One of the best parts of having drywall on your walls is that you can paint it and change the look of a room. Paneling stays the same color, and wall paper can be hard to hang, but painting is something that almost everyone can do. There are a few things you need to do if you want your paint job to look professional.
You have to remove all of the decorations from the walls, and then you have to repair all of the nail holes left from picture hangers, and from window treatment fasteners. This is easily done with spackle, or with a small amount of drywall “mud”. The spackle, or mud, will need to dry completely and the edges will need to be sanded so that the area will not be noticeable after you paint.
You need to wipe the walls down with a mild detergent to remove any grime from the surface. You may not realize that a greasy build-up forms on walls even in bedrooms, and living rooms. Thoroughly clean the surface of the walls before you begin to apply your painters tape.
You will need to either apply painters tape to stop you from painting the trim around the windows, baseboards, and molding, or you will need to remove these pieces of trim and put them back when you are finished. This decision is entirely up to you. Both taping and removing these decorative borders are time consuming, but worth every minute that you spend. If you do remove the trim, you can thoroughly clean it before replacing it, and you can also apply a pesticide behind it when you replace it to help keep pests out of your home.
You should cover all window glass with newspaper to prevent accidentally getting paint on them. You may not realize that paint splatters when you are using the roller, and can often leave small flecks on the surface of the window glass.
You must buy the right roller for the job. Rollers have different naps so that they can paint different surfaces. If your wall is smooth, a short nap roller is perfect to apply the paint with, but for textured walls you will need to get rollers with a longer nap so that the paint is applied evenly.
Do not skip the priming step. The old color on the wall will bleed through many new paints, and old stains, or water marks can also bleed through. Primer helps to prepare the surface for the new paint and stop this bleeding from occurring, and when you use primer you will use less paint. Primer is cheaper than paint so this will save you money. Some of the new paints have the primer mixed into them to save you time and money.
Buy all of the paint you need at one time because when you have paint colors mixed there could be slight variations. You want to try and get a little more paint than you need so that you always have a small amount of touch up paint on hand for later.
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