3 Tips on How to Save Money Painting From an Actual Painter

As full-time professional painters on the Gold Coast, we know a thing or 2 about keeping costs down. If you’re adamant you’re going to take on painting by yourself, here are some ways you can ACTUALLY save money when you’re on a budget home refresh.

How to Save Money Painting

Most homeowners think painting is just about buying some brushes and slapping color on the wall. But there’s actually a whole science behind doing it efficiently and cost-effectively.

The difference between a painting project that costs you $200 and one that costs you $800 often comes down to just a few key decisions, decisions that most people make without even realizing how much money is at stake.

Here are 3 painting project tips to get you started.

Tap Into Your Circle – Know Any Painters?

As a member of the public, you’re paying way over the mark for any paint you purchase. If you know any friends or family who are painters, kindly ask if you can purchase paint through them.

Even if they are employees of a business, often the boss lets the crew use their trade accounts for their side jobs. The paint store trade account model applies to wherever you are in the world and is the same across all major brands.

The more they buy, the cheaper the paint gets. For a full-time crew working all year round, that’s a lot of paint.

And I’m not just talking 5% off. Take, for example, the full retail price of a Dulux Wash & Ranger at a local Bunnings (the most popular hardware store here in Australia).

That’s $275 AUD or $176 USD – a high-volume painting company, like Best In West, might get the very same product for $190 AUD or $121 USD. When doing a whole house with multiple different paints, this can quickly add up to substantial savings.

You Don’t Always Need to Prime Pre-painted Surfaces

It’s always best to check first, but here are some basic rules that will go a long way in saving you both time and money:

• Water-based over water-based: no problem at all. Just clean the surface and apply your new coat. Light sand for best results and to remove any imperfections.
• Water-based over oil-based: No, not without a sand and oil-based primer. Water-based paint won’t stick properly to oil-based paint. It’ll peel or flake off.
• Oil-based over water-based? Absolutely fine.
• Paint over water-based enamel? First, sand and rough up the surface, and you’re good to go.

The biggest waste of money we often see is homeowners priming their interior walls before painting – there is absolutely no need. Your walls are already going to have been painted with a water-based paint 99.9% of the time.

The only time to do this would be when painting black walls white. And this isn’t to aid adhesion, it’s to save money on expensive paint, but using a cheaper product to cover the black with.

3. Don’t Bother Buying Cheap Paint Brands

This might seem counterintuitive; after all, you might think paint is just paint. But not so fast.

While it might be tempting to grab the cheapest tin on the shelf and hope for the best, the reality is that cheap paint almost always costs you more by the time you’ve finished the job.

Budget paint brands tend to have lower pigment levels and poorer coverage, which means you’ll likely need to apply more coats just to get the same finish a premium brand like Dulux or Taubmans could achieve in two.

That’s more time, more effort, and more litres of paint, which defeats the purpose of saving money in the first place.

Worse still, cheap paints often lack the durability and scrub-resistance that high-quality paints are designed for. In high-traffic areas or rental properties, you might find yourself repainting far sooner than expected because the finish simply can’t hold up to everyday wear and tear.

Chalky residues, uneven fading, and early flaking are all common signs of a poor-quality product.

How to Save Money Painting – The Right Way

As professional painters on the Gold Coast, we’ve tested them all — and we can confidently say: you’re far better off using a high-performance paint once than cutting corners and doing it twice, especially when painting your home.

An old shed, maybe, but even then we wouldn’t recommend it.

Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links, meaning that at no additional cost to you, I will receive a very small commission if you click through and make a purchase. These links help to pay the editorial costs of writing a blog. For more information, please read my full affiliate disclosure here.

I also use Artificial Intelligence Image generators to create some of my images. These are to show you examples of my ideas and inspiration when I cannot produce the real images myself.