You can't wait to get started on your home painting project, but taking a few minutes beforehand can save you time, money, and aggravation down the road. Looking to freshen up your home paint? read this book to get dozens of great home painting and decorating ideas, easy to implement tips, and inspirations. The book covers the following areas: * General Painting Tips * Outdoor Painting * Cleanup and Storage * Wallpaper and Wall Coverings * Other Wall Coverings * Wall Repairs and Ceramic Tile * Hanging Pictures and Mirrors Here's just a small sample of the tips included: Don't wipe your paintbrush against the lip ofthe paint can. The lip will soon fill up with paint which will run down the side and drip off. Use a coffee can to hold the paint instead. Wrinkling occurs when too much paint is applied or when the paint is too thick. You can correct wrinkling easily by sanding the surface and brushing on paint of a lighter consistency. If you want to be able to use a previous coat of exterior paint as a base for a new coat, the old paint should be no more than 5 years old. If you wait longer than that you'll have a major job of scraping, sanding, and spackling. Artificial light darkens color, so your paint will look lighter in the daylight. Ifin doubt when at the paint store, take the container outside to examine the color. All paint dries to a lighter shade than the one you see when it's first applied to the surface you're painting. Color can saturate your eyes. When mixing paint, look away at a white surface for several minutes to allow your eyes to adjust so that you can judge the color accurately. To get the correct "feel" for spray painting and to determine the correct spray distance from the object to be painted, first experiment with a sheet of cardboard as the target area. Make a paint holder from a coat hanger to keep your hands free when painting. Open the hanger and bend it in half; then bend it into an "S" to hook over the ladder and hold your paint can. To avoid painting a window shut, gently slide the sash up and down as the paint hardens but before it forms a seal. If you are working on a ladder in front of a closed door, lock the door so that no one can inadvertently swing the door open and send you sprawling. Record how much paint is required to cover each room by writing the amount on the back of a light-switch plate. When you remove the switch plate before repainting, you'll be reminded of how much fresh paint you need. Do tiny spots need a paint touch-up? If you use cotton swabs instead of a brush, you won't waste paint and you won't have to clean a brush. When positioning a ladder against a house or tree, it is safest to position it so that the distance from the base of the ladder to the house or tree is one quarter of the ladder's extended length. Otherwise the ladder may fall forward or tip backward. Spring is the ideal time to paint the exterior of a house. Do it as soon as the weather turns warm enough, but before the tempera ture gets too hot. In very hot weather paint dries too quickly and leaves marks where strokes were overlapped. When painting the outside of your house, fold newspapers over the tops of doors and then close them. You won't paint the doors shut. Don't use a flame to soften alligatored paint. The flame can shoot into a crack and ignite the sheathing. Paint will not bond on a surface wet from morning dewar on a prime coat not thoroughly dry. And without proper bonding, paint will peel. Be sure to wait for dew to dry before painting. If using an oil-based paint on an area that has suffered mildew, add a mildew inhibitor to the paint. (This isn't necessary with water-based paints, which don't contain the oil that fungus feeds on.)