My Top 10 Interior Painting Secrets

I love to paint.  I know, I am a weirdo.  But, here’s the thing, paint is one of the really inexpensive personalized changes that you can make to a room, and still get huge impact.  It can totally change the entire feel when you walk into the room, and once you rip off the first timers band-aid, it’s totally not that bad.  It’s like a big giant art project.

Quite a few readers have asked me to give some of the little tips I’ve picked up over years and years of painting and re-painting rooms, so I thought a top 10 was in order:

1. PREP.  I cannot emphasize that enough.  Don’t skip prep.  By prep, I mean taping.  I know it’s time consuming, but if you put the time in up front, it will save you tons of time during the actual painting process.  It will also minimize the amount of cussing you do, I promise.  I use 1″ blue tape and tape all of the baseboards.
2. Lay down canvas on the flooring.  You might think you are going to be careful, but seriously, paint is like a two year old with an ice cream cone–it will baffle you how it can get it the places it does.  Just lay down the canvas {which is one time purchase you can use over and over again}.  You can go the cheaper route and use plastic sheeting, but it just leaves puddle on the plastic, instead of absorbing it, so you inevitably step in it and drag the spill/splatter around in your socks.
3. I always use plastic tray liners like these.  They save a ton on clean-up, and cost next to nothing at Home Depot.  It’s is so much better than trying to clean out your metal tray.  Plus, if you let the paint dry out completely on the plastic  liners, you can just toss them in the garbage when you are done.
4. To decide how much paint to purchase, I usually follow this general rule of thumb:  one gallon will cover about 350 square feet of surface area.  Take the time to measure the walls and do the quick math.  It will save you from over-purchasing–or worse, under-purchasing and having to hit the store mid-project.  {Make sure to have a little extra to keep in the garage so that you can do small touch-ups.}
5. Finish one wall before starting another.  I used to cut everything out and then go back and roll.  Then, someone told me that the paint doesn’t blend as well that way, because of how it dries.  So, now I take the time to cut out one wall, then I immediately roll that wall.  And you know what?  It really does blend more uniformly.
6. Invest in a nice brush.  Seriously, this is a biggie for me.  I have one nice brush that I trim everything out with.  It will hold up for MANY painting projects if you take care of it {don’t let paint dry on it, clean it, shake it out, and lay it flat to dry after washing}.
7. Roll in a W pattern.  Instead of rolling your walls straight up and down, roll in a W pattern on the wall, working your way up, down and across.  It blends better than straight up and down.
8. Mix paint if you have purchased more than 1 gallon.  Get a 5 gallon bucket and mix the gallons together.  Even though you have ordered the same color mix, they can vary just enough that you will be able to notice.  Mix the gallons together in a 5 gallon bucket and stir them with a stir stick.  Then work with that paint.  It will give you a more unified finish.
9. Wash your rollers BEFORE you use them.  Those babies always have fuzz that inevitably sticks to your wall when you first roll them.  Unless you are going for matted fuzz on your wall, just take the time to wash them with water and a little dish soap.  Rinse well and then push the water off with your hand.  They will be dry enough to work with right away.
10. If you need a primer {which largely depends on the color you are painting or the color you are painting over}, have the store add a little color to the primer.  It will make priming so much faster, and more effective.

That’s really about it.  Really, don’t be intimidated by painting rooms yourself.  As long as you follow steps one and two, there is really nothing that can’t be undone.  If you don’t like the color, you can paint over it.

~Mavis