Painting your home can be an easy, enjoyable experience if you have a few helpful tips to get you started. Consider the following suggestions to color your world as you choose from traditional or southern home plans.

• Part of the painting job is to keep the can from getting overly messy. A good tip is to slide a rubber band over the open can so it stretches top to bottom across the open can. When you pull the brush out of the paint, you can wipe the bottom against the rubber band to get rid of extra drips. This is particularly effective on smaller cans that don’t have handles because the rubber band keeps the can neater and makes the lid easier to put on when the job is done.

• Before you even dip your brush into the paint, dip it in water (for water based paints) or paint thinner (for oil based paints) and spin out the exess. This will wet the bristles in the metal base (ferrule) of the brush and keeps paint from building up in that spot to extend the life of the brush and make cleaning up easier.

• Consider the placement of fans and light fixtures while you draw up your southern living home plans because they can be a nuisance when you are painting a ceiling. Try to paint before the fixtures are placed. Otherwise, a simple solution to keep light fixtures from getting paint splattered without having to take down the fixture is to slip a large plastic bag over the light and seal it closed with a twist tie. You can do the same thing to seal out dirt and dust during future renovation and demolition projects. Be sure you keep the light turned off while it is sealed so the hot bulbs won’t melt or ignite the plastic bag covering.

• When you paint your interior walls, save backbreaking labor by mounting your roller on an extension pole. This eliminates the need for you to bend over to load the roller and you won’t have to stand on a ladder so much. Also, standing away from the wall while you paint is an easy way to spot areas you may have missed.

• Note that some paint manufacturers feature bathroom and kitchen collections that are specially formulated to use in steamy rooms because they inhibit mildew growth, resist moisture and have a wipe-clean finish. These types of paints are ideal to include when reviewing the material list for your southern home floor plan.

• Always purchase more paint than you think you will need. Extra paint can be used for touch-ups and it is safer to have too much than to have to run out and try to match what was already purchased.

• Select a family-friendly paint type such as a semi gloss or stain finish that wipes clean easily. A flat finish is not as family-friendly because it does not wipe clean as easily. For door frames that are touched often by little fingers, select a high gloss paint.

• When painting your walls, use the “W” technique. Begin in a corner of the wall and roll on a 3′ by 3′ W pattern and fill it in without lifting the roller. Paint one wall at a time and paint all trim last.

• After you are finished painting for the day and you know you will be painting again tomorrow, scrape off excess paint and put your brush in a resealable plastic bag, press out the air and seal. This will keep the brush from drying out, even if you don’t return to work for a day or two. This trick works well for rollers too and the bag can be sealed with a twist tie around the handle. When you are done with your painting project, give your brushes a very thorough cleaning so they will last for a long time.

• When you paint over mildew, it doesn’t mean you got rid of it. Those sturdy spores are able to grow right through paint file. Shady outdoor spots are susceptible to this fungal pest, which roots itself into a porous surface with the right temperature and level of moisture. To kill the mildew, mix one part household bleach to 3 parts of water and then rinse the area completely.

• A useful and inexpensive painting tool you should not forget is masking tape. It’s cheap so buy the good stuff for painting. Standard masking tape is very sticky and leaves behind a residue that may interfere with a painted finish and it’s also thicker than painter’s masking tape which makes it more likely to cause drips.

• When you store your paint, you can keep a skin from forming by cutting a circle of aluminum foil or wax paper and putting on the surface of the paint inside the can to protect it and keep it fresh.

• To get extra life from an outdoor paint job, coat the bare wood with water repellent preservative prior to priming or painting it. Use a clearly labeled repellent that you can paint over because some of them have substances that keep the paint from bonding properly.

Remember to consider all of these helpful tips as you choose your southern home plan.