Besides buying an arts and crafts bed for your bedroom or an elegant wood bookshelf for your home office, simply painting a room can easily freshen it up, giving it an instant new look. Yet many homeowners dread interior painting. Fortunately, if you know what you’re doing and how to paint in the most efficient manner, painting the inside of your home isn’t that difficult. Following are some basic interior painting tips that will help make your next painting project run much more smoothly.
1. Avoid trying to prep the area and get it painted all in one day.
Trying to cram everything in will only leave you feeling rushed, which in the end can lead to a bad paint job. It’s a better idea to set aside a separate day when you can do all the prep work for painting. For seldom-used rooms, this can even be done a few days ahead. To prepare a room for painting, you need to focus on taping the walls, laying any drop cloths, moving the furniture out of the way, and gathering all the painting supplies in the room.
2. Don’t try to paint over damaged walls.
Before starting any painting project, you need to look over the walls and fix any cracks or holes there may be. Any cracks and holes you find can be easily fixed with a drywall kit and some sandpaper. Be sure to do this at least a day before you paint. That way the drywall plaster will have some time to dry and you’ll have time to sand down the area as well.
3. Choose the best brushes for the paint job.
Natural bristled brushes always work best for oil-based paints. On the other hand, for water-based or latex paint, synthetic bristled brushes are best, as they will give you an even coat. Foam rollers are the most efficient way to paint a larger space. For trim and windows, though, you’ll need smaller brushes.
4. Always use a primer to achieve a more professional look.
A primer will make the paint go on a lot more smoothly. Furthermore, it also helps you avoid any possible tainting from the previous wall color. You can even have your primer tinted to match your base coat color. This will often allow you to avoid having to put a second coat of paint on the walls.
5. Be sure to use painter’s blue tape for any areas that you don’t want to get paint on, such as doorway frames, trim, and windows.
When this tape is applied to a smooth surface, it won’t let the paint seep through to the areas underneath. After the paint dries, simply remove the tape. The nice thing is, you don’t have to worry about any of the paint coming off with it.
6. Have plenty of old rags for any mistakes that may happen.
It is an unavoidable part of painting that you will drop some paint on the trim or hit something with a brush that you shouldn’t.
7. Use even strokes when painting to get an even coat.
It’s essential to have plenty of natural light in the room so you can see where you are painting and also find any areas you might have missed.
8. Be sure to keep any leftover paint for future touch-ups or fixes.
If you don’t have the space to store a large paint can that only has a small amount of paint, then pour the leftover paint into a glass jar with a tight lid and store it that way. The jar then needs to be labeled with the exact color of the paint, the date, and the room you used it in.
Interior painting projects are never as scary as they seem. Simply follow these easy tips. In no time at all, you’ll be well on your way to changing the décor of your home.