How To Prepare To Paint A Bedroom

hand dipping a paint brush into a large tin of pink paint as it drips back into the pot

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To apply a perfectly smooth coat of paint to walls, ceilings, and woodwork, you must showtime with a perfectly smooth surface. One pro told us that "sander," would be a more than fitting job title for him than "painter," since he spends and then much time pushing sandpaper.

Sanding with the advisable abrasive paper helps level out spackling compound and drywall joint compound patches, flattens ridges effectually blast holes, and feathers out repairs to inconspicuously blend into the surrounding surface. Sanding also removes burrs and rough spots in painted wood trim, such every bit baseboard moldings and window and door casings. And roughing up a glossy painted surface with fine-grit sandpaper allows the new paint coat to adhere more than easily.

Use a sanding pole fitted with 220-grit sandpaper to sand the walls vertically from the baseboard up to the ceiling. Be sure to overlap each stroke slightly to go along from missing any spots. And then, sand horizontally along the tiptop of the baseboard molding and forth the tops of the walls at the ceiling. Don't apply too much pressure on the sanding pole or its swiveling head might flip over and damage the wall. Plus, sandpaper tends to load up (clog) when y'all press down also difficult.

To sand decorative woodwork, try using a sanding sponge, which gets into crevices and hands conforms to contours.

2 Press Tape With a Putty Knife

Painter'southward tape is an indispensable part of every paint job, especially when masking off wood trim. Only nothing is more than discouraging than peeling off the record only to discover that paint has bled through the tape and gotten all over the trim. To avoid the pain-in-the-neck task of scraping off the errant pigment, practise a thorough job of adhering the record to the trim earlier you start painting.

Apply the tape to the wood trim, then run a putty knife over the record to firmly printing it downwards for a good seal. That'll stop any paint bleeds. And be sure to use truthful painter's record, non masking tape. Masking tape leaves behind a sticky residue that's difficult to clean off. Plus, paint can crusade masking record to buckle and contraction, which lets paint seep below it. Painter's tape tin can be left on for days (some types up to two weeks) and withal peel off cleanly.

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When painting a room, don't carp lugging all the furniture out of the room. Instead, push button all the furnishings to the heart of the room and and then comprehend information technology with plastic sheets that are taped at the bottom. This will protect the furniture from paint drips and splatters, and besides from all the sanding dust.

Before the pros paint walls, they fill up holes and patch cracks with articulation chemical compound. But if you paint straight over the patched areas, the compound will suck the moisture out of the paint, giving it a flat, ho-hum look—a problem chosen "flashing." And those spots will look noticeably dissimilar from the rest of the wall. To avoid seeing patched areas through the finished topcoat of paint, it's important to first prime the walls.

However, instead of using white primer directly from the can, pros tint the primer with a little grayness paint or with the color of the finish pigment. Tinted primer does a better job of concealing patched areas and covering up the old paint color. Every bit a effect, the stop paint coat volition be more vibrant and may require fewer coats. This is especially true when painting over colors like red or orange, which could require 3 or more topcoat coats if you lot don't first use a tinted primer.

Don't cheap out on pigment and brushes. Cheap brushes are imitation economic system. Purchase the best brushes you can afford, clean them well, and they'll final you lot a lifetime. A $three plastic brush is going to arrive expect as if you lot smeared paint on the wall with a rake. And, the beard will fall out into the paint. Buy Wooster or Purdy paintbrushes, which cost a bit more than standard brushes, but are much more durable and use paint very smoothly. A quality 2½-inch-broad angled sash brush is an excellent all-round paintbrush. It's versatile and you tin can wash and reuse it until the bristles wear down to a nub.

It'south also important to purchase the best pigment yous can afford. It'll become on easy, offer the best coverage, and terminal a long time. Plus, you lot'll be able to launder off grubby fingerprints without taking off the paint. And the whole painting chore volition get quicker and easier—and look better in the end.

