Although our Tiny Home was completed in October last year, it went through a pretty wet and cold winter that caused a lot of wear on the exterior. Since our tiny home doesn’t have any overhangs that are on a typical house – the rain, snow, and dirt took a toll and it really needed some love.  We brought in WOW 1 DAY PAINTING as they specialize in these sort of refreshes – getting our Tiny Home Store ready for bright sunny days.  Whether your space is interior or outside, updating your paint is a relatively easy and a cost effective way to bring new life and appeal, especially with WOW 1-Day PAINTING.

Above photo’s show the condition our Tiny Home was in before getting its refresh.

I didn’t change any of the paint colors, I simply wanted a re-fresh. Which included the exterior paneling of the tiny home, the trim around the windows/doors and the wood french doors. I also wanted to put a focus on the stairs (inside and outside), the stairs needed the most love, from the wear of every day use. More about that below. 

A painting refresh doesn’t need to be overwhelming.  The team lead at Wow 1 met with us and gave some recommendations and tips on how best to maximum our budget. Where it was most important to focus.  The south side of the Tiny Home was the most impacted by the weather so we just focused on that along with a few other key areas.  Taking this to-do task off my plate was so worth it. WOW 1  DAY PAINTING certainly came to the rescue!  Yes, one day! All said and done. The crew was kind and tidy (very important to me), and got the job done in 1 day. They did an excellent job, I could have not been happier with the decision to give our Tiny Home a paint refresh.

Below I’ll touch on a few of my most commonly asked questions about paint.

Above photo’s showing the painting in progress.
The stair risers were sanded and then rolled and brushed.
The exterior walls and trim were sprayed and touched up with a roller.

Spraying vs Brushing or Rolling

As much as possible I recommend to spray trim, doors and railings. It is the best way to create a very smooth and flawless finish.  For walls, you can either spray or roll the paint and brush in the corners and edges to tie it all in.  When you have a wall with plant on trim, then I’d typically recommend you spray both the wall and trim in the same sheen and color to help it look like more traditional panelling. Wow1’s team will advise you with their expertise and knowledge, they are very helpful!

Here is what I tend to do. For interiors, I would suggest rolling the walls a nice bright white, with an eggshell finish (See my blog post with my favourite white paints and more color suggestions too.) I then suggest that all the trim, millwork or paneling and doors be sprayed a lighter tone of white in a semi gloss or satin. My go to white paint combination is Simply White by Benjamin Moore for the trim and White Dove by Benjamin Moore for the walls. I highly recommend that you test your paint colors in your space. Each paint color will come off looking a little different in each home, space and even wall to wall in a room!

For instance, in my new home when I painted a wall with White Dove, it was coming out too warm for my liking. The thing I love about White Dove is that it isn’t too stark, it comes across as a nice cozy white. However, for what ever reason it was just too warm on our walls. Because I love the “feel” of White Dove we had the mix done at half strength of the hue. When ordering your paint you can ask for a “half strength” of color. I find that this helps with the strength of the color without compromising the tone of the paint color itself. Best tip I can give you when choosing your paint colors is play around with paint swatches in your home. You won’t regret it, there is nothing worse then a finished paint project with a color that just didn’t come out right.

Above photos showing initial prep. The french doors were removed so they could be fully sprayed.

Paint sheen:

There is many sheens to choose from.  I typically recommend a satin (20 degree) or a semi-gloss sheen for any trim work.  For painted doors I typically go with a semi-gloss as it helps take on a bit more abuse and gives it a nice touch.  Then for walls I go with eggshell unless it is a feature wall with a lot of trim work.  For our tiny home the entire inside is shiplap and trim including the ceiling, so we went with a satin finish.

Many of you ask about ceilings too. The ceiling in our tiny home is shiplap, so we painted it with a satin sheen. However when your ceiling is drywall, I suggest painting it half strength of the color of your walls, in a flat finish.

The stairs:  Stairs (that are painted) typically need a lot of love over the course of time, especially the ones that experience high traffic. I love the look of a white riser (the white vertical panel between each stair), it’s a more traditional look that is clean and classic.  Troy originally painted the stairs with leftover paint we had from the dutch door and wall paint but this isn’t meant to handle the traffic so it showed signs of wear very quickly and he re-painted it several times since we opened the store.   Wow 1 suggested a specific floor paint that is made to handle the abuse.  They color matched the paint to the dutch door and re-painted the treads and risers of the stairs. They have held up so much better so if you are painting any flooring, I’d recommend using specific floor paint.

Wood Doors & Windows:

I absolutely love wood doors and windows and if it wasn’t for the high cost, I would use them everywhere!  The feel and look is just old world beautiful.  With our northwest wet climate, wood does not do very well and requires a lot more upkeep.  It is so important that the doors are completely sealed (all 6 sides/edges) with primer and then at least 2 coats of good exterior paint.  For the french doors on the Tiny Home, we had the manufacturer prime the doors when they sent it to us but we didn’t properly paint the doors for several weeks.  During that time there was a lot of moisture in the air which the doors absorbed and caused them to swell and made them difficult to open.  So we had to take them off and trim the bottoms to handle the swelling.  Then we had Wow 1 make sure to seal all 6 sides with 2 coats of paint and now they have held up very well.  So I highly recommend to have the manufacturer prime and paint the wood doors/windows prior to them being installed, that way you don’t have to worry about the swelling and movement.

So whether you are looking for a summer refresh or want your place looking fresh going into Fall, paint is one of the easiest ways to transform your space.

We want to thank  WOW 1 DAY PAINTING  for sponsoring this post. All opinions and views are my own.