And on the 7th Day, God created Paint Pads (Paint Pads)

Member Name: Scooobydooo

Product:	Paint Pads
Date:	08/03/04 (866 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: does it quick, cheap to buy, reusable

Disadvantages: get nails out of walls, cheap ones drip a bit, handle can slip

It is great having an artist as a husband, but his ideas of painting is totally different to mine.

Darling the Hall needs painting, should we do it this week? I come home from work and fine a 3ft by 3ft canvas on the wall and the walls are the same colour as what they were when I left for work that day. He seems to think this is hysterically funny but no matter what I say his idea of painting is only on canvas.

He has tried all sorts of get out clauses in the past and one of his favourite is to get a paint brush and paint the walls but I usually find the floor has more on it or he has so many drips on the wall, I am better off doing it myself. However this time it will not wash!

Now up until 2 years ago I had always used paintbrushes and when you have a lot to do, it is quite tedious and with osteoarthritis, I suffer for days after. A friend suggested I borrowed her pads... The thought of borrowing pads, mmm I just burst out laughing.

She came back with this spongy thing which was around 5 inches by 2 inches with a handle attached to the back of it and said they are the newest thing on the market and it would have my Hall done in minutes. Been a bit dubious, I said right ok, I will try them and see how it goes.

Time went past and the hall was papered and now ready for a blast of paint. I forgot about the paint pads and used brushes, but the long job was making my arms hurt, so I stopped and went under the cuboard for a cloth to wipe excess paint off the brush.

Out fell this paint pad and I decided to give it a go. I dipped it in the paint and whooosh applied it straight to the wall and the gently pushed it back and forward and it covered the area with an even coating and I was really impressed as the paper was a bubbly paper and it even covered that and did not damage the paper.


So this little paint pad had a red hard plastic covering with grooves in the back and you slide the handle part into position on the back and push down the button to secure it. I got rather carried away with using it and within an hour or so my Hall was completely covered with one coat of paint. As fast as I was painting the paint was drying so when I finished I touched it up again.

At first I used a paint brush for where the ceiling met the wall joint, but later found out you can buy different shapes and sizes of these little gems. You can buy an arrow shaped one which will get into all the corners and also small ones about 1inch by 1 inch that will do for touch ups or if you rip the paper and need to add colour to it for cover up.

So when we moved house, we had 2 weeks to decorate from top to bottom and we had friends who used the paint pads to cover the rooms. It was so fast, mind you we have new walls which helps, that we did the whole place in a week. Not ideal colours but it would be clean and tidy to let us move in.

The time has come now to start properly decorating with all the colours that we want to have. I have bought a set of paint pads which has about 5/6 different paint pads in it. They are all different sizes ranging from a large one when you are doing large areas down to a touch up one.

I hate the smell of gloss paint and it causes mega problems with my asthma, but I have one set that I use only for glossing and they are great, it glosses really quick and I do not have any drips or marks on my doors.

The only problems that I have found with paint pads is that you have to be very careful that you remove any nails or wall hangings before as they tend to rip the sponge quite easily. I have done this on several ocassions.

You can buy paint pads from most supermarkets and DIY shops either s
ingularly or in sets starting from £1 for one up to £10 for a set of them.

I have bought cheaper ones before and sometimes the handles seem to slip when paint drips on them and it has been very easy to drop the pad on the floor which is what you do not want when you have a nice new carpet. However the more expensive ones now have a little tray under the sponge so it catches any mischievous paint trying to aim for the carpet.

They are normally made out of a soft sponge material or the more expensive ones are made out of mohair but they are very easty to clean. All you do with emulsion is run it under the tap and give it a thorough go. When I have used the pad for all the doors, I normally throw it away as it is sticky but could be washed in turps.

As this was a new gadget two years ago in our house, Mr Bubbles was gutted that he did not get his little mits on it first and decided to have ago. He was really suprised at how easy it was and decided his art studio need a quick coat. He was most impressed with his results until I came home and said Whoops... After feeling a bit dejected he said that he was so chuft as his art studio was now a lovely bright turquoise in colour. The only problem had been he had ran out of paint and as he went along, the walls were nicely covered down to a part where there was a smattering of paint! He blamed the tools. I blamed him as he thought he could decorate a full room with 1 litre of paint.

Oh well, I will get him used to this DIY malarky sooner or later. But now he knows how to use a paint pad, he has no excuse.

I would recommend these to anyone who wants to have an even decorated room in a quick time and without having to pick out the bristles in their walls.

Karen :0)

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