Ep. 5: Safety First, Desert Island Tools, and How to Pick a Paint Color
Welcome back to the How To Handyman podcast! This week, we covered the full spectrum of emotions—from laughing about Emily’s dog, Lemon (who might actually be a human in a fur suit), to a very serious discussion about safety, and finally, settling the debate on which painting tools we would take to a desert island.
This episode is dedicated to Barb Streed (Arly’s mom), our number one cheerleader and the definition of women supporting women.
A Serious Note: Safety & Boundaries
Before we get into the fun DIY stuff, we need to talk about something important. Whether it is a romantic relationship, a friendship, or even a client interaction, your safety comes first.
We shared a story this week about a potential client who became threatening when he didn't get an estimate fast enough. It was a stark reminder that as women, we often try to "soften" rejection to keep the peace. But sometimes, the only safe choice is to cut the relationship off immediately.
If you or someone you know is in an unsafe relationship, there is help available.
National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-7233
Text: "BEGIN" to 88788
The Great Sheen Debacle
We talked about sheen in a previous episode, but we saw a real-life example of why it matters this week. A building nearby painted over patches on a matte wall with shiny paint. The result? It looks like a leopard print mess in the sunlight.
Rule of Thumb: You cannot touch up matte paint with satin paint. It will "flash" (reflect light differently) and ruin the wall.
How to Pick a Paint Color (Without Crying)
Arly, Emily, and Samantha all agree: Do whatever makes you happy. But if you are stuck, here is how to narrow it down:
Emily’s "No Mid-Tones" Rule: The human eye loves contrast. Emily suggests picking either a very light tone or a very dark tone. Mid-tones can sometimes feel muddy or indecisive.
Samantha’s Tournament Method: If you have 20 green swatches, don't look at them all at once. Pick up two. Decide which one you like better. Throw the loser away. Pick up the next one and battle it against the winner. Repeat until one stands.
The Lighting Test: Do not trust the hardware store lighting. Bring the chip home and look at it in the morning, noon, and night. Your lightbulbs (warm vs. cool) will drastically change the color.
Our "Desert Island" Painting Tools
If we were stranded on an island and had to paint a room (priorities, right?), here is what we are packing:
Samantha: A Wooster Silver Tip brush (for control), a Purdy White Dove roller cover, and a Purdy roller arm.
Emily: Bonding Primer (because island walls are probably sandy), a 1.5-inch Purdy brush (for precision), and a microfiber cloth for mistakes.
Arly: A Zibra wedge brush (holds a lot of paint), a microfiber cloth, and the 3-step ladder with the paint tray attachment.
3 Pro-Tips for a Perfect Finish
1. The "Feather In" Technique When cutting in (painting the edges), don't jam your brush right into the corner immediately.
Dip your brush halfway.
Tap the sides (don't wipe it dry!).
Start your line about 1 inch away from the trim to unload the heavy paint.
Then push the paint into the edge. This prevents that thick bead of paint from dripping on your trim.
2. The Carpet Hack Painting baseboards when you have carpet is a nightmare. Do not use tape—it doesn't stick well to carpet fuzz.
The Fix: Use a wide (10-12 inch) drywall knife or a rigid piece of cardstock. Push the knife down between the baseboard and the carpet to create a shield, paint the trim, and wipe the knife clean before moving to the next section.
3. The Caulk Line Secret If you are trying to cut a straight line between your trim and a bumpy wall, it’s impossible.
The Fix: Run a thin bead of paintable caulk (we like Alex Flex or Alex Crown) along the top of the baseboard. Smooth it out with your finger. Once it cures, you have a perfectly smooth runway to glide your brush along for a laser-straight line.
Want to show off your paint job (or your humanoid dog)? Tag us on social media!
Instagram/TikTok: @HowToHandyman
Business: @MyHandyman
Remember: You can do hard things. (But please, don't run into traffic like Lemon the dog.) See you next time!
Transcript
00:00:00 Speaker: Hi, folks. Hello. Hi. Welcome back. Welcome to How to Handyman, the podcast, where we apparently have paint brushes on deserted islands. And we have opinions about which ones they are. Yes. In this episode we talk about Emily's humanoid dog, about getting out of relationships where you aren't safe, and we talk about some of our favorite painting tips. I'm Samantha, I'm Emily, and I'm Charlie, and this is How to Handyman. This episode is dedicated to my lovely and wonderful mother, Barbara Streed. She is the definition of women supporting women and being a supporter of your friends and your family. And she's our number one cheerleader. So love you, mom, and thanks for making me awesome. Okay, I have a little chatting topic for us this morning if we were ready to get into it. It's a serious one though. It's kind of a bummer. Okay, so I've been listening to this podcast called murder with My Husband. Shout out to Peyton and Garrett if you guys are watching, which you totally should. Um, and I love them because they're big advocates for, like, representing the victim and talking about all that stuff and whatever. And the last couple of episodes I've been watching or listening to are about, um, like domestic violence and stalking, which is terrifying. Um, so just shout out to anybody who's going through something like that. Um, talk to somebody, reach out. And I have the number. Call one eight hundred seven nine nine seven two three three or text begin to eight eight seven eight eight. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah. They also have a website that when you go on it there's a button at the top that like it'll take you back to Google. So like if someone's over your shoulder oh you can get out of it quickly. Quickly. Yeah, but, um, violence against people, um, from their spouse or their friend or their parent or whatever, especially towards women, is very common. And if you can get help, then that's good. Yeah. I think all of us either have been or know someone that we love who has been in a relationship, whether friendship or romantic relationship where it wasn't safe. Yeah. It reminds me of the situation that we dealt with this week. So for our listeners, one of the things we're really passionate about is for you to be able to have choices, like what you choose to do with your career, where you choose to spend your time, who you choose to allow in your home, um, and which repairs you tackle yourself, um, or decide to hire out, but particularly like who is allowed in your space and in your home. And we had a situation