My wife Kelly and I will never agree on this one. In my opinion, when it comes to painting projects, it is OK to cut some corners. In her opinion it must be painted, even if you can’t see it. But, even I will agree that it sometimes it does matter.

When we were painting our kitchen, we learned a bit about each other — I’m sloppy and she’s squeaky (my clean code for another word). There is a strip of wood underneath our sink - way underneath. In fact, not only is it underneath, but it is underneath, up and back. It is a strip of wood that will never see light, and no one will ever see that it isn’t painted. Unless you are Kelly inspecting her husband’s handiwork - or according to her after seeing my omission, “sloppy work”. I’m a practical guy. If it doesn’t need to be painted, then I’m not going to use one moment of my limited time on this earth painting it. But to Kelly it matters - she knows it isn’t painted, and therefore it needs to be painted. Like I said, we won’t agree on this one.

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So you’ve decided to make the fabulous decision to use Benjamin Moore’s Aura paint- good deal. BUT because of the water borne colorant systems and the faster dry time, Aura has specific application techniques. So lets talk about the proper way to do that.

Cutting In:
*Use the same brushing techniques as you would for any low-VOC compliant interior coating. *Try using a firm polyester/nylon brush for best results.
*Since Aura dries faster than other acrylic paint, move around the room as fast as you feel comfortable, keeping a wet edge.
*Visible lap marks can occur when the wet edge has set or dried prior to coating the immediately adjacent area.

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If you are like me, you spend as little time painting as possible. Over the years we’ve learned many painting tricks, and this extremely simple trick is one of my favorites.

Don’t wash any of your tools between coats of paint.

Simply seal your paint brush, paint roller and roller tray in a plastic bag and put it in your refrigerator. That’s it! When you are ready to paint the next coat, just take the tools out of the bag and go.

You’ll save 20 - 30 minutes cleaning between every coat.

Touching up paint is something we all need to do from time to time. You may have moved a picture frame, some furniture or your three-year old drove his tractor into the wall. Regardless of the cause, you likely want to spackle any holes or dents, and then repaint the section. This post gives some simple tips to achieving good results.

The first thing you should do is set your expectations properly. No matter what you do you will proably always be able to see where you touched up. The eye can detect the slightest difference on a large wall surface. However, following these steps will make it much harder to see.

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A water-stain is the discoloration that exists on your wall after it gets wet. These stains are usually caused by a leaking roof or pipes and typically have a yellowish-brown coloration which is most prominent along the edge of the stain.

The first thing to do is fix the root cause of the water leak. You don’t want to spend time and money fixing a water-stain only to have it reoccur from another leak.

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If you are like most people, you have a bunch of old paint cans in your garage or basement. And you are probably wondering how to get rid of them. How do you dispose of this paint safely and legally?

If you have nearly full cans of paint, you can purchase packets of “Waste Paint Hardener” from your local paint store (or myperfectcolor.com). One packet of this product will harden 3/4-full gallon of paint. Once the paint has hardened you should be able to dispose of it in your local trash pick-up. If the paint cans are nearly empty, just put them in your garage and leave the lids off for a few days and then throw them away.

Most municipalities will accept dried water-based paint in the regular trash pick-up. Wet water-based paint will not be accepted, and neither are oil-based paints (wet or dry). Most municipalities offer some sort of hazardous waste disposal. Normally there are one or more days per year where residents can drop off old paint. Check with your specific municipality for your local rules.

Benjamin Moore introduced its new Aura paint line in the spring of 2007. At the same time, Benjamin Moore also introduced the new Affinity color collection. Customers are often confusion between Aura and Affinity and how they relate to one another. Hopefully this post will clear up that confusion.

Aura is the name that Benjamin Moore gave to it’s next generation paint technology platform. Aura refers to the paint itself, independent of the the color of that paint. As of the writing of this blog, Aura is available in interior matte, eggshell and satin finishes. In the spring of 2008, Benjamin Moore will introduce an exterior line of Aura paints and add a semi-gloss to the interior line. Aura paint can be tinted to any color.

“Affinity” refers to a new color collection that Benjamin Moore introduced to support the launch of the new Aura paint line. Unlike the previous color collections, the Affinity collection colors can only be made in the Aura paint. Aura paint however, can be made in any color.

The new Benjamin Moore Aura dries fast. It can be recoated in only one hour and therefore needs to be applied a little differently.

The biggest difference when painting with the new Benjamin Moore Aura is that you paint around the trim (cut-in) for the whole room with a paint brush first, and then go back to paint the rest of the wall with a paint roller. Paints other than Aura require that you cut-in and roll simultaneously to get the roller texture onto wherever you cut-in quickly before it dries. If you don’t do this you’ll often see the border around your room due to the textural differences between and paint brush and paint roller. This is not so with Benjamin Moore Aura Paint, the cut-in and rolled paint blend nicely, but because the paint dries quickly you need to let the cut-in area dry before rolling over it.

The next difference with Aura (more…)

I’ve never had so much fun. I brought home a quart of the Benjamin Moore Glow in the Dark Paint to make a starry sky for my daughters’ bedroom. The paint glows in the dark just like any glow-in-the-dark toy, except it is paint.

I couldn’t wait to get started and jumped right in. What I didn’t realize was how thick you have to make the paint in order to get a decent glow. I first started by trying to “flick” the paint from my paint brush to create stars. This didn’t work so well overall, but made a fantastic “milky way” across the center. It took me several hours of flicking in order to build it up enough for it to show a decent glow. (as an aside, the t-shirt I was wearing is still glown in the dark to this day)

But being the imaginative guy I tell my wife I am, I knew (more…)