Most people find themselves having to give the walls of their homes a fresh coat of paint. Whether you are redecorating your home in Locust Grove and need a new color for an accent wall or are moving into a new house and ready to give every room a new coat of paint, there are some tricks for painting walls that can help everything go smoothly.
Tricks for Prepping the Room
Center it all
Instead of moving the furniture out of the room, move everything to the center and cover it with plastic sheets like these or a canvas drop cloth. Don’t forget to cover the flooring near the wall too. Even the most seasoned pros can spill a drop.
Sand it down
Use sandpaper to sand down all the imperfections on the wall. Afterwards run a microfiber cloth or a vacuum with the brush setting along the walls to capture all the dust that you don’t want in the paint. You can also use a tack cloth to collect all the dust.
Wash the rollers
Have you ever had to pick tiny pieces of fuzz off the wall because of a roller? Rollers tend to shed, so the day before you plan to paint, give them a wash with some water and let dry. This will help to get all the fuzz off of the rollers and off of the walls of your home in Locust Grove. You can also use some painter’s tape wrapped around your hand to to pull the fuzz out of the roller.
Tricks for Painting Walls
One wall at a time
When you start painting, complete one wall before moving onto the next. Go from top to bottom and try to avoid continuously going over areas that you’ve already painted. Doing so can leave streaks and an uneven paint color when everything dries.
Use Protection
Not so confident in your painting skills? Use painters tape, not masking tape, to block paint from getting on trim. If you’ve got to paint baseboards, try out this adhesive carpet shield to help keep paint from getting on the carpet of your home in Locust Grove.
Don’t do all the cut ins first
When you do all the cut ins (using a brush to get at the edges of walls) and then go back and roll the walls, you can later see the differences between the paint. If you’ve got a helper, one person can do the cut ins and the other can follow behind with a roller. If you are on your own, try to only cut in smaller sections that you can roll before the cut in dries.
Stir often
Paint in a can settles. Even though it’s been mixed at the store, you need to mix it again when you start and often throughout your painting time. This helps to ensure that the color goes up on the wall evenly. If you are painting a large room, you can also box the paint. Since the color of paint can vary between cans, you can pour the cans into a large bucket and stir. While this bucket is heavy to move, it can help keep a consistent color throughout a larger room.
Rubber bands
If you’ve got a smaller can of paint, wrap a rubber band around the height of the can. Use the band to wipe off excess paint from your brush. You can use a small nail and hammer to poke a few holes into the rim of the pain can. If paint collects in the trough it will drip back into the can.
When you are done for the day
Wrap it up
Ever run out of time while painting? Wrap a wet roller in a plastic bag and place it in the refrigerator. Then, it will be ready to go the next day.
Label the can
If you don’t use all the paint, label the lid of the can with the color and room where the paint was used. This will help you pick the correct can when you need to do a touch up.