which doesn't happen to us very often as contractors, but we had one this week that just really reminded me of like, what would it be like if it was the opposite? And this is the person that's coming into my home to provide services. We had a potential customer of ours, a new lead that called, and we Emily went on an estimate appointment, and then it usually takes us a few days to turn around those estimate appointments and tell people in the estimate appointment when they'll receive. And this particular gentleman wasn't happy with the amount of time it was taking. So he called at like six o'clock at night, seven o'clock at night, and left a very long, threatening voicemail to us, calling us names and saying he was going to tell everybody he knew about us and bad things about us, and that we were BS, but he did not use the acronym. Yes. Yeah. So someone like that, I mean, it's easy enough as a business I can call and just which I did and tell him I'm not comfortable sending crew members into your home, but sometimes you don't know. Just like at the estimate appointment, we didn't know that that was going to be the behavior we would see. And sometimes when you have contractors come into your home, you don't know that. That's the behavior you're going to see until they're there. And so we like to think sometimes as women that like, if we're polite enough or if we're kind or if we like, make it easy for people, like soften it for people that that will improve the situation. But there are just situations where you need to just cut off the relationship immediately. That's the only safe choice. You think it's like, I do this and we'll have a good relationship, or I do this and we'll have a bad relationship. And what you don't realize is the choices are bad relationship or no relationship. Yeah. And also like if you're being like a normal human person and just like a normal human being, it's your relationship isn't dependent really on your behavior. If the relationship is bad and you're acting like a normal person, uh, with manners and, I don't know, self-awareness, then odds are it's the other person who's who's, you know, making the the relationship or the acquaintance, uh, problematic. And it's like, if you're ever uncomfortable like, this is just a reminder, like, tell somebody and get out of the situation if you can, or, you know, like just ask them to leave or whatever. Um, especially one of the episodes I was listening to this week on my podcast was this young girl who broke up with her boyfriend, and then he started stalking her, and she kept telling the police, like, I'm scared. And he's like, keeps bugging me. And I broke up with him, whatever. And he ended up killing her and she kept, like, asking for help and stuff, and the police wouldn't. I mean, it was like the campus security or whatever weren't like, weren't helping her. But like, if you if you're in a bad situation, like, do whatever you can to get out of it and like, don't let anybody tell you that. Like, what you're going through is not problematic because it probably is problematic. And that's one reason why it's really helpful to talk to a therapist, because a lot of times, if you've grown up with certain kinds of behavior, they're more normal for you. And it isn't until you tell somebody else who's like, outside of that sphere what's happening, and they can go, that's not normal. You sometimes don't even realize, like, how not normal the behavior is until you speak with someone who's outside of, like, the environment that created that situation. Yeah. One thing I've learned as I've gotten older, and I'm happy to have learned this at the very young age of like twenty five and now I'm twenty six, is I cut off someone in my life who had been just honestly like belittling me for like seven years, and the freedom you feel when you make that decision for yourself. And I'm someone who really is a people pleaser and wants to be kind and kindness. Being nice to someone isn't the same as being kind to someone. Like niceness is please and thank yous and like someone meets you and they're like, oh, they're nice. But kindness towards others is a deeper thing. It's like, and I decided I had to start being kind to myself. And I think that is a moment of levity in dark times. Is choosing yourself and choosing to be kind for yourself. And one way you can choose yourself is changing your career at like forty five years old. And instead of doing biology, starting to pursue what you really love to do. And for me, I didn't know what I wanted to do. But I went on this journey with you because I knew it would be fun. So yeah, yeah, this is your reminder that you are loved and you're loved by us. You're loved by people around you, I'm sure. And if you need help, please don't be afraid to ask for it in your community, in online or by the police or whatever. So ask and keep asking. Yes. Don't give up. Mhm. Yes. So do we want a topic of levity? Yes. Let's talk about something more exciting. Okay. So, uh, my twin shout out Hannah. Love her very much. At the beginning of my dog and her's relationship, her niece lemon, um, they had a lot of beef, but Hannah keeps saying lemon is a human and dog fur, and lemon keeps doing things that says she is a human and dog fur. This week she did two scary things. One is the light in the afternoon. I was in between estimates and it was Jenna in my house. Like it was like golden light throughout. All my stuff in my house has like warm wood trim. So I was like, you know what? I'm taking a video to capture this moment. Lemon looks like she's giving a gosh dang house tour. She's maybe we'll have to post the video on this episode comes out, but she's like in frame the entire time facing the camera, smiling. Oh, and then we were watching Dancing With the Stars, and people can tell me this is a coincidence. I feel like it's not a coincidence she set up this llama toy. We just got her in a dancing pose like it was standing. And then I watched her pick it up in a different position. It was so creepy. Yeah, well, and if you say to your dog, blink twice if you're human, she blinks twice. Yeah, she really does. That's weird. And Hannah's like, your dog is creepy. What's the thing that lemon does that makes you the most crazy? I feel like all of you runs into trainers out there can identify with this. I hate when she runs into. Do you remember when Arlie was running back and forth across the four lane highway to try to keep lemon from getting hit by a car? So lemons done this twice. Our workshop door has two doors have been left open twice and twice. Yes. And, uh, my dog, sweet baby Angel, is literally fearless. And she is scared of RC cars, but not a full moving vehicles going at forty five miles an hour. And I was getting bred to lure her back. So Arlie was chasing her through