Paint is Stinky


Did y’all know that paint is stinky?

Some of you might know, but some may not. Paint that you can buy in the stores today can be quite nice and near odorless … or at least comparitively so, to older genres of paint. If you are young enough, Latex might be the usual term to use when referring to paint. Its ease in cleaning up was key to it becoming so popular, I have no doubts on that!

For older folks, yes that’s me, when considering painting I first think: Oil-based? Or Latex?

I usually have picked Latex in my adult years. It’s just so much easier to use. Oil-based paints are tough though. They are really worth their trouble. Stinky, messy to clean up, but a good tough coat of paint.

Primers also come in Oil-based or Latex.

If you know Kilz, you might have a family like mine. Dings and dents and holes and marks made from any writing or crafting thing you can think of that might be in our home. Kilz is a great friend to us.

Kilz2 is the Latex version. Kilz is the original Oil-based version. We’ve used both before, but the last time we used any it was Kilz2. It was a rude awakening being in a small cramped room with Kilz this morning. It’s over though, for now.

We have a Living Air machine, and that was faithfully by my side in Victoria’s under-the-roller room. The one window that is in there was wide open too, but the smell just hangs in the air. It’s not so bad at first, but by the time you are done and go to get that fresh air smell outside … you realize you can’t smell fresh air, Kilz is in your head. Ick!

The Living Air machine will do it’s magic and zap that smell away by tomorrow at the latest. But I need to do a second coat. I’m hoping that my husband will be home early enough and agree to tackle it together this evening. It’s not such hard work, but it’s hard when it was done the way I did it, with two big pieces of furniture still in the room. I had a space around the room I could sqoosh in and out of to get here and there, slide the furniture further that way, over there, back over here, and so on, to make room to move the ladder, the Kilz, and me, to not-yet-primed wall.

Kilz can be painted over in an hour. An hour is nice space of time between, but in THAT room, no way, that’s too much at once all by my lonesome.

Paint, now that’s a different story. The paint we have is Latex. Of course! It’s the top coat, it’ll be grand in Latex, easy to clean up, and go lovely over the Kilz. Paint covers differently and is like icing a cake, imo. No, it’s like painting. ๐Ÿ™‚ Priming isn’t exactly painting. It’s one of those crucial nasty steps to “get ready to paint”.

My paternal Grandfather was a painter. He died in 1926. Painters back then had stinky nasty paint. Lead paint. That’s why he died. My maternal Grandfather was a carpenter. That didn’t kill him. I have both of them in my blood and my love of renovating I know comes from them. It’s not “renovating” but “creating” really … making something, doing something productive, aethetics … beauty in the craft.

I’m not good at either thing, as they were, they did their stuff for a living. Here I just do it while I live in it. It’s just part of being a homeowner that doesn’t hire a decorator. ๐Ÿ˜‰

So what’s the cure for Oil-based stink in your head? Eat some ice cream. It doesn’t take it away, but softens it, creamy layers it, it’s not so horrid after eating ice cream. For me that was Chubby Hubby. I didn’t eat the whole pint. Only my chubby hubby does that. ๐Ÿ™‚

So paint can be stinky too, not just the oil-based primers, like Kilz Original. Our Lotus Flower for the base top coat in Victoria’s room is Latex. But the paint on the wainscoting will probably be an oil-based enamal-like paint. We want it to be TOUGH. Delicate and feminine, but super scrubbable tough —SDT That calls for a high stink factor. THAT will be done in the garage, on saw horses though. Then applied with nails and the nail holes touched up with dabs of stinky paint.

I forsee a need for more Ben & Jerry’s in the freezer soon. “Everything But The” is my favorite. Chubby Hubby is really good too.


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *