7 Simple Tricks Saved Me Few Hundred Quid Painting a Room

Do You Need to Wash the Walls Before Painting?

As with everything, before painting the room you need to do some preparation. And as with everything there are some popular fairy tales that you can hear and find online related to that process.

Let’s say it loud and clear to end the discussion once and for all: you do not need to wash the walls before painting. It’s a myth and most likely just another way of selling you some additional products, which you really don’t need if you trying to stay on a budget and are simply not needed.

However, if the walls are oily, greasy or just excessively dirty, it might be necessary to indeed wash the walls beforehand.

Especially in the bathroom or kitchen, around sinks and stove or because they have been a subject of kids and pets activity. Nonetheless, in most cases it will be enough to use a domestic solution of three or four teaspoons of laundry detergent to 4 litres of water.

It should perfectly do the job and clean the areas that are required to do so. If for any reason it does not help you might need to buy something more professional, but in 99% of scenarios you will be good to go.

What do I Need to Paint a Room?

Since we have cleared out the case of washing the walls we can focus on what is really necessary in order to paint the room as efficiently and as painlessly as possible. There are several things you need, both from equipment and techniques point of view.

Simple step-by-step Guide

1. Empty the room from any pictures, mirrors and ideally furniture. The big and heavy ones can stay inside the room, just move them to the middle so you can you can access the walls with ease
2. Put a canvas drop cloths on the floor and polythene dust sheets on remaining furniture to protect it against damage from any paint spill. It’s impossible to ensure everything is clean afterwards without it
3. Protect any electrical outlets, lights switches and telephone connections with masking tape in order to protect from paint seeping into them. Switch off electricity in that room as well
4. The same applies to skirting boards, windows and door frames – everything should be protected, unless you are planning to do the woodwork as well. In that case you don’t have to waste time on that
5. If necessary wash the walls with a use of domestic solution of three or four teaspoons of laundry detergent to 4 litres of water
6. Get rid off any loose pieces of plaster and scrape them out with paint scraper. Other small imperfections such as plaster bumps can be taken care of with a use of sandpaper
7. Fill any cracks or holes with wall or plaster fillers following the instructions on the package. You can also get the ready-mixed solutions that are touch-dry in 5 minutes
8. You need proper tools to do it properly. Be sure to be equipped with: paint brushes, paint rollers, paint trays, gloves, extension pole for the roller, paint of course and the right approach to get it done
9. Once you have it all covered you’re ready to rock and roll. Start with a paint brush under the ceiling “cutting in” upper corners and take care of wall corners afterwards
10. In the next step paint the ceiling and at the end walls

Pro-tip:

As a primer you can use your finish paint with accompaniment of water. First of all it will be cheaper and second of all if you are planning to use colour it will have the same tonation.

It will play a perfect role of smoothing agent of your finish coats. Please bear in mind that in most cases you don’t need to use a primer.

It is required only on new drywall or when changing colour from dark to light, but it will do no harm if you will prime the wall anyway.

Can You Paint Spray Interior Walls?

The short answer to that question is yes, you can. The long one, however, should include that the room ought to be completely empty if you wish to do so.

By completely empty we mean without any furnitures, but also radiator, flooring, doors, windows and other woodwork. Unless you are able to ensure it will all get properly covered.

The very important thing that needs to be mentioned when it comes to paint spraying is the fact that sprayer atomises the paint into tiny droplets.

This is also the reason why spraying uses more paint.

Most of the droplets will end up on the surface, but many others will simply drift away. This is inherent with paint spraying, and frankly speaking not much can be done to control it.

And this applies also to things inside the room. If you are able to protect them in a way that droplets will have no chance to touch their surface you can use it inside the room.

Making sure of course you will protect yourself and will wear a mask and goggles. It is no joke – you can’t really drink paint, but since these droplets are so tiny it’s almost certain they will find a way to get inside of your body and you don’t want that.

Coming back to paint spraying the room itself, it is an additional “cost” of work to make sure everything is perfectly covered, so be sure to include that in your profitability calculations.

Can You Paint a Room in One Day?

It depends greatly on the size of the room, but yes, it is possible.

Following the steps the second paragraph “What Do I Need to Paint a Room?” can be quite of a help to do that when it comes to organising the order of your work. Plus you can find there some useful tips on what to do and what not to do.

To have a complete picture and work even more efficiently it is advised to follow more technical tips below.

These are all from professionals learnt the hard way.

We could put down our own list, but what’s the point of doubling the content? The below ones come from this article right here, you can find there some interesting point of view about sprayer vs roller too.

Follow These Tips to Maximise Efforts

• Wetness is the essence of a good paint job. How to Avoid Roller Marks When Painting? You want to apply paint onto paint that’s still wet to avoid lap marks. You can also use extender to secure longer drying time
• Invest in high-quality equipment. Notice how we didn’t say expensive. You can get an affordable roller kit that does an excellent job if you know where to look
• Roller tray or bucket? That’s easy. If you’re painting small areas, go for a roller tray, otherwise, use a bucket for large areas that need more than a gallon of paint
• Remove excess paint before washing. You can use a putty knife or a scraping tool to do this. You can then wash your roller with warm water and detergent
• Keep it cool. If you can’t finish the job, put your roller in the fridge. Just make sure you wrap it in a plastic bag
• Burn the fuzzies. Use a lighter to remove loose fibers or cover your roller cover with masking tape then peel. This will help reduce shedding
• Clean as you go. If you see lumps, remove them with a wet rag. You can also avoid lumps by straining your paint beforehand
• Small is good. We know you want to cover a lot of areas to save time but it’s better to work two to three square feet at a time. Load your roller with more paint as soon as your roller starts to become dry

Pro-tip

If you are putting any colours on your wall and would like to make your room visually bigger put a painters tape right under the ceiling corners and paint over it.

Remove the painting tape while the paint is still fresh and painting tape wet to avoid any new cracks. It will also give you a perfectly straight line, while the corner can be lumpy and helps you to get the job done much quicker.