traffic. And mind you, um, I do not run, I don't exercise, I don't walk unless I am forced into it. I'm not an exercising person. And it was. I remember it being cold out. it was. And I was like, running. That's when I knew we were true friends. And I was like. And I was like, lemon. And like, all these cars, they were stopping, thank God. But it was like the speed limit, I think was it's forty five, like forty five. Yeah. And I was running back and forth and back and forth and I would go like down the ditch, across the road, over the grass median and then across the other road and then down in the ditch and then back like I'm talking. We did this five or six times going back and forth. And Arlene's just like, don't hit her, don't hit her. She's like a traffic cop, like a moving traffic cop could run for ever. I know. And she was like, playing. And I was like, I want to tell my favorite worst story about lemon. So, lemon, you can. If you can't listen to Lemon's a runner, so she will run away at the slightest provocation. I saw this, I saw this. Yeah, I saw this. And we didn't even know she saw it because she lives catty corner from me. So I love thunderstorms and we have a big front porch, a big covered front porch. So. Whenever there's a thunderstorm, like, if it's not too cold, I want to be outside watching it. So Emily and Lemon were over. You were looking out the door? Well, I was looking out the door, and I'm like, I want to go see. Like, sometimes it has that, like, smell, that great thunderstorm smell. I open the door like two inches and all of a sudden I just like right past me. Lemon she did, she did, she did. She did a lightning ninja. And she went outside and like lightning is literally not far away pouring. There's lightning. So I'm out after her. I obviously I'm in sock feet and my grandma, I just took off right away. So I'm running after her. I'm running through the grass, my feet are soaking wet, and then she's out in the road. She's back in the grass. She's across the other road. She's by that house, she's back. I'm chasing her. And it's lightning all around. It By the way, I'm not a delinquent dog owner cracking crazy sound. And finally, she would not come. I'm yelling her name, like, increasingly unkindly. Well, I was in my apartment and I hear limit. Or stop or something like that. And I was like, hmm, that sounds quite familiar. So I go outside and Samantha's, like, trying to wrangle. I think I finally acted dead. No, that was me. I went, I laid down on the ground and I went, oh, no. And lemon came running over, and I grabbed her, and I was like, I mean, that does show lemons character. She's like, oh, no, no. I was like, so she was. I was furious at her. We'll wrap up talking about my sweet, crazy, insane girly pop, but, uh, I don't have any human children. She and my cat are my children, and you're her grandma. But, mama, the one thing about lemon is that she teaches us to have the biggest friggin heart in the whole universe, and to not listen to anybody's rules. Yeah, yeah. She's like straight up pearl girl in her. Oh, yeah. Like I don't listen to anybody, ness. Have some lemon energy today. Go completely psychotic and run into traffic. Yeah. I said she's the most energetic. Golden. The traffic part. Don't do that. Yeah, don't do the legal disclaimer like no metaphor. Running into traffic, breaking stereotypes and creating. I don't know what I'm trying to say. Well, she does break stereotypes because she, uh, has secret cabal of cat friends in the backyard, and she does submit to groundhogs and then secretly licks them when they try to run away. So it's adorable. She's the sweetest, craziest girl known to man. And be a little more like lemon. Live loudly and proudly, a little less likely and insanely. Yeah, don't run into traffic. Self Self-preservation. Yeah. There we go. Dogs only live so long. And that dog is taking years off my life to make sure. I think she's just borrowing some of Patch's nine lives. Patches is a seventeen, though. So she living? That's my cat. But all right. What are we doing today? Today is our last painting episode. I can't just talk about my dog for an hour. We could. We literally could. I had another story in my head, but I'm, like, using discipline. If you want to hear more lemon stories, let us know. We'll maybe post a video. We'll have like a minisode called lemon on the side. Yes, a side of lemon. A side of lemon. Yes. Um, we're talking about painting today. Our final episode about painting. So we talked about, uh, sheen and types of paint, and we've talked about primers and rollers. Rollers and paint brushes, prepping. We talked about so much stuff. So hopefully you feel ready to begin your painting journey. Today we're going to share some tips and tricks and probably some, uh, color information. And then we're going to tell you about our favorite things. Ooh, I do have a story. Back to Sheen really quick. Okay. Okay. Because we already talked about it. The listeners will understand. Oh, for those that didn't listen to the other one, Sheen, is the amount of shininess in your paint. That's the official description. That's a scientific term? Yes. So there's been this building by my house that it's like a commercial building and it's had it's has a mural all up the side of it, or it has like a small mural, but the whole thing's colorful, like one solid color. And it's been having missing patches of paint forever. They finally patched. They finally painted the patches. It's the wrong sheen. And you can see every single patch. The building is matte and every single patch the shiny shiny. I feel like that would be so obvious because that's like it's navy to full sunlight. Like, I mean, it's so distracting. And probably a normal human driving past. It would be like, oh, they fixed it. And my diseased brain from this career is like, they didn't fix it. They made it worse. Like, it looked like kind of worn before. Like you could see the brick through it. And now it's like the spots are shiny. Okay. Yeah. Sheen. It's important. It is. It is very important for what is the biggest functional reason of sheen. It's washability durability. Durability. Good job. You guys are doing so good. It forms a coating over the top. It's a good we definitely have to have more painting episodes like later because I love painting so much and there's so many tips that are so useful, but you will fall asleep if you deliver them all at the same time. That's true. At the end of this episode, if you're like, oh, I wish they'd answered this question I have, or I wish they talked about this. You can go to our Facebook page, How to Handyman or Facebook group and ask questions in there. Or you can comment on this episode or you can comment on any of our socials. You can upload a picture of like, what am I supposed to