Best DIY Painting Projects You Need to Try

The Ultimate DIY Painting Guide: Our favorite painting projects of all time 

Welcome back to our blog friends! If you are new here, we are Jodie & Julie, The Design Twins. We are passionate about all things home decor, budget decor and DIY projects. If these topics interest you, you are in the right place. As you many of you probably know, Jodie & I love to paint, specifically different parts of our homes. It’s such an easy and relatively inexpensive way to transform the look of a space or piece of furniture. So, we decided to create a roundup of our absolute favorite DIY painting projects. 

Painting is one of the most powerful and easy DIY projects you can take on. It’s empowering, relatively inexpensive, and transforming. Once you start painting, it’s almost hard to stop. Jodie and I have both been caught up in a love of painting. Whether we are transforming furniture or our rooms we are slightly addicted to the power of paint. We want to share all our experience and combined knowledge of painting so you too can fall in love with the power of paint.

How to Paint Cabinets: Pro Painting Tips

If you are thinking about painting your kitchen cabinets, we have the ideal post for you. I painted my entire kitchen last year, and it was one of the best home project choices I’ve ever made. The paint has completely transformed my kitchen. My kitchen is updated, and my cabinets are powerfully preserved for years of enjoyment for a fraction of the cost it would have been to replace them. Painting my cabinets has added value to my home and prolonged the life of my wood cabinets.

I hired professional painters to work their painting skills across the entire first floor of my house, and this post gives you some key tips from the expert painters themselves. I share their step-by-step process and finish with an interview answering top painting questions from the professionals.

Some Key Takeaways from This DIY Painting Post: 

• What are the best cabinet painting products & tools recommended by professionals?
• How much paint you will need for your project?
• Do you need to empty your cabinets?
• Is high quality paint worth the investment?
• How many coats of paint and primer are needed?
• How much time should you wait between coats?
• And more.

DIY Painting: How to Fall in Love with Chalk Painting

Chalk Painting is one of our all-time favorite ways to makeover a piece of furniture. It’s relatively simple and creates that beautiful vintage, distressed farmhouse look we love. This post will teach you the ins and outs of chalk painting and how to use it to transform and repurpose your decor. 

What you will learn from this post:

• Which brush is best for chalk-painting?
• What’s the difference between milk paint and chalk paint?
• Is chalk paint a good choice for kitchen cabinets?
• When should you seal your furniture?
• Should you thin your chalk paint?
• How much water should you add to chalk paint?
• And more.

Learn These Expert Tips to Paint Like a Professional

In this next post, you’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at exterior home painting. If you’re interested in painting the outside of your home, this is a must-read. Whether you are new to painting, or are just looking to expand your knowledge, this post will be so beneficial to you.

Here’s what you can expect to learn from this post:

• What paint to choose to make your paint job last
• How to choose paint like a professional
• My paint colors
• Step-by-step painting process 
• Tips for scraping, caulking, sanding & priming
• Recommended supplies 

DIY Painting Project: How to Get the Look of Real Tile with Stencil

This next post is all about how Jodie transformed her fireplace with stencil.

Yes, that’s right. Stencil!

We share how you can achieve the look of real tile with this simple DIY weekend project.

Here’s what you will take away from this blog post:

• Details of Jodie’s fireplace makeover
• How to prep, seal, and style your project
• Step-by-step stencil tips & tricks
• Why stenciling is a great solution
• Supply list for a stencil project

Best DIY Painting Advice: How to Paint a Front Door

This is the holy grail of painting projects: Jodie’s front door.

Her door changes color frequently, so we’ve broken down the paint colors she used for each project and her best tips & tricks to make sure your front door paint project goes smoothly.

Here’s what you will learn from this post:

• How to create a front porch masterpiece
• How to choose your paint color & type
• Why you should get help from paint companies
• Tools & prep required to paint your front door
• Step-by-step instructions for your front door paint project
• How much paint you will need 
• Best front door paint finish
• Best time to paint your front door
• How long you should wait between coats

DIY Painting Adventures

This post is designed to give you all a little painting inspiration when you are in a decorating slump. This post is for you if you are lacking creativity when it comes to home decor and DIY projects.

Jodie is always itching to start a new project, so she’s shares how she becomes inspired.

Jodie reveals:

• Her late-night painting inspiration
• How to choose your paint colors
• The best online painting tools

DIY Painting: The Best Chalk Painting Tutorial for Beginners

If you’re thinking about chalk painting for the first time, this is where you should begin.

We’ve put together a detailed tutorial with our best tips & tricks for all you beginner chalk painters.

Here’s what you’ll learn: 

• What tools you will need
• What to do before you begin
• Prep work required to chalk paint
• All about distressing & smoothing
• Detailed chalk painting tutorial 

DIY Painting: How to Chalk Paint with Confidence

Now that you’ve got the basics of chalk painting down, here’s a post to turn you into a chalk-painting queen. This post will take you from hesitant to confident. You’ll be able to conquer all your chalk painting projects.

 

Here’s what you can expect to take away:

• Do’s & don’ts of chalk painting
• Tools you need
• How to prep your furniture
• How to prevent bleed through
• Best chalk paint recommendations
• Distressing, smoothing & waxing

Want more even more helpful tips to paint like a pro? Read this article from the DIY Network.

DIY Painting Projects: Don’t Be Afraid to Enlist Help

We hope you found this DIY painting roundup helpful. Sometimes, it’s nice to have everything organized in one place like this. We hope you will reference back to this post whenever you are in need of some painting advice and are ready to conquer those painting projects on your to-do list.

Moral of the story: you certainly don’t have to go at it alone. We’re here to help you along the way.

Now it’s time to get busy with your projects. Speaking of getting help, don’t forget to enlist your helpers. Ask your hubby, your bestie, your sister or even your kiddos to partner with you. Also, if you don’t have the time or you have a bigger project on your hands, there is the option of hiring a professional.

Please feel free to leave a comment if this post was helpful to you or if you have any questions. 

Happy Painting!