(A big “thank you” to our friends at Langwarring Plumbing Company for sponsoring this article!)
Are you ready to put your crafting skills to work making the inside of your home look great? Painting is an amazing way to give any room a serious facelift—and express your family’s personality. But before you start it’s a good idea to take a few tips from the pros.
Inspect Before Starting
The pros at Langwarring Plumbing Company know all too well how quickly moisture can destroy a paint job. Before you go to all the expense and work of getting the perfect color on your walls it’s a good idea to have the area inspected. Pay careful attention to any stains in the existing paint or damaged drywall—if you find either it’s possible that you have a leak inside the walls that needs to be addressed before you get started.
Also make sure the wall clean and ready for painting. You should never paint straight over dirty, and oily surfaces because the paint is going to end up peeling off.
Get Your Supplies
Make sure you have everything you will need before you pop open that first can of paint: drop cloths to protect the floors and any furniture you don’t remove from the room, masking tape to createe a sharp line where one color of paint meets another, rollers and trim brushes, and paint stirring sticks. It’s also a good idea to make sure you get enough paint to complete your project. If you have to pick up another can in order to finish make sure you return to the same store with an empty can—or a picture of the top of an empty can—to make sure you get exactly the same shade and type of paint.
If you noticed damaged areas during the inspects, also pick up putting to repair those areas. You’ll also want to make sure the patched area has the same texture as the rest of the wall. Using primer over patched areas will also help prevents the appearance of blotchy areas.
Start Painting
Paint your trim before you start work on ceilings and walls. You can easily tape off the trim later instead of the wall. Usually you will need more than one coat of paint to hide the trim’s underlying color. If you want to have a really smooth finish, it’s a good idea to sand the trim before applying each coat of paint.
Once you start working on the walls, try to avoid the lap marks by simply rolling up the wall’s full height, all while you keep wet edge. The lap marks tend to happen when you paint over one part that already dried. Wet edges are maintained by dipping your roller into the paint tray frequently.
If you want your edges to be perfect, be sure the paint dries before you cut off the tape. As paint forms film between wall and tape, you will tear dried paint as you remove the tape. Try to slice right through your film with the use of a sharp knife as you removed the tape from completely dry paint.
Do you have great tips for painting? Fun decorative wall projects? We’d love to have you share. Comment below!
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