do about this? Yeah. And then we can give you an answer. Oh, and we have an email now at my handyman. Com. Yeah. And you can email. You can say, hey, will you talk about this? Or you can say, I didn't understand that word that Arlie used last time. Or here's my crazy contractor story if you want to share it. So because. You're using all the big words. Is Samantha a big word? Well, she said I didn't understand the word that or said. She said It's so weird. So I said, shaman, do you guys know the meme? That's like, uh, Elmo's listing ingredients. And he's like tomato, mozzarella, basil, balsamic vinegar. That's a big word for Elmo, but plays in my head every time someone says, definitely haven't seen that. Uh, I'm not on the internet. What are you teaching us today or what are we, co-teaching? So we'll get the squirrels in our brain. Yes. Today we are going to do. Do you want to do the learning part first or the game part first? I mean, I like let's get the learning out of the way so we can end on a high note. Okay, well, most of our learning is probably going to come from you. Emily, today we're talking about how to pick a color. So we talked about how to pick a paint and how to pick a sheen. Let's talk a little bit about how to pick a color. I'm an advocate for doing whatever the f you want because who cares? But I'm not gonna lie. Sometimes when people choose a color, I'm like, So this is my speech to customers. It's the same speech when they're like, what color should I paint it? Like? I'm not going to give advice because I am not any good with colors. I would turn that over to Emily. But what I want to tell them is, this is your house. You want to pick whatever color it is that every time you walk by it, you feel delight looking at it. Yeah. And Ahly's right. There have been some colors that we do not feel delight putting on the wall. And then as you're putting it on the wall, you're like, and then they say, I love it. And we're like, that's awesome. Yeah. That's what you if you know what you want, then go for it. But if you're having trouble figuring out what you want, if you need some guidance, uh, this is where, like, like Emily or somebody like Emily would be really good. Sometimes I feel like a burst of, like, something similar to that energy where I can, like, help a customer. And I'm like, how do you want this room to, like, feel? And if somebody says, like, I want this room to feel like, calm or like. Like a bathroom. And they were like, I really want it to feel like clean and simple. Like I can kind of get a vibe for that and figure out, like a color family, but specific things and like creating more complex vibes, like, I just don't really know. Well, Emily, it's like what we said about food in the last episode, how Emily you can give her, like the heel of a shoe and like a root vegetable and some spinach and then she'll make a meal. But it's the same way. Emily will be like, I will just take this little dash of this and this little bit of this. And then she goes, boom! And it's this like room that's amazing and comfortable. Cozy. Oh, blushing. It's so sweet. Maybe tell us about. Yeah maybe what are like your two or three things that like somebody should think about if they're trying to figure out like where to start. Um, well, I will firstly say I agree with do whatever you want. So if you're either paint is the easiest thing to change about a home and I mean resale value is important. If you're thinking about selling in the next like year, I'd say if it's more than a year, do whatever you want. Um, which is what I follow in my house, which is funny for what I'm about to tell you, my house's walls are white, and most of the rooms. There's a reason for that. There's a reason. Told us. Um, so you kind of have to. I like to think it's easy when you're thinking about a room to think about your ideal of the room. So if I had all the money in the world, I. You would be like, I'm gonna get great furniture and it's going to have stripes on it. And then my walls are gonna be gray. Yeah. And so seriously, I love polka dots. Stripes. Love it. Which are the two things you're not supposed to wear on furniture? Oh, I was like, that is very bold for you. Yeah, I'm very surprised, but, um, but say. Which is funny because Samantha actually does have a brown leather couch. Say, but your furniture. You can't afford all new furniture right now, but you want it to. Like I'd say, I'd say gray kind of gives, like a clean, modern feel. Very classic. Um, so you want that feeling, but you have, like, these brown furnitures. I wouldn't go for gray. I wouldn't go for something that's completely out of the style realm that you're doing. I would kind of. I work a lot on feelings. That's how I feel about colors. Like Charlie had said, she has a feeling. So I like to think of a color as complementing what you already have. My walls in my house are white because I'm an artist by trade, so I have paintings hung on the wall that are quite colorful. All of my artwork is colorful, I say my artwork, my husband does contribute, I promise. And then, uh, for those audio, Samantha just did a little simple. Yeah. Um, he actually has a lot of really cool vintage stuff that we've hung in our home, but our couches, pretty bright orange. So like we got we got color going on in our downstairs has brown trim. In the previous owners put gray with espresso colored trim. It was a sin against humanity. But you have kind of like a maximalist like boho vibe type of situation. Yeah. And um, well, tell them what you told me about color belongs in one place or the other. I think you're if you are someone who likes plainer furnishings and you don't have a bright orange couch, absolutely go for color on the wall if you want, like a big statement in your room. Um, but if you're like me and you have a lot of color and you like to redecorate a lot or add stuff or want it to flow, I picked white for my walls. But it's a white that has the base, that is the brown of my trim. And so it all pulls together. Yep. Um, so it's a warmer white. Yeah. It's a it's called Swiss coffee. like your sweater. Yeah. Yeah. For those of you not here. Not here as in not looking at me. Not looking at us. Uh, my sweater is the Taylor Swift cardigan from the folklore album, which I told Charlie all about before we started filming the. And she was like, I said, like, she's a swiftie. Yeah. She is. She said swiftie. Oh. Uh, what what makes her Taylor Swift cardigan? And I was like, well, in her album folklore or in her in folklore, she has a song called cardigan and Charlie goes, what's folklore? And I was like, oh, you're so behind on the Swiftie stuff. But anyways, yeah, so I just like playing into what's already there. It just feels more put together that way. Like in in an ideal world, you could put whatever