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Do It Yourself: Top Tips On How To Paint Walls.

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Learning how to paint properly is like riding a bike, once you have learnt you won’t ever forget. This post will outline just how to go about painting the interior walls of your home.For this project you’ll need:

– Suitable interior paint in your chosen colour, small brush, large brush, roller and tray, dust sheets, sugar soap, fine sand paper (depending on if you need to sand the wall first), filler (only if you need to fill cracks or holes)

1- Take all furniture and soft furnishings including rugs and place in the centre of the room, then cover with a dust sheet. This is to protect them from the dust and paint.

2- Wash the wall thoroughly with sugar soap to eliminate dust, grease and general dirt. While you’re doing this look for holes and cracks in the wall.

3- When the wall is dry fill in the cracks with filler.

4- When you fill remember it is better to overfill the crack and sand it down after than to not fill it enough!

5- Next is something called “cutting in”. This means painting the awkward areas like where the wall meets the ceiling, the corners, sockets and switches and skirting boards.

For this you must use the small brush as it will help to make painting more accurate. To begin with hold the brush vertically and paint along the line of the wall and ceiling, then go over it to smooth the paint holding the brush horizontally and using firm, steady strokes.

6- When painting walls inside it is standard practice to start at the top and work down to the bottom. You should also work away from windows and do them last.

7- For the main parts of the walls it is recommended that you use the biggest brush you can handle! This is because the bigger the brush the more area you can cover so the quicker the job will be.

8- Use long, smooth vertical paint strokes over the entire wall using you wrist to  make the vertical action.

9- Try to keep an eye on runs and smooth them out as soon as they appear. If you leave a drip or run to dry you will have to sand it down and repaint the area.

10- Repeat the next coat of paint using the same method.

If you are using a roller for the main walls:

– Fill the tray with paint to the depth of the roller, if the paint is deeper than roller it will be overloaded and this will cause drips and runs.

– Get the roller and roll it forwards and backwards along the top of the tray so it absorbs the paint but isn’t fully immersed.

– Then use the roller to make elongated smooth vertical strokes. To finish each section use up and down strokes to give the wall a smooth finish