YOUR MONEY'S WORTH
Sheridan, Mary
Your Money's Worth By MARY SHERIDAN THERE'S A LOT of satisfaction in painting. At the start it seems like a chore: making decisions on colors and types of paint; organizing sandpaper, turpentine,...
...If you want oil paint, try to find a paint store which still has pre-war paints in stock...
...It should not be used in basements or any rooms likely to be damp...
...Manufacturers' supplies of linseed oil as a drying oil for paints have been cut by the War Production Board...
...I have yet to find one who wasn't generous with advice...
...Since it is a water paint, moisture quickly goes through it...
...But after those preliminaries, the enterprise picks up momentum...
...And when the job is done and the paint brushes washed and stored, you're almost sure to be proud of the results...
...I have just finished using floor sealer on an unfinished bookcase and enamel on numerous old painted things, and, while the enamel seemed a bit thicker and slower-drying than in previous years, the results have been very satisfactory...
...you have to wash it off and re-paint...
...When The Job Is Done That is good advice, I think, for large surfaces, like walls...
...Comfortably clad in old .clothes, equipped with clean old rags, newspapers under all equipment and your feet, and clean sticks for paint stirring, and preferably located in a well-ventilated, well-lighted back room where you won't be disturbed and accused by the rest of the family of polluting the air and wrecking household comfort, you're ready...
...A dry and absolutely clean (except in the new over-all wall paint, which is expensive but can be applied directly over dirty walls) surface is essential...
...The decrease in linseed oil in wartime house paints, as Consumer Reports explains in a good article on wartime paints, will be filled in with mineral spirits or a mixture of mineral spirits and water...
...Nor did I have any trouble finding inexpensive, good brushes...
...Patience, care, and a little experience are the most important qualities of the amateur painter...
...It is somewhat similar to calcimine, but it spots less readily and can be washed or painted over...
...Maybe, like me, you're no Van Gogh, but you feel like a creative artist as you stroke on that first paint-brushful...
...It is still possible to buy good paint and satisfactory brushes, particularly in smaller stores where there is less turnover...
...under dampness it tends to mold or exude an unpleasant odor...
...If you haven't the time to track down pre-war oil paint, Consumer Reports recommends that you postpone your painting and, instead, wash your old painted surfaces or use a calcimine coating, which can be washed off when good oil paint is again available...
...Even if the new enamel and gloss paints tend to crack and chip more easily, fresh paint rewards the householder's heart and purse...
...Paint can transform things you thought were ready for the junk heap, from old bread boxes to badly scratched tables...
...Unless you're an expert, it's almost impossible to know whether you're buying pre-war or wartime paint by reading that complicated, small type list of ingredients on a paint can...
...And talk over your problem with the paint men...
...Changes In Oil Faint Civilian purchases of paint have fallen off during wartime—mainly, I suppose, because many people just don't have the time to paint and partly, too, because professional painters are scarce, and consumers have been scared away from buying by the stories of inferior wartime paints and brushes...
...Avoid using it, though, in kitchens or bathrooms, where water is apt to be splashed on it...
...It is in oil paint, of course, that the most changes are being made...
...organizing sandpaper, turpentine, and brushes...
...I don't know much about calcimine, except that it's cheap and can't be washed or painted over...
...taking the stuff to be painted out of circulation and scrubbing off the accumulations of dirt and wax with a good paint cleaner or paint remover...
...Dealers and paint cans provide plenty of instructions...
...Consumer Reports recommends it as "one of the safest substitutes for good paint" during wartime...
...Casein paint is useful for wartime painting over new plaster or fiberboard walls...
...For small articles—kitchen chairs, old tables, and shabby household articles that need brightening up—I'm all for going ahead with whatever good quality paint dependable dealers recommend...
Vol. 7 • October 1943 • No. 42