color you want in the wall and it might match your stuff, but that's just not necessarily the case. So if you have cool and warm tones, you want to pick something that's in the taupe family to bring it all together, which is what is in Charlie's apartment. Yeah, my favorite taupey creamy light color is called Gossamer Veil by Sherwin Williams, and I maybe post my top ten favorite. You should. You should do a palette. Yeah, yeah. So most of them are from Sherwin Williams. Do one because I have a couple that I really like. Mine are grey white grey white, grey white, clary sage, clary sage I like clary sage. The one from the baby's room that I'm doing right now. Oh yeah. Ashes of roses and. Oh, that's. I don't like pink. And I do not like pink on walls, but I do, really. Maybe it's just because it's about to be my niece's bedroom and like, I don't know, but it makes sense for a little girl. Yeah it does. And it's making me very happy. So anyway, keep going. But here's my tips. If you were to have a designer design your home, do you do not have to follow these? Do not yell at us that we said this. Uh, do not pick anything in the mid tone. So that means if you're looking at a paint swatch, you either pick at the dark tone or the light tone. Human's eyes don't love that mid-tone region, which is funny because I just said Clary Sage, which is a Sherwin-Williams color. But you and I loves green, so if you put green anywhere human like our brains are attracted to the color green. See, I love green and blue as paint colors in people's houses. I feel like it can be like kind of a bold color if you go like darker or a little bit more into like that teal family. But you can also go like really neutral with it, like it being like a natural blue or like a natural looking green. But I have suggested blue and green to several different people in the last couple of months, and all of them are like, no. Yeah. And I'm like, what are you talking about? And they want, you know, like something totally different. But I'm like, look at this color and tummy Isn't it amazing? Well, my office at home is green. Yeah, walls. And then my husband's office ceiling is green, which is cute. And I maybe helped him make that decision. I mean, if you live with a designer, the designer do their thing. But, yeah. So I tend to stay away from that mid-tone. And then this is the hottest take I'll give today. I dislike accent walls. Accent walls. Break up your vision and it pulls you to that one space. And it makes the rest of the room kind of fall away, which is not something you want. Do you only feel that way about accent walls with paint? How do you feel about it when it's like a board and batten or like a a woodwork? I like when people do wallpaper on one wall. I think that's I don't love that, but I don't think it looks bad necessarily, especially because wallpaper is really expensive. So if you're gonna do an accent wall wallpaper, I just don't love when there's two solid colors right next to each other. First of all, okay, one quick aside, says the girl who had her dad paint two of her walls, neon purple opposite each other, and then the other two opposite walls, neon green. Uh, it was teal. I would like to say. Oh, yeah. It was like, um. Do you notice the trend in our studio? Mike Wazowski blue green. It's just the grown up version of the color palette I loved in middle school. This number one, this was the color of my bedroom. We're pointing at our plum colored curtains. Yeah, yeah. Well, actually, my mom's trying to paint over the. It's like a lilac color anymore. Yeah, but I do feel I got you. I'm not gonna lie. She's like, I don't think that it should be purple anymore. She's trying to redecorate all the rooms. Uh, that, like, each room is, is something during whenever. But they can be, like, switched over to, like, the kids room when we come home for, like, Thanksgiving and Christmas and stuff like that, because we all live kind of far away and my mom likes to have us all there, like the night before Christmas, so that we can all spend the night and hang out and whatever. Um, and she was like, I think we're gonna change the color of the purple room. And I was like, Judas! But I told her I'd help her. So I'll help you, mom. That's sweet. You'll help her with her betrayal? Yeah. Um, but, yeah, I feel differently. It depends on the accent wall. I just don't love, like I'm just one. I think if you're going to go for a bold color, you might as well go for a bold color. It looks really designer when you do a whole room in the color. You know what I really do like? We did this one entryway in a very dark color, but it had this giant window in it and it had like these. Shout out to Matty F designs. Yes, yes. And, um, smush, who was the cat at the house and what was the dog's name? Bubba. Bobobo bo Bo bobo. Bobo. He was like this little French bulldog. And he would try to steal our tools, but he was just the best. Um. But we did. It was this giant entryway with, like, this big old staircase. And we painted the whole room from, like, white to this, like Benjamin Moore. Normandy. Yeah. Normandy. And I was like, this is really dark, stormy, teal blue. Yeah. But it was so nice and it's deep. And I think because the room was so big and there was that big old window. Yeah. At the top of like the entryway that it, like kept it light. But we did like trim carpentry on it. And then we did the trim I think glossy. And then the walls were satin or something. And that was really nice. That kind of changed my opinion about, uh, darker paint, because I never really liked darker colors in a room because I, I've always been, like more play it safe kind of when it comes to color and stuff. Um, but I in the last like couple months, I've been like, oh, we really should like, do, like more exciting colors, which is probably inspired by you, like being, uh, thinking more like outside of, like, the traditional box. Um, but I do think that you should put a neutral color, neutral ish color in, like, areas where you want to decorate for like, the holidays and stuff, because then you can go from, like, Christmasy to, like, I don't know, Saint Patrick's to, you know, Valentine's Day to spring and then Halloween because I used to love decorating. And when my room was bright blue, when I moved into my sister's room, it looked terrible all the time. And then my my dad painted it white for me. And then everything else looked great on it. So if you're like, super into decorating and you always like to change up your vibe. Um, probably go with something that like, is a neutral like palette for the rest of your decorations. I'd say I have a good tip. So Arlie and Emily are both artists and I am not. Um, I will I will know that I like something when I see it, but I won't have any idea why I like it. And