FURNITURE PAINTING TIPS: Drop Cloths
THE BEST DROP CLOTH is not a cloth at all. It is a flattened cardboard box. It makes the best drop cloth when painting furniture for a few reasons:
- When I get lazy and don’t want to carry a piece of furniture to my garage or basement to paint, I have found the best drop cloth to use is a flattened cardboard box.
- When you place the item on it you can easily turn it around to reach all sides of the piece you are working on from one position. You can just swirl the cardboard to view the side you need to work on. Since the cardboard slides easily on flooring it makes painting furniture in place or close to were it will go, so very easy.
- If you don’t finish painting in one day, you can simply slide the cardboard with the furniture still on it out of the way until you have time to work on it again.
- Easy clean-up. Simply fold the cardboard up and store it to use for your next project. I keep a few of the opened boxes propped up against the wall in my garage so I have them on hand when I want to paint.
- Using a cardboard box as a drop cloth is also good for the planet since you are repurposing it.
If you get a lot of packages (boxes) delivered to your home, flatten and save them. They are great to use all lined up around the perimeter of a room when you are painting the walls in a room. Plastic and cloth drop cloths move too easily and have to be taped down. Flattened cardboard boxes stay put and since they are thicker than cloth, if any paint spills, it stays on top and does not seep through like paint can when a cloth is used.
