Q: My wife and I live in an older, rustic home, and we’d like to freshen it up with some paint. What’s the best paint for wood surfaces in our home, indoors and out? Is oil-based or water-based the ...

Lauren has six years of experience writing and editing home improvement content. She covered lifestyle, DIY, design and cleaning at The Spruce for five years and contributed home improvement pieces to ...

Not long ago in this column, I shared why it’s so hard to preserve exterior wood using any number of products. One of them was paint. You may have been one of the many readers who have written to me.