Tricks for Painting with Oil Based Paint

I recently painted my dining room furniture with oil based paint. Since I was using oil based paint, I did not want to deal with the messy clean up of brushes and rollers with mineral spirits or the extra expense of purchasing numerous painting tools.  My painting project took 4 days over 2 weekends.  This is how I "preserved" my brushes, rollers and paint trays between each coat of paint and each day of use. 

These tricks may also be used with latex paints.

PAINT TRAYS

I covered my paint tray with aluminum foil making sure to push the foil down into the tray.  I used 2 layers of foil over the tray just in case of a tear in the top layer of foil (which did happen with heavy use).  This made clean up very easy.  When finished, just take off foil and throw away.

BRUSHES

I bought brushes especially for oil based paints, which cost about $7 a piece, but I got lucky and found one marked on clearance to $3.  So I  bought 2 brushes for $10, one for the primer and one for my paint.  Then I used a few old brushes I had from painting with latex paint to get into small crevices.  Since I didn't want to spend any more on brushes and I knew my furniture painting project would take days (2 full weekends) to complete, I decided to preserve my brushes between each coat of paint and each weekend.  This method worked great for me.  My brushes never got dried out.

My long handled brush was folded 3-4 times into my plastic drop cloth.  This keeps the air away from the bristles and keeps the brush from drying out. 

This is a picture of the brush upon unwrapping.  The paint is still wet after 2 days!

Here is a picture of my brush wrapped up in the drop cloth.  Notice how the plastic is twisted around the brush to keep the air out.

My shorter brush was shut in a quart paint can.  Keep about an inch of paint in the can to keep the brush from drying out.  This can also be done with larger paint cans and longer brushes, I just didn't have a larger paint can in the color I was painting with. 

NOTE:  This will only work if there is some paint (at least an inch) left in the can.

Here is a picture of my brush after 2 weeks of use.  The bristles are still in great shape!

ROLLERS

 I only bought 3 rollers, one  each for the primer, paint, and polyurethane.  To keep my painting costs down and preserve my rollers, I wrapped them in saran wrap very tightly.  Then they were wrapped in the plastic drop cloth just like my paint brush.
I also successfully used a rubber glove I was wearing to store the roller between uses.  I just inserted the roller into a used glove, twisted the opening and then wrapped it in the plastic drop cloth.

Here is my roller, still wet the second weekend of use. You can see the saran wrap that was wrapped around the roller.

Happy Painting!