Painting Your Home Interior: "Point and Paint" Gets the Complaints

Point and Paint spam is as thick as autumn leaves. It's the name of a new painting tool, targeted towards Do-it-Yourself home owners that claims to take the job of painting a room (including the ceiling) down to about an hour. I've used paint pads before, but thought I'd look at the company's official website (rather than clicking through on the spam) and check out the painting product. I watched the video and am completely unconvinced.

So apparently are a lot of users of this product. Complaints about Point and Paint are also on page one of my Google search. Here is the link to the InfomercialScams.com website. True, I haven't used the Point and Paint product, if they want to send me a sample, I will -- and review the item. Nonetheless, from the way the product is presented, I'm not convinced it would work well at all.

Edging and painting your home interior are best done with rollers and brushes (or a compressor sprayer in some circumstances). I use paint pads for stains (easily available in any paint store). Painters Tape (it is blue) is insurance against the slip of a brush, but not fail safe. I suggest a high-quality cutting brush like a Purdy (available in most paint stores).

Here's a few tips for keeping your paint line straight when you are painting an edge. I developed this technique when I was painting very large lettering (3' to 9' letters) on outdoor advertising billboards many years ago:

• Load a good cutting brush with paint, then make 2 brush strokes about 2 inches long "in-place" on a paper plate. This gives your cutting brush a good edge.
• Face the wall (area to be painted) and take a deep breath at the same time you touch the brush to the wall.
• Hold your breath as you make the line.
• Exhale when the brush comes off the wall.
• Repeat with each stroke.
  

So. . . yoga and meditation breath work has a practical application to painting. It may seem a bit strange, but it really worked for me. Eventually I got so good at "pulling" straight lines (that's what billboard painters often called a long single stroke of the paint brush) that I didn't need to concentrate on my breathing. Let's hope you aren't painting your house for that long!