sometimes for me, I'll know I want like a green. But it can be hard to settle on a color. And we see our customers have this problem too. So for those of you that are like me that aren't artists, I discovered a trick that helps me pick a color and not have remorse over it later. So I will go pick like every green like in the paint samples that I like. I'll look at, I like that, I like that, I like that, and then like, which one are you going to pick? I will just pick up two, set them next to each other and be like, I like this one better. And then that one gets set aside and then I pick up the next one and put it next to that. Oh, I actually like this third one better. And then the second one you just go through to the end vision testing kind of. Yeah, yeah. Number one, number two, number one. Number two. Yeah. If you keep putting them next to each other, sometimes you like, You don't know that the color isn't quite what you want until you put it next to one. That is what you want. And you're like, no, that's the one. So it's a great, simple trick for those of you that may not like be able to pick out the exact right color the first time. Yeah. So we won't we're not going to keep talking about color forever. But I will say here are my three takeaways about color. I think we should take a quick pee break okay. And then we'll come back and do three takeaways. So number one is to take into account what you already have, because it's not realistic to think I'm going to paint the wall this color. And then I'm going to get a new couch because painting is a lot less cheaper than a new couch. So take into account what you have to take into account what your lighting is. So if it's a bathroom that doesn't have a window, you're not going to want to pick a color that you like in the natural light, but you do not like one, so I think you should. It's easy to pick a paint chip in the store and just have them be like, oh, we're gonna make it right now. My best tip is to bring it home and keep looking at it as the light changes throughout the day. If you're in natural lighting or in the light in which you're in, you also need to take into account what hue your light bulbs are, because some light bulbs are white light. Changing your light fixtures. Some people think I'm going to paint and then I'll change my light fixtures, which sometimes it works out that way. If it's like on your ceiling or something, sometimes it makes sense. But I am of the strong belief that you should change your lights first so you can see some lights cast different shadows, some light fixture covers are a different hue and that can really change the color of your paint. So if you have a blue paint and you have a super yellow light, it's going to pull more green. So you have to kind of go back to elementary school, think about mixing colors together. And that's how you want to like think about your lights. But the normal person doesn't even have to know what you know. They just have to bring it home and look at it in a different light. Yep. And then tip number three pick what your heart wants. If your favorite color is pink, which is my favorite color pick that I painted my home office pink. Initially I did really like it for about a year. I got kind of sick of it, but humans aren't meant to look at like a pinky red that long. But like pick what you want. Paint is easy to change. And I have a sneaky fourth tip. Psychologists say it takes two weeks to get used to a new color, so you might paint a color and be like, ooh, I do not like that. Give it two weeks. If you still don't like it after two weeks, you don't need our permission. But you have our permission to repaint. Yeah. So just like left. Let it sit, let it settle. Put your stuff back on the wall, see how you feel about it. But if you make a wrong decision, especially if you painted yourself, it's pretty cheap to update it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Is it game time? It's game time, friends. Okay, so. It's day time. Okay, this is a scenario, friends. We're setting up. Like, is this like a story problem? This is. We're setting the scene. Okay? Set the scene. Set the scene. It's day time. Wait, are we doing, like, a. Sure. I just did, like, a director's board for those watching. Yeah, yeah, with her arms. Alligator arms. Okay, so it's day time. We're going on a trip, we get on a boat and things are great. Fantastic. And then there's a storm. Oh, my gosh, I'm kind of scared. Crackle, crackle Thunder goes boom. Whoosh and lemon runs by on Gilligan's Island. We are stranded on an island. Oh, wow. Okay, this went dark fast. If I were to be stranded on a desert island, you two would be on pretty close to the top of my list, if not the top. Uh, what are the three painting tools you would bring to our desert island? Because we have no food, but we do have walls that we can paint. Are there other natural resources on the island? Yeah, just your stuff's taken care of. But we need to paint a room. We need to paint a room. Okay. And what are the three things on this desert island that you are going to bring? I'm going to bring a Wooster Silvertip paintbrush. Okay. I am going to bring a purdy white dove roller cover. Okay. And my super amazing purdy roller arm. Yeah. I was gonna say, okay, if you're doing the roller cover, put it on my arm. Put it on your fingers. Because I'm thinking of things I couldn't get on an island like a stir sticks. I could get a stick from a tree. So my favorite brush. My favorite roller and my favorite roller arm. Emily. I'm thinking. Take that. I know you might have taken it. Ooh. I'm bringing a bonding primer, because probably whatever you're painting has, like, sand and crap everywhere. But I also just like bonding primer. Okay. Um, I'm bringing a purdy inch and a half brush. Those are my favorite. Okay. It's a unpopular opinion because I'm pretty sure no one else likes them in the shop, but I like the skinny skinny brush. Other people like the skinny ones. I have a time and place them. I do not like them. And then I'm bringing a microfiber because I'm a messy painter. You know what? That's a good pick. That's adorable. So I would bring this is these are my three painting tools. I would bring a well, I said paintbrush. I didn't say a specific one, but I might bring my zebra one just because it holds a lot of paint. And I mean, I don't know what this wall looks like, so maybe I'm gonna have to climb up a ladder. Even if I don't have a. Maybe I'm gonna have to climb up a tree. One of us, we put you on our shoulders, or both of us. One leg on each. Um, and then probably a microfiber. And then I didn't pick a third thing. I think you would bring that three step ladder with the tray attached. Oh, my God, you love that ladder. I love that I wouldn't bring a roller or a roller arm because you