The first room I painted in my newly purchased house was the living room. Since I’d had great luck at my previous house a few years ago with Valspar paint from Lowe’s that’s what I purchased for these rooms.

As I stated in another post it simply wasn’t the same paint. Roller marks were a terrible problem and if I tried to go back and smooth them out the paint lifted off the wall. I realized it could be a result of poor quality paint I was trying to cover.

After checking Consumer Reports I wanted to try their top rated Clark + Kensington paint from Ace Hardware.

I chose a bone white satin to brighten the basement room and the Clark + Kensington paint went on beautifully with no roller marks. I had a little problem with the paint trying to lift off, but decided it was because of the poor quality paint I was covering since it didn’t happen when I painted the primed areas. Maybe I should have primed all the crappy paint.

The odor was negligible, it dried quickly even in a basement area, and everything cleaned up easily.

I was less than impressed with the Teflon coated roller pan I decided to try. Maybe the paint would have washed out easily when it was wet, but the sales person at Ace told me you allow the paint dry overnight and then just pull out the skin of dried paint the next morning. Not happening. I could scratch the paint off the next day. I allowed it to dry an additional day with no change. The primer was never going to simply peel out of the pan. I will attempt to return it. It does say “latex” paint peels out, so maybe the primer was the problem. I still wasn’t impressed.

The Teflon roller I used with the bone white paint cleaned up fairly easily. I used the cleaning tool and wasn’t that impressed with the results, but then how else would I get the paint and water out of a roller?

What I really did like was a rigid plastic roller pan I bought at the Benjamin Moore shop for $1.49. It was strong enough you didn’t need a metal roller pan and for $1.49 I didn’t mind throwing it out. For heaven’s sake — a line at Lowe’s is $1.99. The rigid liner was much better. I will try to find out the brand and will post the information later.

The primer from Lowe’s seemed to work okay, but I don’t have a whole lot to compare it to. I will use it again in the kitchen on the soffit where I remove the popcorn and on the backsplash before I wallpaper and will post how it works in those areas.

The results

I tore off paneling, I replaced a section of drywall, did a lot of drywall repairs that I then primed before painting.  The paint went on great and the bone white is SO much better than the previous gold. I also replaced the light fixtures with $7 dollar ceiling fixtures from Ikea. Whoa — what an improvement.

 

Final Note

I was getting close to the end of painting and realized I wasn’t going to make it with one gallon. I call the Ace Hardware in La Follette and asked if they would mix another gallon and have it ready so I could run in and grab it and get home without having to wash my roller pan and roller. No problem.

I covered the roller pan and roller with a wet towel and drove up to the store. My gallon of paint was mixed and waiting for me. Jennifer even had it waiting for me at the door. I paid and was back home and painting in 20 minutes.

Now tell me Lowe’s would do that… I don’t think so. Not only do you get great paint at Ace, but you get awesome service as well.