become familiar with “sheens”. The sheen is basically the shininess of the finished paint. Some people like more sheen, or shininess, and some prefer less. One thing to keep in mind is that more sheen reveals more defects in the surface of the drywall or trim being painted.
(2) Subcontracting vs. DIY – This is a classic area where DIYers try to do it themselves. My experience is that the people that do try and tackle this usually will say that they will never want to do it again when they finish. Painting can have a short learning curve but your lack of experience will require more patience and diligence in order to do a good job.
(3) Bidding – Some painters bid by the job and some by the hour. The typical bid by job bid is made as a flat fee (say $3) multiplied by the square feet of the house.
(4) Maintenance – Back to the sheen thing again. Flat paints require lower maintenance. For example, if you have a mark on a flat paint wall you can generally just touch up that section and the paint will blend in with the rest of the wall. For paints with higher sheen you more times than not have to repaint the entire wall in order to touch up a section with new paint.
(5) Paints – Experts will tell you the paint manufacturer makes all the difference. I used Valspar from Lowes and was scoffed by many but it worked well for us as we did a lot of the painting ourselves.