“Should I use oil or latex paint?” It’s a question I get asked a lot. Oil vs latex, the two paints are very different, and each has their strengths and weaknesses. In this post, I’ll try to help you figure out when and where each type of paint will excel so you can make the […]
Peeling paint is never a good thing, and in an old house, one of the most typical places you’ll find peeling paint is on your windows. But if you knew what caused this incessant peeling, you could stop it in its tracks. That’s what I’ll help you do today! The picture above is from a […]
Last week I talked about how to properly test for lead paint. While testing for lead paint is an important start, simply knowing if there is lead or not won’t do much to protect you. You need to know how to safely renovate in a house with lead paint. I’ll cover important principles of dust […]
This is the last post in our 3 part series on how to strip paint. In the first one, I talked about working with chemical strippers and when and how to use them. Last week, we delved into the world of elbow grease and talked about how to scrape like a pro. This week, I […]
This may be the least exciting method of paint removal, but I have found it to be one of the best ways to remove decades of old paint quickly and cleanly. If you can learn how to strip paint without chemicals or heat, your prep/clean up time can be significantly reduced. In this post, I’ll show […]
I know a lot of you have questions about stripping paint from old woodwork. I know because it’s one of the topics I get emailed about the most. So, I won’t keep you in suspense any longer. There are three primary ways you can remove paint (scraping/sanding, chemicals, heat) and we’ll talk about all three […]
Old hardware is just like everything else in an old house, covered with decades of paint. Antique hardware can be some very attractive and beautifully crafted pieces of art that is well worth restoring. If you want to remove paint from hardware, you don’t want to just start scraping the paint off with an old […]
Being in the business of restoring old houses, I do a lot of paint stripping. And much of that paint is lead paint so I have to be extra careful to make sure we keep our dust under control. Here are the best paint stripping tools I have used over the years. Some work better […]
If you own an old house, you have paint problems…somewhere. It may be from a poor paint job at some point or a paint job that is just too old. Keeping your house painted properly, especially the exterior, is imperative to the long term care of your house. Exterior elements deteriorate quickly without a protective […]
In Choosing Exterior Paint Colors For Your Historic House we discussed how to go about picking the right colors for a historic home. Will you choose colors that are historically accurate to your home, historically appropriate for the time period your home was built or will you just wing it and pick your own color […]
On this site we talk about old houses and the good, the bad, and the ugly. There are plenty of joys and certainly some dangers of homeownership. We talked about dangers like lead paint, knob and tube wiring, and asbestos, but today I wanted to teach you about an electrical concern that may be lurking […]
If your dream is a vintage kitchen, you can easily achieve it with a few key finds and a smattering of playfulness. You don’t need to adhere to a specific design formula; instead, using your own imagination and the tips provided here will create the timeless look you long to have. 1. White Walls Make […]
