or Lessons I Learned The Hard Way About Paint
or Paint Can Labels Are There For A Reason Other Than Making The Can Look Pretty
My uncle has been in the painting business since before I was even a twinkle in my mother’s eye. If he ever reads this he’d probably start shaking his head at my stupidity or rolling on the floor laughing. Come to think of it my dad might do the same thing. Oh well. I’m living and learning.
white paper against lavender wall
It started when all 5 of us went to Lowe’s. I decided to check the mismatch paints because the decorating itch had struck again. There was a $2.00 quart of pretty pink paint. “Can I get this to brighten up the girls room?” My husband, being a smarter painter than I, checked the label. ”It’s oil-based so you’ll have to be careful.” [He was remembering the time I used oil based without knowing it, got a little bit on his DSLR, and tried to wash my hands with water. It was a mess, but I managed to blame it all on him.] “Okay, there’s some mineral spirits left that I can use.”
The next week while I was getting the painting supplies ready I came across an older half a quart of paint that was pink. In my mind it seemed logical to mix the two so I would have more paint. The first time I poured equal amounts in the roller pan and it was quite a pretty color. When I went to refill the pan I dumped what was left of the older paint into the new quart. This time the paint came out a pretty lavender shade. I didn’t know why it hadn’t stayed pink. I thought maybe I hadn’t mixed the new paint enough. [You know where this is going right? The older paint was latex and the new was oil.] I painted the wall, put the lid on, cleaned up, accepted the girls’ praise of how pretty it was, and didn’t think any more about it.
A couple weeks later I decided to paint another wall in the girl’s room. When I opened the quart of mixed paint it looked a bit darker. Then I stirred it and it turned blue. Sky blue. Yep. No lavender or pink in sight. Blue paint. Turns out that oil and latex paint react in weird ways.
white paper against blue wall
I painted a wall in my son’s room instead. He was quite happy about it.
Moral of the story: Don’t mix oil and latex paint. More importantly – READ THE PAINT CAN LABELS!
Anybody else ever mix oil and latex paint? Please tell me I’m not the only person!
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I did this by mistake this weekend. I wanted a color of brown a little lighter than the paint in one can, a little darker than what was in another. I put a little of each in a small container, and started to stir them together. I got a nice swirl patttern, but not a real mix. I started painting anyway– just a small area on the edge of some trim on a closet shelf. My wife got a whiff and exclaimed that it smelled toxic! I had to admit that it smelled unusual. I attributed it to one of the cans being a little old.
Then I went to wash my brush. Water beaded up. My hands got slimy. I then read the clean-up directions half-covered by paint drips on the old can: mi—-al sp—ts. . . OOPS! I had forgotten that I had ever bought oil-based interior paint. Good thing I was not doing a big project. Wiki Answers says the mixture DOES produce a toxic gas.