painting a shed

ali-t

I have, horror of horror, blue sheds in my garden and they are looking a bit grubby and the paint is flaking off so I want to get them tidied up and looking neater.

Personally I am not keen on blue but am also not keen on diy and think I am probably less keen (and able) at diy than my dislike of the blue sheds. So my question is, is there an easy way to paint the sheds quickly and in a non-messy way?

Can sheds be painted with decking paint using the pads that come with decking paint? The thought of using a paintbrush and spending hours doing this fills me with dread.

Can I get away with just painting the most visible sides of the shed or will it look really bad? The gap between the shed and the fence is about 6" so not enough to get behind it but large enough to see that it would be a different colour than the rest of the shed.

Can the worst of the flaking paint be rubbed off but the rest just painted over or does it need to be sanded down?

Can I use brown paint over the blue and it would look ok e.g. using something like this? http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?action=detail&amp;fh_secondid=10299365&amp;fh_reftheme=promo_159030150,seeall,//catal!!!1/en_GB/categories<{9372013}/categories<{9372030}/categories<{9372124}/specificationsProductType=exterior_woodcare&amp;fh_view_size=10&amp;fh_start_index=0&amp;fh_location=//catal!!!1/en_GB/categories<{9372013}/categories<{9372030}/categories<{9372124}/specificationsProductType=exterior_woodcare/specificationsSpecificProductType=shed___fence_paint&amp;fh_eds=ß&amp;fh_refview=lister&amp;isSearch=false

All tips gratefully received as I have absolutely no idea when it comes to DIY.

ormus

i use the same stain as the fencing stain. a roller and a brush.
can do the whole shed in about an hour.

on bare wood though. its never been painted.

ali-t

Is that the normal indoor wall fluffy rollers or are there other ones that are for outdoors? I hadn't thought of using a roller, would definitely be much quicker than using a brush.

ormus

to be honest i dont think it matters that much. its a shed not blenheim palace.
i seem to remember i used a cheap sponge one.