Yesterday, I talked a little bit about liquidating my paint stash. (Lots of paint, need to use it up before it gets gross.) So when it came time to paint the stairwell, I knew I just had to make it work without buying more paint. And I’m proud to report the white paint I used in the stairwell was all stash, baby.
But there was one catch; I didn’t have enough of any one shade of white to do the entire area. I had 3/5 gallon of off-the-shelf white, about half a quart of some exterior white, a small remnant of the white used upstairs on the trim and a full quart of a near-white “oops” paint I picked up on clearance for $2.50. All semi-gloss.
You can see where I’m going with this. I just dumped everything into the gallon can, stirred and stirred some more. And voila! A full gallon of paint! Don’t be afraid to mix it up! It’s paint. It’s not going to explode or anything.
I understand if you wouldn’t want to try this for one of the main rooms in your house; I probably wouldn’t do that either. But think less traveled areas: basements, closets, laundry rooms, etc. Places where cheap trumps finding the perfect shade.
Pay attention to sheen if that matters to you. And it should go without saying that you should not mix latex and oil paint together. That would result in quite a mucky mess. Big no no.
Great idea. Paint gets so expensive when you paint as often as, well, some of us do 🙂 I just used three whites together to create my (still unfinished) grey and white stripes in my boys’ bathroom.
I still have so much paint to use up! Need to think of more places that need painting.
Can’t wait to see your stripes!