The DIY Guide to Painting a Room Like a Pro

Woman holding paintbrush with blue paint

Painting is one of the simpler tasks when it comes to renovating a home. As a result, you should be able to get excellent results from painting one of your rooms on your own so long as you are willing to put in sufficient amounts of time and effort. After all, even if you do not have any expertise and experience when it comes to painting, you should be able to pick them up, particularly since there is so much information out there that exist for the sole purpose of helping people who share the same thoughts as you.

However, with that said, painting does require some precision and care to be done right. While it’s easy to paint, it’s not always easy to paint right. Here are some suggestions that you should use when you are about to paint one of your rooms on your own instead of entrusting it to a contractor:

Color Selection

You should start by making sure that you know what colors you want to use for your room. Generally speaking, this means asking the people selling you the paint that you are going to use for samples of what the paints actually looks like once the painting process has been completed. In some cases, you might also be able to see what combinations of colors will look the best while also asking their professional opinions, which can tell you about possibilities that you have never imagined. This process is important because you do not want to end up regretting your color choices, which can result in either you having to waste a lot of time and effort repainting your room or you having to put up with a color scheme that you cannot stand.

At the same time, you should make sure to buy all of the painting tools and supplies that you will be using since you cannot run out to buy whatever you might be missing in the middle of your painting without ruining the results. In other words, you should make sure to plan ahead so that you know what you will be doing as well as what you will be doing it with.

Protecting the Room

Before you start painting your room, you need to make sure that its contents will be protected from the paint. In some cases, this means moving them out of the room into some other space for a short period of time while the painting is completed. In other cases, this means covering them with some sort of material that will not let the paint through because they either cannot be moved out of the room or would be too inconvenient to move out of the room. Please note that you should consider how paint moves when you are deciding what will have to be moved and what will have to be covered. For example, wet paint can drip downwards, meaning that you need to exercise extra care and caution when it comes to your floor. Similarly, wet paint can splatter, meaning that you need to be extremely careful with the contents even if you think that they are far away enough to not need protection. As a result, drop cloths and masking tape are must-haves.

Prep your wall

Once you have made sure that the contents are protected, you should prepare your wall for painting. First, this means cleaning it so that the paint will be able to adhere to the material of your wall rather than whatever is clinging to the surface. Second, this means removing protrusions and filling in holes so that you will have a flat surface to work with, which is extremely important for ensuring the right results. Naturally, this means either removing or masking any hardware that might be installed on your walls as well.

Primer

You start by putting primer onto your walls since the primer will make it easier for the paint to stick onto your walls. Once the priming has been finished, you can put the actual paint onto your walls. Finally, once your paint has finished drying and you have corrected any errors that you have made in the course of your painting, you can remove your painting tools and supplies before removing all of the measures that you have put into place to protect not just your room but also its contents.

What to use

Generally speaking, you should consider using a paint roller as well as a paintbrush for painting your room. Like their names suggest, a paint roller is more suitable for painting large swathes of surfaces at a time, while a paintbrush is more suitable for more delicate work. However, it is important to note that this is a matter of convenience more than anything else, meaning that you can get away with using a paintbrush for all of your painting. In contrast, you probably cannot do the same with a paint roller since its size increases the chance of the paint landing on places where it was not supposed to land, meaning that it can be as frustrating when it comes to more delicate work as it is useful for the literal broad strokes.

Speaking of which, there are times when you can get away with not using primer, but generally speaking, it is probably a good idea so long as you choose the right combinations of primer and paint. For example, if you are going to be using water-based paints on top of oil-based paints, you are going to need primer to make them stick. Similarly, a white primer beneath a light-colored paint results in a better look. If you are not sure what you want, make sure to ask the person who is selling you your painting tools and supplies.

Further Considerations

With that said, you should remember that you are not guaranteed to get good results by painting one of your rooms on your own. As a result, if you are not confident in your ability to pick up the right painting expertise and experience by spending however much time and effort that you can schedule from your normal schedule, you should entrust the task to a contractor that you believe can be trusted. However, so long as you are willing to spend sufficient expertise and experience, you should be able to solve any issue that you may come across, particularly if you are willing to ask other people for their advice whenever you need it.

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