We spent a hard-working 24 hour stretch this weekend finishing up a master bedroom remodel that had fallen into a bit of a dormant state for a “month or so”.

If I had known how easy this was going to be, I would never have let the half-finished state persist for as long as I did. But then again, if I hadn’t been contacted recently by the folks at Olympic Paints with an offer to try out their Olympic ONE paint and primer in one product, it wouldn’t have been as easy as it was by any stretch.

I’ve always been a believer in buying good paint but I haven’t always done it! That’s because “good paint” can cost big bucks and spreading paint that costs in the ballpark of $50 per gallon on my interior walls and trim just never could reconcile in my mind.

Olympic claimed that their Olympic ONE paint performed similarly to top shelf paints at about half the cost. When a brand reaches out to bloggers, it’s usually because they already know they have something great and they just want people to know about it.  So I decided to try it out and finish up the never-ending bedroom project in the process.

In a word… Wow!

Before..

and after..

The pictures show how great the project turned out.  I can’t tell you how nice it is to finally be waking up to a beautifully finished room (not that any room of mine will ever be truly done… as soon as I get things finished we start another remodel!).

The paint looks great! But any paint can look good in pictures, eventually.

What you can’t see in the pictures is the process of getting from point A to point B. Did it involve two coats or five?  Did it require sanding and if so how much? How fast did the paint dry? How is the coverage per gallon? What does the finished surface feel like? Etc., etc., etc…

Here are a few things I noticed while using this paint for the first time. If you’re doing a painting project, just go by some and you’ll see. At $25.00 a gallon give or take, you won’t be sorry.

Olympic ONE Interior Paints

Covers Great —

“Covers Great!” and “Great Coverage” are two different statements when it comes to paint.

“Great Coverage” means a paint covers a large area on a per gallon basis. On that count this paint is about average, but given the rest of the great qualities, average is really good because many high-end paints give up great coverage in exchange for the rest.

“Covers Great” on the other hand is a reference to how well the paint covers the work-surface with a single coat. In this project, for example, I had three surface types to deal with.

First, I had previously painted bright yellow walls.  Yellow is one of the hardest to cover colors there is and usually requires three coats. The Olympic ONE is a primer and paint in one product and it almost completely covered my yellow walls in just one coat and left not even a trace of the previous color after an easy second coat.

Second, I had a huge amount of unfinished wood to paint. An entire wall unit and custom bed had to be done and raw wood rarely covers perfectly in just two coats.  The Olympic ONE nearly covered new wood in one coat and after the second coat was applied the finish was impeccable.

Finally, there was the meanest surface I know of… brown hardboard (often called Masonite). This is the nastiest stuff ever to paint with a brush or roller. I’ve never been able to get decent results without spraying it.

This project had a small end panel I had made with custom beveled-edge strips of Masonite and it was too small to bother with getting a spray-rig set-up.  So I hit it with the Olympic ONE. This time, it clearly needed a second coat, but I was thrilled to discover that two coats was all it needed.  I’ve put four coats on this stuff with other paints and still seen it bleed through, so two coats was a major victory.

Lays Out Smooth —

When a paint “lays out” that means it flattens or smooths as it dries. The more common alternative is that what you see when you paint it on is what you’ll see when the paint dries, so if you have brush strokes when it’s wet, you’ll have them when it’s dry. Professional painters deal with this by using very expensive brushes, thinning paint, spraying, or one of a hundred other tricks.

If you’re doing a DIY project or an overnight 24-hour marathon remodel, you don’t have time for all of that and what you really want to do is “just paint it”. I was thrilled to discover that the Olympic ONE Satin Finish paint I used on the white woodwork “laid out” extremely well and resulted in a smooth finish almost as good as I would have gotten by spraying.  And I used a cheap $5.00 brush for most of it. (I’ve regressed into the habit of buying a cheap brush or two for each project instead of properly cleaning my tools…don’t tell my Uncle Mickey who taught me better)

I also never brought out a piece of sandpaper… If I wanted a “super smooth” surface I could have sanded between coats but without any sanding at all the finished surface is smooth to the touch and looks great.

Doesn’t Run Easily —

The Olympic ONE paint is thick and has good adhesion so it’s not prone to runs.

Here’s an example anyone who has painted an interior wall will relate to. You roll over an existing screw where a picture was hung. You get a run every time, right? Not with this paint. You might get a run if you’re laying it on thick, but you won’t get many and they don’t run far. Compared to most paints you can almost say “this paint doesn’t run” but to be accurate I’ve gone with “doesn’t run easily”.  The helpfulness of this quality on a job with lots of nooks and crannies and corners and edges is hard to overstate.

Doesn’t Drip Everywhere —

The thickness and adhesion properties of this paint work to keep it on the brush or roller. Most paints will do one of two things without fail. Either they will make you darn glad you put down that drop cloth or darn sorry you didn’t! I’m not recommending you work without a drop cloth, but I will say that this paint sure resulted in less mess than anything I’ve EVER used. I’m a messy painter, just ask my wife. This time, not so much.

Great Fill Qualities —

The last thing I’ll say about the Olympic ONE interior paints is that they can greatly reduce the amount of caulking you’ll need to do. Brad nail and trim nail holes filled completely without the need of any filler or caulking at all. Larger holes such as full-sized sunken phillips screw heads filled to the point of being passable for all but the highest standard.  Joints in boards, corners, etc. all filled beautifully with just the paint.

Buy Olympic ONE Paints at Lowes

Getting your hands on some of this awesomeness to see for yourself is easy. II just walked into the local Lowe’s store and up to the paint counter and put in my order on the spot. They mixed it up while I shopped and it was all pretty painless.

The colors I used are:

Woodwork: Snowy Mount — Satin Finish
Walls: Cosmic Rays — Eggshell
Ceiling: Snowy Mount — Flat