After my wife and I bought our first house, we realized that we wanted to fix up a few things. Instead of hiring expensive contractors to paint and install bead board, we decided to give the projects a try on our own. It was a lot of work, but after we had refinished our front door, painted the rooms, and updated our crown molding, we were amazed to see the difference. This blog is for all of you crafters out there that need a little help getting started with your home hobbies. Read here to learn more about wood refinishing, home decor, painting, and tons of other topics.
There's nothing more frustrating than to wake up the next morning with the intent of applying a second coating of paint to your walls only to find that your paintbrushes have dried into unusable blobs of paint and bristles. If you leave the paint on the brushes and allow them to dry overnight, it's going to be very difficult to restore them to a usable form. Here are some tips for making sure that you take care of your paint brushes in the future and don't have to halt your painting process to purchase new brushes.
1. Use Shampoo to Clean Your Brushes
Chances are good that the paint that you are applying to your brushes has some oil in it. The easiest way to get all of the oil and paint off of your paint brush is to use shampoo, which is designed to remove oil from your hair. Take a bucket and fill it up with warm water and two dime-sized blobs of shampoo. Then, mix the shampoo and the water until lather forms on the top of the bucket. Insert your paintbrushes into the water and allow them to soak for five minutes. This will loosen the oil. Use a rag to scrub the paint off of the brushes while they are in the bucket after they have soaked.
2. Don't Let Your Brushes Sit Out in the Air
If you need to take a break to grab a cup of coffee or some lunch, don't lay your brush down on a paper towel or a piece of newspaper. This will cause the paint that is on the brush to dry out. Instead, either place it back in the paint can or place it in a clean cup of water. This will help you ensure that your brush is still functional when you get back.
3. Store Your Brushes Vertically, With the Head Up
Finally, after you have cleaned your brushes for the night, place them in a cup so that they are relatively perpendicular with the bottom of the cup and with the heads facing up. If you store the brushes face down in a cup of water, you will be putting additional stress on the ferrule, which is the part of the brush that holds the bristles to the handle. Storing the brushes head up will allow you to avoid this additional stress.
For more information, talk to a company that specializes in paint supplies (such as Koontz Hardware).
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