A fresh coat of paint is the simplest and most inexpensive way of adding a fresh lease of life to the walls of your house be it the interior walls or the exterior ones. A good paint job will have a lasting impression on the minds of your friends and visitors. However, a small mistake on your part can ruin all your efforts to make the walls look attractive. Wall painting tips includes information related to planning and preparation in order to avoid any goof ups.
How to Paint Interior Walls
Most people find interior painting more challenging than exterior painting. This is because you have to prepare the entire room in advance so that you can carry out the task hassle free. A few helpful room painting tips are as follows:
Prepare the Room
The carpet and the furniture of the room need to be protected from damage caused by dripping paint from paint roller or brush. Gather all the furniture in the middle of the room and cover them up with big plastic sheets. If the room is not very spacious, then you should temporarily shift the furniture in another room or garden. Thus you will get enough space to move around freely. Cover up the carpet and floor with tarps and fix the sheets tightly with the floor with masking tape. This is done to ensure that sheet does not get displaced when you walk around on the floor.
Prepare the Walls
All curtains, wall hangings, electrical outlets, light fixtures, hardware should be removed from the wall surface. Those which cannot be removed should be covered up with plastic bags. If there are some nails on walls, then you have to either remove them or hammer them into the wall. Any holes or cracks on the walls should be repaired. Clean up the wall to get rid of the dirt and debris as they can prevent the paint from bonding well with the wall surface.
Select the Right Paint
Selection of the right kind of paint is a very important part of wall painting. When you are doing the wall painting yourself then you must opt for latex paints as they are easy to apply. Semi-gloss paints are ideal for kitchen and bathroom walls as they are exposed to a lot of water every day. Choosing interior paint colors is a major concern. When the size of the room is small, opt for light colors. Dark shades are suitable for large rooms only.
Use Primer
Before application of paint, apply one or two coats of primer on the walls. This makes the surface even and painting the wall becomes lot more easier. Moreover, if there are some blemishes or stains or unevenness on the wall, then they get covered up by this coat of primer.
Follow the Right Painting Technique
To begin with, paint those areas of the walls which are difficult to reach out, that is, the edges and the corners. Apply the paint in these areas using a normal paint brush. Make short and even strokes to create a border along the edges of the walls. Then proceed towards the wider areas where paint needs to be applied with the help of a roller brush. For painting the ceilings, attach an extension of appropriate length to the paint roller.
Exterior Wall Painting Tips
The preparatory work for the exterior walls is the same as interior painting preparation. Even the wall painting technique is the same in both. However, there are some additional things that have to be kept in mind for home exterior painting. They are as follows:
- While selecting the exterior paint scheme, you must select such colors which coordinate well with paint color of the neighboring houses. Otherwise, your house may just look out of place in the neighborhood. The exterior paint color should also match up with the interior painting color as well.
- The exterior walls are divided into three different sections. The first and main portion is the wall, the second part is the edges and corners and the third section is the doors windows and architectural curves. Instead of using one single color, you should use different contrasting colors to highlight these features of the walls.
- Avoid using dark colors on the exterior walls. This is because such colors tend to fade out very easily on exposure to sunlight. On the other hand, lighter shades not only last longer but also make the house look larger.
- Latex paints are more popular exterior paint because of its high durability and easy maintenance. Paints with glossy finish and semi-gloss finish are most widely used for exterior walls. The semi-gloss paint should be used for the main section of the wall and glossy paint is suitable for smaller areas like the trims.
- The areas of the walls that receive maximum sunlight and rain should be painted with two coats. Those feature of the walls that you want to conceal such as gutters should be painted in the same color as the main wall color.
You are free to use your creative mind to come up with unique patterns of wall painting. Accent wall and feature wall are two such creative wall painting ideas that can give a distinct look to interior walls. One of the most important points about feature wall painting is related to choosing paint color for the feature wall. It should be totally different from the color used on the other walls of the room but make sure it is complementary with that. The most significant aspect of accent wall painting is that you have to select the right area that can be used for accent color. Ideally, it should be a unique architectural feature of the room which is readily visible. As far as exterior paint ideas are concerned, you have the scope to experiment with different color schemes to be used for different section of the walls. You can use different shades of the same color for the broad section of the wall and use two or more number of colors for the smaller areas.
You must ready yourself with suitable protective gear like old, comfortable clothes, slip-on shoes, gloves, goggles and so on before starting the job.
