Conditioner is Not Just for Your Hair

Turkey-day in t-minus 2 days! I know, none of you people are even reading blogs right now - you're probably going crazy prepping and buying and what-not. Me, I'm "lucky" enough to have work start getting hectic in the last week or so. Not that it's bad to have stuff to do (hey, I'd rather be busy than not busy - we've had enough layoffs for one year, thank you. Even my BIL's girlfriend got laid off last month).

Anyway, lest you think I've let my home improvement projects go by the wayside, I am here to tell you "fear not!" I have been trying to get stuff done here and there. On Saturday, we hit up Lowes, since I had an almost expired coupon from Discover Card for $10 of $50 and on top of that they are giving me 10% cashback on Lowe's purchases through the 30th. Seriously - don't they understand home improvement stores are my kryptonite? Sneaky bastards. Anyway, so we dropped about $200 on baseboard and one more pack of door casing, wood for the fireplace mantel (exciting!), stain for the mantel, and some awesomeness called Floetrol.

Behold:


Now, if you've ever dealt with latex paint on wood trim or furniture, you know about the whole brush marks and never getting a smooth finish. No Floetrol is not paying me to sound like a commercial. Trust me, with a readership of 16, sponsors are not knocking down my door. Anyway, after reading a post the Nester linked to about this blogger that painted her dining room furniture black and insisted that you should only use oil paint for this type of job, I remembered that oil paint is getting phased out across the country due to the fact that it's kind of nasty and caustic with the fumes, and it only cleans up with equally smelly stuff like paint thinner and mineral spirits (how can something with such a nice name like "mineral spirits" smell like such ass?). I thought: how could the EPA ban something like oil paint if there is no other viable alternative? This led to getting sucked into the Google Vortex searching for information about paint. I found out that you can add paint conditioner to latex paint that will help it lay flat! Holy Smokes! Where was this information when I attempted to paint my stools with high gloss paint only to end up frustrated with brush stroke marks all over it?

Here is a close up of a section of casing I did with the Floetrol. Maybe not the easiest to tell - but the finish is quite smooth.


One thing to note is if you use this stuff, it does make the paint a little more viscous - meaning, loading up the brush can sometimes lead to paint dripping everywhere. But it's a small price to pay for nice flat finish.

Comments

  1. I'd love a smoother finish! Thanks for the tip :).

    ReplyDelete
  2. that stuff is going on top of my Christmas list, ASAP

    ReplyDelete
  3. That sounds like a really good additive. We always have added Penthol? to our oil based paint for the same reason. But I have a feeling we synergistically upped our chances for cancer with it!

    But latex and this stuff sound better. Thanks for the tip.

    Glad you are busy at the job and have a really good Thanksgiving! I know it is your favorite holiday because it revolves around your favorite meat!

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