I first started painting rooms in my home when I was in graduate school. Yes, it was a rental but I felt like adding a splash of color to the walls really helped to make my space feel cozier and more put together. It was also great exposure to the world of painting and all of the steps involved in properly painting a room.
By the time I moved to my next home, I knew that I wanted to paint almost every room (which I did) with the exception of my bedroom. The bedroom had been painted in an earthy tan/green color, which doesn't sound very attractive, but for some reason worked really well with my bedroom furniture and bedding. The only problem was that the paint job in the bedroom felt like it had been a little rushed and there were a few wall areas where I wished that I had that paint color to touch it up.
As time went on in this house (I ended up living at this house for 5 years), my now husband moved in, we got a dog, bought new furniture, got rid of old furniture, got married and so forth. All of these life changes over time would more often than not, cause little knicks, chips, scrapes and/or scuffs on the walls. While I love using Mr. Clean Magic Wall erasers for all imperfections on my white walls, I didn't know what to do about the imperfections acquired on my walls painted with color.
The Solution?
During the paint color selection process, I would find myself buying sample cans of the various colors I was debating between (a paper paint chip/swatch and paint on the wall look totally different). With each mini can costing between $4-$6, I could never bring myself to throw them out at the end of my painting projects and so I acquired quite a few sample cans. This actually ended up working in my favor because I realized that I could just use a bit of paint from the sample cans to fix those various imperfections on my walls that accumulated over time. **BONUS- The size of the sample cans is very apartment storage friendly.** These sample cans came in handy many times over and before I moved out of my apartment, I left labeled sample paint cans for the landlord and next tenant so that they would know exactly what was used on the walls (something I wish I had had for the bedroom).
In my current home, I have a painting supplies basket that is filled with the following:
- Sample paint cans for the color used in each room (Room is labeled on the can)
- Set of Touch-up brushes (Crayola makes a great set found at Target)
- A Quart of white trim paint
- A Quart of Ceiling Paint
- Drydex (instant drywall for the more aggressive blemishes on your walls)
- Goof Off (paint remover)
- Sandpaper - to smooth out freshly drydex-ed surfaces before applying any paint
- A roll of painters tape - to help achieve those crisp clean lines when painting edges and corners.
