Use a Paint Brush
The key to a good paint job is to use high quality paint and a good paint brush. Buy the best brush you can afford and make sure it's the right kind for the type of paint you're using. Latex brushes don't work well with oil paints, nor do oil brushes work with water-based paints. Once you have the right brush, you can focus on technique!
Contents
Steps
- Pour a quart of the paint into a 4- or 5-qt. pail. This is your working paint that will move around the job with you. For best results from brushing, don’t dip directly from the can.
- Prepare the edges (optional). If the boards you’re painting butt against a different paint color or a wall, you can lay a line of painter's tape against the edge, pushing it down tight against the surface to prevent the wet paint from bleeding underneath the tape.
- Dip the brush bristles 1 to 2 in. into the paint to load the brush. The more paint the brush carries, the faster you’ll coat the woodwork, but you want to avoid dripping. Tap the tip of the brush against the pail, like the clapper of a bell. For a drier brush, try dragging one side over the edge of the pail.
- Start at the top of the board with the loaded brush and stroke down toward the middle. The paint should flow smoothly onto the surface with little effort on your part. When the brush begins to drag, stop and reload. See the Tips below.
- Make long strokes. Avoid dabbing small areas as this leaves marks in the paint. The brush will leave a slight track of parallel ridges, but they’ll lie down before the paint begins to skin over.
- Quickly coat an area with several brush loads of paint, and then blend and smooth it out by lightly running the unloaded brush tip over it - called “tipping”. Try to coat a whole board or section, but don’t let the paint sit more than a minute before tipping. Tip the wet paint by setting the tip of the brush against the wet paint at the top of the board and lightly stroking down the whole length of the board. Hold the brush almost perpendicular to the surface for this stroke.
- Cut in along the edges. (This will only apply if you didn't put down painter's tape.) Learn with a smaller brush (1-1/2 in.) and go to a wider brush as you gain control. Dip the brush and scrape one side on the pail. Hold the dry side of the brush toward the line and slowly draw the brush along. Support your arm to steady it, and keep the stroke moving. Use gentle downward pressure; you want the bristles to splay out slightly as you stroke. You’ll find you can control the paint line by varying the pressure you apply to the brush. When the brush is dry, reload and start where the previous stroke ended. Sometimes you’ll have to go back over a section where the paint is shy of the line. Complete cutting in and then coat the rest of the piece.
- Clean the brush immediately after stopping. Wash latex brushes in warm, soapy water and rinse in clean water, then shake dry (or dry in a spinner). Smooth the bristles back into shape. Rinse oil brushes thoroughly in fresh paint thinner and shake dry. With proper cleaning, a quality brush will last for years.
Tips
- If the new color doesn’t hide the old, it’s better to apply a second coat than to apply the paint too thick.
- If you need to pause your latex painting session for several hours, and don't want to come back to a water-soaked brush from the cleaning, wrap the brush (with the paint still on it) in plastic wrap and put it in the freezer. When you come back, allow it to thaw for a few minutes, and you'll be ready to pick up where you left off painting.
- It's better to stroke upwards than downwards, so the paint is pulled out of the brush by gravity and friction instead of inwards up the bristles.
- If you find that water-based paint is drying too quickly and not flattening out enough, add an additive like Floetrol to slow the drying and make the paint flow better.
- A common mistake is to force paint out of the brush after it becomes too dry. The goal is a uniform thickness but not so thick as to run or sag.
- ALWAYS buy the best brushes you can afford. Use nylon/polyester for water-based paints and natural bristle for oil-based.
- To clean a brush well, use a brush comb and a small wire brush or scouring pad to scrub the brush handle and faces of the bristles.
- You don't HAVE to push the tape tightly onto the wall, as this just takes more time and energy. The only thing that matters is to keep the extra portions from getting painted.
Warnings
- Never leave a brush sitting in water for an extended period of time, or at all, if you can help it. Soaking the brush in water causes the wood to expand. As the brush dries, the wood shrinks back but the metal does not, so the bristles become loose and begin to fall out.
- Never store a paintbrush standing upright on its bristles, this will ruin it. Ideally, a brush should stored upside down, NOT hanging by its handle as commonly advised. By storing the brush upside down, any minute paint residue will run into the ferrule and wood of the handle, leaving the bristle tips cleaner and helping to further cement the bristles into the ferrule. To store them upside down, use a jar or make a rack with holes cut into a piece of wood.