know what? I don't like rolling unless you've got a kill time. Somehow we might as well paint the whole. Exactly. We can't paint the whole thing, but I would bring, like a two inch or a two and a half inch brush, because definitely I even in tiny corners or like really precise painting, I still prefer a big brush, I do. I like my crispy little edged Worcester silver tip. Yeah, I like how much control. I like the silver tips. I like the, um, pretty medium stiffness, and I like my zebra, uh, wedge cut. And so it's it's not angled. It's wedged. Yeah. Or like beveled. So it's angled in a different way, but I still really like it. And it's angled on the thick side. Yeah. Like the profile of it or I guess. Is this the profile or is this the profile? This is profile. Yeah. Yeah. For those of you listening, we're dragging our fingers across our face saying which part is the profile. Yeah. Is it straight on or is it on your side and the side looking at the side you see the angle. Yeah. Um, whereas the front on is like the Wooster one where you see the angle. Yeah. That's like when I was in high school and the asymmetrical haircuts were popular. Yes. That's what my crush looks like. Um, the welcome to the jungle. Which is funny because we're probably on an island with a jungle. That's right. But that's why we can make our own paint. Because we have bugs to crush. Favorite podcasts? Too scary. Didn't watch. They say that everything can be broken down into hamburger or hot dog style. So do you think your beveled brush is hamburger or hot dog style? I have, I have an opinion on the angled brush would be. Hamburger and the beveled brush would be hot dog. I think I feel the opposite, but I also feel like it's just a feeling. I don't think this metaphor works for paintbrushes, but it works for everything. It doesn't. It does work for when we bought our hot tub, they we got a lid, and I wanted to know how it was going to open. And they said, do you want it to open like a hot dog or like a hamburger? Oh, that was a perfect way. Is. Yeah. Isn't your hot tub square though? No, it's a rectangle. Oh, I was like, that doesn't work. No, it doesn't work if it's a square. That's just hamburger. Hamburger? That's right. Hamburger. Hamburger. Let us know. Do you think the brash Charlie's talking about hamburger or hot dog? Or neither hamburger or hot dog or hot dog? Yeah, I have a silly desert island. Question. Okay, okay. If you had to color match anything on this metaphorical tropical desert island to paint the wall, what are we? Color matching the backside of a leaf? That's what I was gonna say. Literally. Specifically the backside of a leaf. That's the beautiful sagey light green color. And it's matte. I love it. I can't. I was literally specifically gonna say the backside of a leaf. I was gonna say specifically the backside of a silver linden leaf, but that's. But it's not gonna be on an island, right? I'm trying to think. It's so beautiful, though. Maybe I would find a wild bunny and want to color match it. We probably have to eat the wild bunnies. If this is a survival situation, we can eat bugs. No, I think I'd rather theoretical. Us can do it. I think we wouldn't be able to. Okay, well, now I have to come up with a new one. I think you know the inside of scallop shells. How they have, like, that peachy tone. Yes. I think it's beautiful. Would you have it be iridescent, like the shells are? Yeah. Yeah. I still can't believe I would pick the backside of the leaf. Pulled that out of my brain. I win. It's not a competition. Okay. Let's share, um, some of our favorite tips, and then we can share maybe some of our favorite products. We shared some of them. Um, my favorite tip is of the brush. Good one. That's the lamest joke you've ever told. I think my favorite tip would be. I'm still laughing at myself. Sorry. Emily thinks she's very funny. You're hilarious. Tell me in the comments if you think I'm funny. I'm just kidding. Then she's like, I can't read that. That's brutal. Ahly's commenting this biatch is not funny. She just sets up multiple personalities to continue to comment. Okay, it's like Harley, Carly. Charlie. Charlie. Yep. Spelled c h a r y. My favorite tip would probably be about brush painting, and that is probably true. Okay, so you know how you dip your paint brush into your paint and then it's like, full of paint? Yes. And most people, they kind of like slap it to one side of their can and they get all of the paint off of one side. Well, when I'm brush painting, I like to use like a personal cup that doesn't have a ton of paint in it. And I like to dip it in, like halfway. And then I take it and I go on the sides of the cup and I like, smack it on both of the sides of the cup. A bell ringing. You keep talking about people smacking their paintbrushes on the side of a can. I have never smacked my paintbrush on the side of a can. Scrape I scrape. Okay, well, I couldn't think of the word. What do you mean? I keep talking. Well, have I said it before? Last episode, you were like. You just smack it. Smack smack smack smack. I'm just imagining somebody, like, paint flying everywhere because I just. I scrape both sides. I only scrape, I leave one side with paint on it. I like them both to have a medium amount of paint on them. And then what I do is about an inch away from the edge. I make one big line and I get it gets like the pools of paint out of the brush and onto the wall, and then you go back and you get in like closer. But if you have too much paint on your brush, then you have, like this weird bead. You do? That goes right on the edge and it's harder to control. But if you have just enough paint on your brush that it doesn't like pool or bead on that very edge of those couple of bristles. Um, but it's enough that you don't have like, um, just like straggly lines. You know, you have like a good, consistent color. Um, then it just is. That's what it's like. That's a perfect tip. That's a perfect tip. And then I always like to, especially if you're cutting in with, like, if somebody else is rolling or if you're doing all of it yourself and you're not going to get to rolling, like quickly. I like to just kind of feather my. Yes. Always. Yeah. So I go like an inch away from my edge, and then I go into my edge, and then I brush with the rest of the paint that's in my brush up until it kind of feathers out. Because you don't really want a harsh line, right? Uh, either like, visually or texturally. Because if you have, like, too thick of a line, uh, where you've cut in, then it doesn't like smooth out when you roll over it. Right. Yeah. So that's one of my favorite things. What's your favorite tip, Emily? Um, I think this is just maybe my most helpful tip. If you're painting with carpet, it's very obnoxious to paint a baseboard with carpet, but I like taking