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6 Eliminate Brush and Lap Marks with Pigment Extender

The telltale sign that a room has been painted by a novice DIYer, not a pro, is that there are visible lap marks in the finished paint coat. The hugger-mugger to a finish that'due south free of noticeable lap marks and castor strokes is mixing a paint extender (AKA paint conditioner), such equally Floetrol, into the paint.

This does two things:

1) Information technology slows downward the pigment's drying time, giving you more time to paint over just-painted areas without getting ugly lap marks, which happens when you lot apply fresh paint to dried pigment.

2) Pigment extender levels out the paint, virtually eliminating brushstrokes. Pros employ extenders when painting drywall, woodwork, cabinets, and doors. Read the tin's label to determine how much extender to add together to your paint, but it'south typically 8 ounces of extender per one gallon of paint. If the paint is peculiarly thick, or if you're painting in very cold weather, more extender can exist added—up to about sixteen ounces.

7 Scrape a Ridge in Textured Ceilings

When painting along the superlative of a wall in a room with a textured ceiling, it'due south almost impossible not to go paint on the ceiling bumps. Pros have a simple solution: run the tip of a slotted screwdriver around the perimeter of the ceiling, scraping off a little bit of the texture. The screwdriver creates a tiny ridge in the ceiling, which the tips of your paint beard naturally glide into. At present, you can cut in around the ceiling without getting paint onto the ceiling. And you'll never fifty-fifty observe the missing texture.

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8 Scrape (Don't Tape) Windows

When painting windows, don't bother taping around the window frame and grill. That takes too long and paint unremarkably ends upwardly on the glass anyway. Attempt this pro fox instead: as you paint the window, let a little paint lap onto the glass. Once it's dry, simply scrape information technology off with a razor scraper. Just exist careful non to slice through the pigment bond between the wood and glass. Otherwise, moisture can seep into the woods and cause rot.

9 Box Paint for Consistent Colour

When you buy 2 or more cans of the aforementioned color paint, gauge what? They're almost never the aforementioned exact color. That'southward considering paint color varies very slightly betwixt cans. And that small difference can be glaringly obvious if you lot open up a new gallon halfway through covering a wall. To ensure color consistency from kickoff to cease, pros mix their cans of paint into a five-gallon saucepan, a technique known as "boxing" pigment. Then, you lot can pigment directly out of the larger bucket, which eliminates the need to pour pigment into a roller tray (though you should keep in mind that the heavy bucket is harder to move).

ten Finish One Wall Before Starting Another

Nigh DIY painters cut in all the room corners, and then go back and roll paint onto the walls, but that's not the correct mode to paint a room. Pros get a seamless look past cutting in one wall, and and then immediately rolling on the paint before the cut-in sections dry. This allows the brushed and the rolled sections to blend together beautifully.

Too, comprehend your paint saucepan, tray, or container with a clammy towel when switching betwixt brushing and rolling; that'll proceed your pigment and tools from drying out when not in employ.

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11 Buy an Actress Bucket or Two

It's smart to take a couple of make clean, empty buckets
on paw when painting because freshly shaken paint doesn't stay freshly shaken for very long. And yous can't bring settled paint back to life with a stir stick alone. So, you must cascade paint back and forth betwixt two buckets until you've mixed in the solids that accept collected at the bottom of each can. That'due south the best way, and really the only way, to ensure your pigment is properly and thoroughly mixed. And if you have paint in several unlike cans, mix those too to ensure color uniformity.

Odd as it may sound, it's important to launder make-new pigment-roller covers before using them to spread pigment. Pre-washing gets rid of loose bits of fuzz that inevitably come off once you beginning painting. Wash the covers with water and a fiddling bit of liquid soap, then run your hands upwards and down the covers to pull off whatever loose fibers, a practice called "preconditioning." And you can start using the roller covers right away; you lot don't have to look for them to dry.

thirteen Use Canvas Drop Cloths

Professional person painters don't use erstwhile bed sheets as drib cloths, and neither should you. Thin sheets won't stop splatters and spills from seeping through to your floor. And don't utilize plastic sheeting either. While plastic does contain spills, the paint stays wet for manner also long. And if you step in moisture paint, you'll end up tracking it throughout the business firm. Plus, wet pigment on slick plastic becomes very slippery.

