How to Use up Leftover Paint

After spending an extremely daunting weekend transforming or rejuvenating your room with brand new coats of paints, you might be left off with some colours on your giant paint gallons. And the wall paints are not just expensive but also extremely contaminating to the environment. Tossing the extra paints out will be anything but wise.

When it comes to left-over wall paint, there’s still a lot you can do with it. If you’re wondering what those are, take a tour through these five repurpose options for your leftover paint.

1. Add an accent wall

Is there any way to spruce up a room a little more after painting the whole room? You can add more textures, more features in your room just with your leftover paints, instead of tossing them out. To make a wall as the centerpiece of your room, all you need is a flat 1” wide craft brush and half a gallon of paints or even less. You can make different strips, patterns and a bit of texture with rugged roller brushes.

If you don’t have enough for an accent wall, you can choose smaller surface areas near the window or corridor and make freeform patterns. Not to mention, you can always take the professionals’ assistant to get your job with optimum perfection just with the extra paints you’re left with.

2. Add pops of colours in an old furniture

Chances are, you have a set of old furniture in your house, ready to be donated. Maybe they are stained somewhere or faded, seemingly impossible to refurbish. The leftover paints can come off as a rescue, with endless possibilities! With a fresh coat of leftover primer and paints, you can make wonders in your interior with old abandoned furniture and leftover paints. And the most convincing part of using leftover paints on your furniture is, you can use any kind of latex paint, whether it’s flat, satin, gloss or semi-gloss.

Old and shabby shelves, cabinets, tables, chairs, desks, bookcases, etc. can be unique- modern centerpieces of your room or front yard just with some coats of vibrant colours. The fades and stains can also be concealed in the process! With the paints, you can make a very contrastive combination of colours in between your paints to add some visual interest and cohesion in your room.

3. Store the paints for occasional touch-ups

It’s almost rare to finish a paint project with the entire amount of paint you’re given. Most often than not, you’re left with the right amount of extra paints but not sure what exactly to do with it other than painting your walls or furniture. If you don’t want to go through the hectic process of painting once again, it would only be wise if you decide to store it up correctly for occasional touch-ups in the future.

While storing your leftover paints, you need to decide where you’re going to store the paints. Leftover paints should be stored in a dark location with room temperatures. Extreme heat might dry out the paints. Try to store paints in a shelf, cabinet or closet in the house, away from the children. But who has that much space for giant and mostly empty paint gallons? You can keep the paints in empty jars or airtight glass containers in that case. Don’t forget to conceal the pots to that air properly doesn’t get in.

4. Donate the paint

Donating is a useful way of repurposing your leftover paints. If you don’t want to use or dispose of the paints, consider donating to the local charity organisations, community centres, theatres, shelters or churches. These types of organisations often have a limited budget to remodel their facilities. Extra supplies of a substantial amount of paints (if you have it) could help them with their projects better. To donate, first, make sure whether the community centres have this specific need. You can contact them and go for project-specific donations beforehand and start lugging the gallons of leftover paints.

Here are some of the community groups who may be in need of extra paints-

• Local churches, ministries
• Communities that work with kids like scouting troops, high school drama-crafting clubs
• Human-animal shelters, organisations that work for rehabilitation and welfare

5. Dispose of the paints yourself

Because of the toxic and hazardous components, leftover paints should be disposed of properly, if it’s too less in amount or has gone bad. So it’s important to dispose of the paints properly.

Liquid latex paints can be highly detrimental to the environment. So before taking to a recycling centre or throwing it to the garbage, consider drying the paints beforehand, if there’s only a small amount of paint at the bottom of your gallon, you can dry it out just by leaving it to the sun. And if the amount is a little more, place the bin in a container fills with paper scraps, kitten litter, sand or sawdust to help soak up the paint and speed the drying process. Once the paint is completely dried, you can dispose of it with other waste. This disposal procedure applies to all types of latex paints.

Oil-based paints, on the other hand, are a bit complex to dispose of. So it’s safe to be directly taken to a recycling centre and let the professionals do the job. Keep children and pets away from the locations where the paint procedure is done. Don’t forget to follow your city’s regulations regarding painting disposal requirements.

Now that you know what to do with that leftover paint go for the safest bet assign experienced house painters. They can help you to make the most out of the paints, along with a variety of skillful painting schemes for your residence.