Once I recognized that art supplies can substitute for construction materials, this opened up a world for me. For example, though miscommunication I had many holes to fill in some period kitchen cabinet doors in my house. The normal sequence would be filler, primer, cabinet paint. Instead I played with stiff acrylic modeling compound. I got the paint store to give me a sample of what they squirt into the paint, and I played around with the pigment and different mediums until the color and gloss was an exact match. Now I could fill each hole in one pass, no painting, and no one could find the hole afterwards.