Painting is a perfect way to spruce up a room or your whole home. It’s certainly a project that is within reach of even the newest DIYer’s in the crowd. There are lots of great color trends that develop each year to suit any taste. Did you know that the colour of the room you’re in can affect your mood? Check out our earlier article on color and mood to find out more.
Regardless of your choice of color schemes here are some tips from the pros that will make your project go a little smother and provide a perfect finish to your project.
10 tips from the Pros to improve your results
1) Prepare the surface first: You need to start with a perfectly smooth surface to end up with perfectly painted walls or woodwork. Take time to make repairs with spackle or joint compound in corners, and drywall joints. Repair nail and drywall screw heads that may have popped. After your repairs are dry, sand it smooth. You should also do the same with nail heads on your trim. As well as sanding out any burrs and rough spots.
2) Sand first: When sanding, sand the walls from the baseboard to the ceiling with fine grit sand paper on sanding pole. Then sand horizontally along the baseboard and ceiling. Don’t put a lot of pressure on the sanding pole as the head may flip and cause damage. An easy way to sand and flatten ridges around nail holes or the crevices of you trim is to use a fine grit sanding sponge.
3) Priming: Since you have taken the time to prep the walls properly make sure you take an extra step to avoid “flashing”. This is a term that is used to describe an uneven look or highs and lows from paint applied on the new patch next to the wall around it. To avoid this problem, you need to prime the patches before paining. One trick Pros use to achieve a nice uniform colored finish is to tint the primer to a similar color as the top coat. If you use a purely white primer on a dark color you will likely get an uneven finished color.
4) Cleaning: Paint will not adhere properly to a dirty wall. This is a common problem in a kitchen especially around a stove or cooktop area. Apply a degreaser, following the manufactures instructions. Remember to wear gloves and eye protection. When dry, rinse this area with a clean cloth and water.
5) Masking: When you take all the time to mask off window or door trim take an extra minute and press it into place with a putty knife. This will insure a proper bond and avoid the disappointment of having the paint blead around the edges onto the trim you are trying to protect.
6) Cutting In: One of the area’s most amateurs face is cutting in along ceilings. The trick to this process is to push the paint. It’s easy to create runs in the paint if you have too much paint on your brush. Start about ½’ away for the cut line and approach the cut line as you drag the brush along. Let the brush bristles push the paint into the cut in area along the ceiling or wall. Be careful not to push too hard and this causes the bristles to spread. Check out this great video for a tips on how to cut in.
7) Scrape a Ridge for Stucco: When you are painting walls next to a textured or stucco ceiling it is almost impossible not to get paint on the stucco bumps. One trick that is used is to scrape a small ridge with a screw driver along the edge of the ceiling. This allows the brush bristles to flow along the groove and eliminates getting paint on the ceiling.
8) One Wall at a time: It might seem like a good idea to do all the cutting in for the room and then go back and fill in. But don’t do it this way, cut in for one wall at a time. This allows you to work with a wet edge and roll on a seamless finish from the brushed in portion to the rolled area. Another trick is to cover the paint bucket or roller tray and brush with a damp cloth to keep them from drying out as you work on other areas.
9) Boxing your paint: Since there can be slight color variations between two cans of paint, pros mix them. All the paint cans are mixed together in five-gallon bucket. You can then pour a portion back into the gallon cans or paint tray that you will be using. This will always insure you have a consistent color on all the walls.
10) Wash the roller covers: Expensive or cheap you should wash new roller sleeves first to get off the little bits of fuzz that will otherwise end up on the wall. Just rinse them under running water and run your hands over them to remove the loose fibers. Afterwards you just need to gently squeeze and shake off the excess. No need to let them dry out completely.
