Lets talk turkey. Interior Painting, painting seems like a simple task at first glance , but it involves proper preparation and execution to achieve a beautiful finish. Patience is also needed because believe it or not it takes painting professional lots or practice to achieve their rate of painting. There are tools and tricks of the trade that will speed things up.
- plastic/painter drops
- Painter's tape
- 5 in 1 hand tool
- duster
- ladder
- brushes
- rolling pole
- 120 grit sandpaper
- 9 inch rolling cages
- spackle knives
- spackle compound
- vacuum
- paint tray/ liners
- screwdriver
- trash bags
First, You will want to clear the room needing painting from any moveable obstacles. This includes pictures, mirrors, toys, lamps, shoes, anything that you don’t want paint on and can be easily moved. Larger pieces of furniture, tables, beds, couches etc will need to be moved to the center of the room. You only need space for a ladder to fit around the perimeter.If you are doing ceilings leave a space accessible for a ladder if you have pot lighting or fans.
Secondly, you will “drop out ” the room, this painter’s term means to place drops in a room so as to cover the entire floor or perimeter with drop cloths. Painter’s plastic is used to cover the furniture which was not moved. If there are a lot spackling/sanding areas , I would recommend placing plastic around the perimeter (18 inches wide) and taping this to the baseboard. This saves time cleaning up all that dust created from sanding, You simply roll the plastic up carefully and discard.
Thirdly,. Any hardware should be removed at this time door handles, windows locks, cover plates. I do not remove thermostats or internet connection plates, phone jack plates. If I am only painting walls i will cover door handles/ thermostats /etc with tape. Tape and plastic are your friends it is better to be cautious than have something be ruined because you didn’t use tape.
Fourthly, for our purpose we will only doing be spackling slight imperfections and nail pops. Larger cracks and holes will require different procedures to properly prepare and paint. Remove nails with the 5-in-1 tool and tap the nail hole with the butt off the tool causing a small indentation. This indentation is filled with the spackling compound. It may be necessary to add additional layers of compound to make level. Once all spackling is dry and sand areas smooth. Take care to sand the edges. With an old brush dust away any residue onto the plastics. CAREFULLY wrap up the plastic around the perimeter and discard only leaving the plastic for furniture etc.
Fifthly, Baseboards may need to be sanded as well to remove some imperfections or use wood filler/ spackling compound to fill in some dents or nail holes, dry and then sand smooth
Sixth , caulk any crevices between walls and baseboards, wall and walls or miters( adjoining trim pieces meet) Let this dry. Dusting may be needed again
Lastly, before we actually paint, we need to spot prime those spackle areas. You can use extra flat ceiling paint , wall primer or oil primer all of these are acceptable to spot prime. Flashing may occur if we do not spot prime. Flashing is when paint has dried and the spackling shows through the finish paint. You don’t want your guests noticing where you spackled your wall.
Let us Paint
So you made its this far. Lets continue
We are finally ready to paint. what do I paint first ? Well a rule of thumb is “shit runs down hill”, so we start at the top
- Ceilings
- Crown Molding
- Walls
- Baseboards/Door/Windows
First, with a brush cut out the perimeter. Paint the outside perimeter of the ceiling and cut around any fans, pot lights, chandeliers etc. Makes sure to to paint enough area to easily overlap the 9 inch roller. This especially true around fans, we don’t want to bump those fans.
Next, Some house have crown molding again we paint these before the walls. This will give you crisp lines all the way through.
Third, walls always get 2coats of paint. this is because we want the protection of an added layer and full coverage . Think of a car does it only have one coat of paint. No it has primer layer, coat of paint, and layers of lacquer. How do I paint walls fast? We are applying 2 coats so we will roll out all the walls ( starting left to right) and then come back and cut the ceiling and baseboards(left to right and top then bottom). I do this because cutting takes longer than rolling. By the time i roll out the walls and cut the walls out (left to right and top then bottom); our first coat should be dry and be ready for the second coat.
The second coat is the coat that matters it will be what people see. Different paint and sheen have different application methods. Flat paints have no sheen or reflectivity ( will explain in later post) and the above method can be used again. Higher sheen paint reflect light so the final coat needs to be applied by cutting out a wall and rolling said wall. Doing this will ” keep a wet edge” and allow the paint to dry uniformly. Mattes, eggshells, satin in large room with lots of natural and artificial light tend to show ” picture boxing” ( you can see where a brush was used and where a roller was used). We use this process of cutting a wall and then rolling the wall until all walls are completed. Having a roller pole will speed this process up and save your back/ knees a lot pain.
Next we will commence trim. The walls may not be completely dry so we can start painting standing trim like doors windows and frames. Once the walls are completely dry, We can paint baseboards and returns( side of frames and windows touching the walls. Use tape on the carpet to protect from paint keep as close as possible to the baseboard.
Let the area dry and inspect any areas that may need to be touched up.
Clean up your brushes( i place in plastic to wash later) . Throw away the liners and rollers Throw away tape, carefully roll up the drops and shake them outside. replace all the outlets. Vacuum the area. FINISHED
I would wait 24 hours before hanging picture, TVs, or mirrors on the walls
There are many ways to paint a bedroom this is how i paint rooms. This is how i achieve a fantastic finish at a quick pace. These are the basic steps and should serve as a guide. Some steps can be done before or omitted. Whatever the pace or steps know that you to can paint like a professional.