Best Advice for Painting a Room

You start doubting your color scheme and your ability to paint a single room, let alone an entire home. When painting a room, it helps to have advice from the experts. The Painting Company can help you achieve your perfect project when you follow these tips.

Know Your Product

You should know which paint works best on which surface. For ceilings, you should choose a flat paint. This type of paint is perfect for ceilings, but you can also use it on walls. If you ever need to touch up your paint, flat paint is the perfect choice for a quick makeover. However, this type of paint can prove difficult to clean.

Eggshell is ideal for areas that do not receive a lot of traffic, such as hallways leading to basements or laundry rooms. Beware – eggshell paint is easily tainted, so you should not use it for well-trafficked rooms. If you want a paint that lasts, a satin finish is the best way to go. It may cost more, but it is low-maintenance and lasts longer in high-traffic areas.

Semi-gloss is great for those areas of your home where you want to highlight features, such as moldings and trims. However, if you use a gloss finish on walls, it will likely result in defects showing through no matter how well you apply the product. Always read the instructions on the can. The more information that’s available on the can, the more likely it is that the product is good.

Prepare the Room

Always make sure you have everything you need before you start. Where you can, clear the room. The general rule is that anything you don’t want to paint, protect from paint. If you have a leather sofa, you won’t want it covered in paint. If you can’t move it out of the room, make sure it is protected with drop cloths.

Lots of tape is recommended for amateurs. Unless you have the skilled hand of a professional painter, do not risk splashing or spilling. Cover all your valuables because it only takes one slip to destroy your prized possessions with paint. This is not a drill – risk the possessions you love the most at your own peril.

Check for Defects

Now that you have your painting surface isolated, it’s time to look for defects. There is no point going to the trouble of blocking off certain areas if you are not going to check for defects on your work surface. Your walls are your canvas so if there are any imperfections, now is the time to find them. You can make general repairs using sandpaper and fillers.

For more serious blemishes, you may need to re-plaster before painting. Wall defects are not something you can simply paint over. If you do, you will have paintwork that sticks out like a sore thumb. This isn’t a good look for friends, family or prospective buyers. Take the time to ensure your surfaces are smooth and your paint project will look much better and last longer, too.

Painting Your Room

Different painters have their own ideas about where to start painting a room. We suggest starting with areas such as door frames and trim. For a novice painter, the trims and awkward angles in the room are always good places to get out of the way. You will find painting the rest of the room much easier when you start off with the painstaking areas.

If you are planning on using rollers, you cannot go wrong with the “W” pattern for applying paint from one side of the wall to the other. Not only is this method more efficient for covering a wall without overlap, but it also takes less time. Once you have used the W method a number of times, you can use vertical strokes to fill in any missing spaces.

Professional Painters

Sometimes it is better to bring in professional painters if the job is too big. It is okay to acknowledge that you need help. Painting is a craft and those who do it for a living put their heart and soul into getting it right. If you work with the right company, you can realize your vision together in perfect cooperation.

If you are having trouble painting one or more rooms, call The Painting Company today. We are your number one choice for residential painting projects. Our team will sit down with you, assess your needs and then deliver every time, all the time.