Apply what the pros use—canvas driblet cloths. They're more expensive, just canvas isn't slippery, it absorbs splatters, and it'southward durable enough to terminal a lifetime. And unless you're painting a ceiling, you don't need a jumbo-sized driblet textile to make full the entire room. A canvass cloth that's only a few feet wide and runs the length of the wall is ideal for protecting the floor.

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Here's some other painter term for yous: "vacation." That's when you miss a spot without realizing it. It's like shooting fish in a barrel to do, peculiarly with like colors or rooms with bad lighting. So, get yourself a good, brilliant work lite and use information technology to check your work, either as yous go or when you finish a section. Holidays typically occur around the edges of a room, where you used a brush instead of a roller. Holidays are easy to set up when you lot're still working, but much more annoying after yous've cleaned up and put everything abroad.

15 Make clean Dirty Walls With Degreaser

Paint won't bond to greasy, dirty, dusty surfaces, such every bit kitchen walls above a stove, mudrooms where kids boot off their muddy boots, or areas effectually light switches that get swatted by dirty hands. In those cases, use a degreaser to make clean the surface prior to painting. Degreasers, which are besides chosen deglossers, cut through grease and crud to allow better paint adhesion. Be sure to read the label and follow directions because this stuff is stiff. And article of clothing rubber gloves and centre protection.

xvi Accept Off Those Electirc Plates

This is a no-brainer. Instead of laboriously masking off or cutting around electrical outlet plates and switch plates, grab your screwdriver and take them off. Then y'all'll exist able to quickly and easily paint around each electrical device without making a mess. Just be sure to keep track of all the screws, then you can put the embrace plates back on once the paint dries.

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17 Start With a Loaded Brush

Pros accept a "load-and-go" approach to painting. They load the bottom 1½ inch of their brush beard with paint and then tap each side of the brush against the inside of the can. That knocks off heavy drips and prepares the castor for painting.

By contrast, homeowners oftentimes accept a "load-and-dump" approach: they dip the castor into the paint, then drag the loaded bristles along the sides of the container, wiping off most of the paint. The result is a brush that's likewise dry and has too little paint.

18 Push Paint to Avert Runs

When your brush is loaded with paint, it'southward like shooting fish in a barrel to create drips and runs by applying too much paint in room corners or along wood trim. To avoid those issues, start brushing about one/2 inch abroad from the cut-in area. As the brush unloads paint, move closer and slowly drag the brush along the trim or corner. Let the bristles gently push the paint against the cut-in expanse where the walls meet. You may have to do this a couple of times to become complete coverage, but it'll avoid backlog paint collecting along woodwork and in corners.

19 Give Yourself a Good Ready

In painter lingo, a "bad set" is when yous're in a physically bad position while painting. For case, maybe your ladder isn't quite close plenty, or yous're in an awkward spot with your castor. The expert news is that most bad sets tin can be avoided. Just climb down and move the ladder. Sure, it'south annoying, merely it's not as annoying as falling into your pigment bucket considering y'all were hanging off your ladder like an America's Loving cup crew fellow member. And sometimes a bad set can be resolved by moving an obstacle. If the fridge is forcing you lot into a tough painting position, stop and gyre information technology out of the way.

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When you're set up to quit for the mean solar day—but haven't finished painting—leave the roller cover on the roller frame, so soak the cover in paint. Wrap the comprehend in a plastic bag to create an airtight seal. That'll keep the roller cover fresh until you render to painting the next day. If you can't render to painting for several days, pull the roller embrace off the frame and toss information technology out. Then use a new roller encompass the next fourth dimension.

As for your brushes, rinse them clean with warm, soapy water, specially if you're using latex pigment, which is water-based. Use pigment thinner to clean off oil-based pigment. Then rake the bristles out directly with a brush comb and sideslip the brushes back into their original covers or wrap them in newspaper.

Ezra Dyer Senior Editor Ezra Dyer is a Motorcar and Driver senior editor and columnist.