Seven Tips for Easy Painting

1. Preperation is everything. Before you start even thinking about painting a room, think about your color pallet. You don’t want to pick a color that will clash with your exsisting furniture. If you need to, use one of those color matching kiosks, every big home improvement store has one.

2. Make a list. When you think about painting, you think about brushes, and cans of paint, right? But you also need masking tape, drop clothes, rollers and roller covers, rags paint pans. If you’re using a dark color over a light surface you may consider using a base primer.

3. Pick the right kind of paint. For indoor paints, there are flats, satins, semi-gloss and high gloss finishes. For kitchens and high trafic areas, a semi-gloss of high gloss is the easiest to keep clean, and looks bright and new. For a more subdued bedroom or study, satins and flats would be ok. Outdoor options include weather protection and water proofing. The quality of paint also matters; and generally, the more expensive the paint, the longer it lasts.

4. Preparing the room. This is the single most important part of painting, good preperation. In order to do it right, you need to clear the room of all obstructions, tape off the areas you don’t want painted and cover the floor with sturdy drop cloths.

5. When painting NEVER wear good clothes. You ever heard the axiom; ‘A painter’s getup?’ Well, it means, wear the rattiest, ugliest, oldest clothes you have.

6.Now you’re ready to paint. Paint pans and rollers are best for walls. I personally prefer sponge brushes for the edges, you know, the cheap, disposable kind. If you like those heavy duty, expensive edger doo-dads with the wheels, more power to you, and good luck making it work.

7. Once you’ve gotten the desired number of coats on, let the paint dry for a minimum of twelve hours. This is important, because paint needs to be more than dry; it needs to b e set. Premature jostling can cause scratches and imperfections on the painted surface.

And on the note of faux finishing, ragging, or any of that other fancy stuff, again, if you like it, more power to you. But don’t look here for advice, because I can never get it to work. Hopefully, if you have followed these steps and there have been no large problems in the way, you have a beautiful new room to enjoy.