Innovative Painting Tools to Try
Updated: Feb. 10, 2022These innovative painting tools are the future of DIY. Get your hands on them before your next project.
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Paint Spraying Gun
A traditional brush and roller will do the job, but this handy piece of machinery will help you do it faster. A paint sprayer is ideal for large jobs, such as painting several rooms or a long privacy fence. When done correctly, a sprayed paint job results in a perfectly smooth, even finish in half the time. The Graco Magnum X5 Airless Paint Sprayer is highly rated.
Temporary Paint Swatches
The paint samples found at hardware stores are simply too small to provide an accurate preview. That’s where temporary paint swatches like SureSwatch come into play. “We continue to find more and more consumers want to know that their chosen paint color will work before they complete the whole project,” says Jamie Peltz, inventor and president of SureSwatch. Their temporary paint swatches are transparent adhesive patches. Paint them with your chosen color samples, then stick them to your wall and compare. The clear material allows you to see how the new colors will look on top of your existing paint, and the gentle adhesive is easily removed.
Pour Spout and Roller Grid
Pouring paint straight from the can to the pan can be a messy ordeal. Avoid those pesky drips and spills with the Hyde Pour and Roll. This fresh take on a traditional paint spout combines three must-have painting tools into one convenient product. Its spout makes for a clean pour every time, and the built-in roller grid and brush wipe remove excess paint from your tools.
Hole Filler
If you have a few small nail holes to patch, there’s no need to purchase and store those tools. A hole filler will do the trick. 3M’s small hole repair kit has a spackle-primer combination, putty knife and sanding pad all in one easy squeeze tube. The best part is that it’s fast drying — it’s ready to paint in 30 minutes. If you have more extensive drywall damage to repair, you’ll need more than hole filler.
Heat Gun
Sometimes paint spills. Even when you tape trim and lay a drop cloth, accidents happen. This DeWalt heat gun is perfect for removing spilled paint from wood floors. It works on oil-based and water-based paints; just point, heat and scrape. Be careful not to heat the area for too long, because the wood’s finish will eventually react to the heat gun.
Sticky Drop Cloth
A drop cloth can save your floors from paint splatters. However, when left untaped, drop cloths can slide beneath your feet. And when taped down, they can’t be moved conveniently. The CoverGrip Safety Drop Cloth solves this problem. The canvas cloth has grippy dots on the bottom so that it will stay in place while in use, but it can still be easily moved between rooms.
Paint Touch-Up Pen
Small scuffs and dings in paint are inevitable. They’re part of normal wear and tear in a home. But that doesn’t mean you have to live them, and you certainly don’t have to completely repaint every time a doorknob hits a wall. The Slobproof Touch-Up Paint Pens make it easy to fix minor paint damage. Simply fill a pen with matching leftover paint and refresh your walls as needed.
