This post is sponsored by KILZ®. All opinions are 100% mine.
If you are doing a DIY painting project, a good coat of primer is one of those things that you are definitely going to need, trust me. Over the years, KILZ primer has kinda become the peanut butter to my jelly, the ying to my yang, the salt to my pepper. Do you see where I am going here?? 😉 To show you that I am not entirely crazy, I have rounded up 7 of our most popular All Things Thrifty projects that needed KILZ products to achieve the perfect end result.
A few months ago I did a fun make-over on my boys room! When I started the process, I knew the carpet had to go but wasn’t ready to actually replace it so I painted the floor with KILZ. I was totally surprised when I ended up loving how it looked!! It just brightened the room so much!
{Isn’t my little painting helper the cutest?}
I wrote this tutorial a few years ago about how to paint your front door, and it is still one of my most popular posts! By using KILZ during the process, I was able to achieve the bright look I wanted, plus I know that it helped out with durability all these years! I love how it turned out! 
Another project that rocked with KILZ and that we have loved since 2010 is our backyard block wall, and by wall I mean 10 foot cinder block TOWER! Our backyard neighbor’s house sits up above us, so the wall is huge. It’s a bit intense. HAHA. Anyway, to help break that up we added this wall mural and it’s been there ever since. Six years to be exact, and I still love it!
These amazing Superhero Signs were such a fun project that’s also on All Things Thrifty from 2010! Using MDF board for the base, they definitely needed a good coat of primer so that those vibrant colors could adhere! Aren’t they so fun?!
More recently, I designed and built these fun galvanized shelves! To cover the metal with paint, I primed them first! With KILZ as a base, it covered like a dream.
Primer is SUCH an important first step to painting projects! In this kitchen back splash, we primed the wall first to prepare the wall for the sticky tiles. Look at that after photo! It’s such a pretty backsplash!
OK. This final project I want to share was a HUGE one. Big. Daunting BUT totally worth it and I would do it again if I had the chance. We scored this piano on Craigslist for $50 bucks {can you believe that} and knew immediately that it would need some love! After taking it all apart and scrubbing it down, we primed it and painted it.
Isn’t the end result amazing! And I am happy to say that it has held up beautifully all these years! {However that blue wall has not and it is definitely no longer there! HA!}
Well have I convinced you that this stuff is important and works wonders?? Have other questions about it? Shoot us a question below and we will answer it quickly!
xoxo
Brooke
Now that you’ve seen the many ways I’ve used primer, I’ve teamed up with my friends at KILZ to give two lucky readers the chance to work with the product as well. In the comments below, tell me what project you’re going to be working on, and I’ll select two to receive 1 free gallon of KILZ!
My next BIG project is my piano…which I rescued from a relative on its way to DI. I never would have known to do a primer for that!! So thank you for the tip.
Does BB Frosch adhere ok once kilz is applied?
I’m still trying to convince my husband that our ugly orange piano needs painting. My next project will be my husband’s grandma’s hoosier cabinet. She wants to be aqua!
I wish I could post the room in our new house we are painting. It is dark green and looks like it has the chicken pox as we spent all of today filling in the holes. The ceiling is yellow from years of cigarette smoke even after washing it three times! Now we need to prime the glossy, hideous green and paint a pale grey! Still love your front door the best!!
We are finishing up painting every surface upstairs in our new to us house – ceilings and walls. We removed the 60’s thin wood-look panelling and put up drywall, pulled out the stained carpeting and underlay, and rebuilt the balances over the windows. The only thing we won’t have painted by the time we are done is the 80’s cabinets in the kitchen and bath, the white melamine ones with the oak strip across as a handle that are not so pretty. I’d love to paint the oak out and kilz would sure help with that. Then we tackle the downstairs, which will require moving closets, pulling down acoustic ceiling tiles, putting the washer and dryer in the area currently occupied by a half bath so we can put a full bathroom in the place currently occupied by the unfinished laundry, and installing flooring and a whole bunch of drywall before painting everything!
I have been getting up the courage to paint my childhood piano a light grey! I have been studying up on your painted piano post-just nervous about the taking apart and putting back together.
You can do it! If I can do it, I promise you can do it!
I have a vintage armoire that I happily lugged to my truck for $75. I’m wanting to paint it but I really think I need to put a primer down first so I don’t have any bleedthru. I think the kilz would give me the confidence that the end paint job will look beautiful!
I want to paint and repair the foundation of my house. Do a mural on the walls that are exposed!
Great idea!
Glad I read your post to learn about using Kilz as the coat and the base coat for projects. I never thought of that at all and I can understand exactly what you’re saying about what it does for the upcycling and repurposing of the items that your painting. Thanks so much for the tip…I appreciate it!
I have an old piano that could use a face lift… my kids love practicing after their lessons, I enjoy the joyful sounds… just need ithe piano to life is k joyful in our space… from your past post, sounds like KILZ is the way to go! Bring on the DIY project!