18 Painting Ideas for Home to Transform Your Entire House with Just Paint
To be honest, I’ve lost count of how many paint projects Robert and I have done after over a decade of DIY makeovers.
But every single one always takes my breath away. Paint is the best way to make a massive visual impact for often not a whole lot of money… that is, as long as you know the “rules” and tricks of paint.
So I rounded up 18 of our best tutorials and tips for choosing the right color, when to use primer, and how to paint all sorts of materials in your house like brick, vinyl siding, concrete patios, cabinets, light fixtures, furniture, doors, showers & tubs, and more.
Seriously, it’s a lot.
Paint is magical. It can make a small room look bigger, make old fixtures look new, set the mood in a home with the right color palette, and even influence our emotions.
It can inspire how you perceive your home in an entirely new way. And most of the time, it only takes about a day with the cost of a few gallons of paint to create.
This post is a gold mine of huge money savers to transform just about everything you can think of in your home. We’ve tested all of the paint methods over the years to find out what works so you don’t have to…
1. How to Choose the Perfect Paint Color Every Time
Follow these tips about how to choose paint colors for your home interior rooms like a pro interior designer. And learn the 3 biggest paint color mistakes most people make so that you’ll know how to avoid them yourself.
Plus, see how lighting affects paint colors so that you choose the right one for every room and love how it looks any time of day.
2. How to Paint Furniture
If you’re a beginner, this furniture painting guide will show you all of the supplies you need and how to know the right type of paint to use for each piece.
Plus, you can find tricks for scoring the best secondhand furniture on a tight budget.
3. Paint Your Concrete Patio or Pool Deck
We painted our concrete patio and pool deck back in summer 2020 and it’s still going strong! This concrete patio painting tutorial recommends all of the supplies you need, the type of paint, and the prep work you should do to make yours last for years.
We also included our favorite gray paint color that looks just like freshly poured concrete. It made our stained 40+ year old concrete look brand new in our backyard! This method works on concrete walkways and garage floors too.
4. Transform Floors with a Stencil
This painted stencil floor tutorial was an easy solution for updating our dated porch floor, but it works beautifully on bathroom tile floors too!
There are so many stencils out there to choose from that we shared in this post to inspire your own flooring update.
5. Know When You Should Use a Primer
Don’t trust the can called paint-and-primer-in-one. There are a lot of times you still need a primer even if your paint claims to have primer already in it.
These 5 important paint lessons will show you everything you need to know to do your prep work correctly so that every paint job lasts longer.
6. Paint Your Vinyl Siding
We painted the vinyl siding on your shed in summer 2019 and it still looks amazing! But you can’t use just any paint, so this tutorial will show you what supplies you need and all of the steps you should know to paint vinyl siding to last for years to come.
7. Paint Your Interior Doors
For the love of everything, paint your interior doors a color other than white! You would be amazed what a difference painted doors make to customize your home. It’s one of our best tricks for making a house look more expensive than it really is.
8. Use This Trick to Paint Windows and French Doors
I wish I had known this French door and window painting trick when we first moved into our house. It saves so much time and frustration and results in perfectly crisp paint lines every time.
9. Limewash Your Exterior Brick
There is pretty brick and there is not-so-pretty brick, and we have zero regrets in doing this limewashed brick exterior back in December 2017.
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It’s not technically a paint project, but we love this method because it is so much easier to maintain limewashed brick and allows the material to breathe.
10. Use a Grout Paint Pen to Transform Old Tile
If you want to transform an ugly tile floor, sometimes the best way isn’t necessarily painting the tiles but painting the grout instead!
Re-grouting can be a massive pain, but this grout pen method takes just an afternoon to do. Bonus points: it’s inexpensive!
11. Paint Your Tubs, Showers, and Sinks
I did not have high hopes for this DIY painted tub, shower, countertop, and sink project. But it lasted incredibly well!
All it took was a weekend and a few paint kits to transform our entire bathroom from dirty looking beige to a clean, crisp white.
12. Paint Your Faucets & Bathroom Fixtures
We did this spray painted tub faucet project nearly a decade ago, but it held up perfectly! Sometimes it’s intimidating to change out a faucet, and if all you want is a color change, spray paint can be the easiest solution.
But there is some important prep work involved, so make sure you follow the tutorial to make it last.
13. Paint Wall Paneling
If you have retro wood paneling and you don’t love the look, you can still do a painted plank wall.
It’s not at all like painting drywall, especially if yours has real wood stain, so it’s important to follow the prep steps in this tutorial to prevent bleed-through.
14. Spray Paint Hardware and Light Fixtures
I have painted SO many light fixtures and furniture pulls over the years. As a result, I went on a hunt to find the best gold spray paints. Or to create a finish with even more depth, try this Rub n Buff guide.
15. Paint Your Kitchen Cabinets Like a Pro
You absolutely do not need a professional to paint kitchen cabinets! I painted all of our kitchen cabinets when I was in 6 months pregnant back in 2018. (Except I definitely recommend painting yours without a baby crammed against your spine.)
The secret to success is in the prep work and choosing the right paint for cabinets, so this DIY cabinet painting tutorial will help.
16. Color Drench Your Rooms
See the difference between this gray bathroom and pink bathroom?! Color drenching is when you paint the ceiling, trim, and walls all the same color. It’s a great trick for making a small room look bigger, and it creates a ton of wow factor for just the cost of paint.
17. Add a Pop of Color on the Ceiling
For the cost of a gallon of paint, you can add a lot of drama in a room just by painting the ceiling with a pop of color. It adds so much personality and is a great way to hide ceiling texture too. We painted our younger daughter’s ceiling a blush pink for a whisper of warmth in the room.
18. Color Block the Walls
If you don’t have the budget to add wainscoting to a wall, paint half of the wall with a pop of color instead. We used this color blocking method in this little boy’s nursery.
The trick is to apply a line of caulk to the edge of your painters tape, wipe clean while it’s still wet, and immediately paint your color of choice on top. The end result is a sharp, clean paint line.
Got any other paint home project ideas you’d add to the list?
What crazy thing have you painted? Anything is fair game around here as long as it’s standing still.
