I can’t help it - that header up there always makes me think of painting and decorating. It may be stretching a point, but there is craft in such simple things as slapping some paint on a door or wall-papering a room. Like most things, there are two ways to do it: rush at the job and get it finished, knowing that nobody will know the difference, or do it properly and get that feeling of accomplishment at the end.

If you want to feel good about your work, it’s worth finding out a little about how to go about it before you start. Take paint, for instance; invariably, someone decides that room A needs a bit of sprucing up, rushes down to the hardware store and comes back with some paint, ready to have at it. But there is paint and then there is paint. If you’re going to paint the walls, it is worth spending a little more money and getting the best quality of paint. You will save in the long run that way.

All paint is essentially little “bits” held in suspension in a liquid. The more expensive the paint, the more “bits” and the better the covering power of the paint. So a wall that might need two coats with a cheap paint will only need one if you’re using quality paint. Unless the good paint costs twice as much as the cheap, you’re already ahead. Add in the saving in time and you’re laughing.

Picking the right gloss paint for woodwork is much less of a chore - just grab the cheapest you can find. There is very little difference between the various types and a cheap brand can be made to cover as effectively as an expensive one. It’s true that non-drip paint does not drip - while it’s in the can. As soon as you start to spread it, however, the gel becomes liquid and guess what you’ve got - common old gloss paint! So buy the cheap stuff and I’ll tell you how to put it on so that it doesn’t drip.

In a later post, of course…