Safely getting spilled paint off the carpet

If you've ever been painting a room in your house or condo, you probably have felt the jarring feeling of helpless despair if you've knocked that paint brush or roller from your hand or ladder onto the carpet below. Now, drop cloths that cover all that floor should be in place, but in perfect Murphy's Law fashion, the one small area that is not covered is the place that painting assistant will usually fall onto.

What to do? With the majority of interior paint being of the latex-based kind, that means "easy cleanup" once drying has occurred. In fact, I've found that cleaning up acrylic latex paint to be far easier when dry than when wet, as opposed to a wine stain on a white tuxedo or something like that.

Anyway, do this: wait for the paint to completely dry on the carpet (unless a whole bucket has spilled, in which case you may be SOL), then use an organic carpet paste (I like Quick-n-Brite, personally) and a small wire brush. You'll be amazed how easily latex paint cleans up if left dried on the carpet surface (as opposed to deeply embedded into the fibers). In one case, a small razor blade and some minor "carpet shaving" was required, and the result afterward was a look of perfect carpet. So, don't fret next time that brush gets away from your hand and drops to the carpet below. All is not lost, except possible sanity for maybe 10 seconds.

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