a wide, um, knife, a drywall knife, a drywall knife. And if you don't have that, you could use, like the, uh, like piece of cardstock, basically. And I like to put. Yep. And I like to pull the carpet back and cut a line as far down as I can get it. And then I just let the carpet go back. And if it has a little bit of paint on the side that touches it, it's not the end of the world. I've seen people tape the carpet back. I've done that. Especially if it's like Like when we painted here, the carpet was brand new. Yeah. Yeah. But I think it's more efficient to just get yourself a thick. And they make them up to like twelve inches. So I'll use like a twelve inch knife and then I do it that way. Yeah. That's a really good idea. I don't know, I feel like I haven't done like a we did one place where we painted trim with carpet at the VFW. I honestly can't think of another place that we've done it. I, we feel like we have. I just can't remember. I can't remember either. Well, my favorite tip, which I've remembered and forgotten like three times already. Um, but the one I can remember is, in order to cut a straight line, you need to be cutting painting the edges in front of your face. Oh, yep. So you you cannot have the control or the visual that you need to cut a clean line unless you're close. So, like, you can't stand on the ground and stand on your tiptoes and expect to be able to cut a clean line. So it might seem like common sense, but you need to make sure that you have a step ladder that can, especially when you're cutting at the top of the wall near the ceiling. You need to make sure you have a ladder that gets you far enough up that you're cutting right in front of your face. Yeah, as you get better, you can avoid some of that. Um, but the better you get, the more you're probably going to want to, uh, use something. Like at my sister in law's house, I cut the entire room without getting down on my knees or using a stepladder. And part of that was because there, even with there being a ceiling that is different than the wall and a wall that is different from the trim, there was no straight line that existed anywhere. So it was struggling. It was a struggle to make a straight line because I was creating a straight line where there wasn't one. Yeah. Um, so basically I just did the best I could. And then I stepped back and kind of looked at the areas that stood out to me and I, you know, went back and touched those up. But I definitely agree with I know what my one was going to be before I forgot it twice. And it speaks to what you're saying is if like if you're trying to paint the trim of your window that's right next to your wall, and a lot of times there are there gaps and bumps or old paint, the way that you can make that beautiful is to run a bead of caulk. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So you run a bead of caulk and then what you get is like a perfectly smooth surface. So once that's cleared paintable caulk, once that's cured, then you can run your brush down and make a beautifully straight line. Simple, simple hack. Anytime we talk about caulk and paint, I'm gonna be like, please, paintable. Yes. Yeah. It says on almost every tube whether it's paint or not. And usually it'll say non paintable if it isn't. But unless it explicitly says Paintable, I wouldn't, I wouldn't use it on your wall. And we do have a specific Recommendation, something we use a lot that we love, which is Alex DApp painters caulk White. The clear stuff isn't the cutest. We don't super love the clear stuff. The clear stuff, um, part of it. Well, that but also it applies a slightly differently. It does? Yeah. And it's like, this sounds gross, but it's like a little bit more like snotty. Yeah. And the other stuff is not as smooth. It doesn't go as smooth. Yeah. My favorite stuff, if you're feeling bougie is the Alex crown and molding. Oh I like that one. That stuff is my favorite. And do you remember when we were painting the rental and I was like, let's try this, uh, caulk and see how it performs. And over time, the stuff that I know I did with the molding is perfect. And other ones I'm starting to see some cracks with like the season change. And we haven't seen that in all the places that we've worked at, but I really think it has like more elasticity to it. And it just I don't know, it's just like cracks less. And I feel like almost all caulk cracks eventually. Maybe not silicone unless it's really old, but um, the I mean, caulk in general is pretty cheap and like going around your house and, like, touching it up every couple of years isn't really that big of a deal because you don't necessarily need to paint again afterward. No, depending on whether I mean, if your baseboards are navy blue and your walls navy blue, you're going to need to paint after you put white or clear on. Yeah, but usually trim is white. Yeah. It's not that of an expensive thing if you want to go back and redo it or something, but I, I think the regular stuff is like a dollar. And then the other stuff might be like two dollars, so like double the price, but that's also like two dollars. So before we go too far down a cock bunny trail, we definitely have a lot to say about cock. So that's true. Well, I will have a we will have a future episode that is just about cock. It will be. Yeah, yeah, it will be just enough to. So you know what you're doing. Not so much that you want to pull your hair out. I have one last painting tip. Okay. Last painting tip have a wet microfiber with you. I know I already said it, but it's really important. Yeah, yeah. If you get paint on something, it's very easy. If it's latex, if it's latex paint, if you get paint on the carpet, you can add it immediately. You can get it out. Yeah. So yeah. All right. Well very true. Go fearlessly ahead with your microfiber. Yes. Yeah. And Emily is going to tell you how to find us. If you want to learn more about us, um, you can find us at How-To handyman on most platforms. And if you want to see what we do for other people, you can find us at my handyman. And that'll all be linked in the bio. Once we figure that out. And if you love what we're doing, one simple way you can help us a lot is to rate, review and subscribe. And that's a lot of times how our podcast will get suggested to other people and rate us five stars. Or we might cry, yes, comment on the podcast. Just help us get out there. We're trying to make some changes in the world, bring a little bit of brightness and just try to help people as much as we can, and you can do hard things. That's my imparting wisdom today. Thanks for coming today. We love you. And if you paint a room or do any DIYs, you should tag us in so we can see. We definitely want to see the good, the bad, the ugly we want to see. And the beautiful. Yes. And our pets. Bye bye.
