WHEN IT’S THAT TIME OF YEAR TO STAIN OR PAINT AN OUTDOOR FENCE, get ready for sticker shock when you hit the paint aisle at Home Depot, Lowe’s or any other big box  home improvement center.

MOST BRANDS OF outdoor paint cost anywhere from $25 to $38 per gallon. If you are planning on painting a sizable portion of fence, you’ll need at least several gallons to get the job done. For an example of how much paint may be needed to paint an outdoor fence, we recently painted the equivalent of three large wood gates on both sides and one gallon was a wee bit short of covering all of the wood.

    WE ARE GOING TO SHARE A SECRET about how you can get a name brand outdoor paint at Home Depot for less than sticker price:  “OOPS” Paint. Look for “OOPS” Paint in the paint department–usually near the paint-mixing stand.

“OOPS” paint works like this:  Customers order a batch of paint to be customized to their liking. Let’s say they order 6 1-gallon cans of Burnt Umber. After they get their project painted, the customer may have 2 cans left over because he over-estimated his paint needs.

Home Depot takes back unopened cans of paint even if it has been custom-tinted. As a result, a thrifty customer can return two 1-gallon cans of paint, get reimbursed the $75 bucks it cost him, and Home Depot is stuck with the custom tint. Thus, “OOPS” paint is born.

Home Depot marks returned, unused paint down to fabulously low prices that make it disappear off the shelf faster than you can say “dropcloth.” We purchased our gallon of a customer’s unwanted “Rich Brown” fence stain for $7.  You heard us right; $even Dollars! Thank you, Home Depot!

   Another painting tip about saving money on painting or staining a fence is to USE DISPOSABLE “chip” PAINTBRUSHES to get the job done.  These brushes come in different widths, with the 3-in. size suiting most fence painting projects. You can give some more money to Home Depot and Lowe’s OR look for chip paintbrushes at Big Lots, Dollar Tree and Dollar General for good deals.

Lastly, you should pop by Home Depot often to check out the “Oops” supply because it can be feast or famine. Also, resist being like us — we’ve ended up with several sections of fence, each painted a different color, thanks to our magnetic draw to “Oops” paint.