Intro:
Before you begin
Step 1:
Pre-paint planning
Step 2:
Prepare the wall
Step 3:
Protect the room
Step 4
Paint the first coat--corners
Step 5:
Paint the first coat--ceiling and walls
Step 6:
Paint the second coat
Step 7:
Paint the trim and doors
Step 8
Clean up your room!

2torial #0494: Learn2 Paint a Room Coat of any colors! Make no mistake about it, painting a room is messy, time-consuming work. On the other hand, it's kind of fun, not very difficult, and you can save a lot of money by doing it yourself. First, make sure that you've got good lighting in the room, and open the windows and doors for ventilation. Toddlers and pets shouldn't have access to the area, and keep things off of windowsills so they don't fall ten stories down. If you're repainting a room, you'll need to do some prep work if you want the paint to stick to the wall. Don't skimp on the expense when it comes to buying paint or brushes. That el cheapo paint could end up costing you more than a more costly high-quality one: the "bargain" paints rarely cover or wear as well as better paint, which means you'll either need to add multiple coats this time around or repaint sooner. And cheap brushes shed bristles, which end up stuck to your wall, looking like the proverbial fly in the ointment. You don't need to buy top-of-the-line materials, just don't cut too many corners. Keep in mind that paint splatters--there's no way around it, no matter how fastidious your painting style. Wear old clothes and shoes. Buy a couple of those cheap paper hats that your local paint store carries. Wearing some kind of glasses (if only to keep paint from splattering into your eyes) is also a good move. Pre-paint planning As with many home-improvement projects, the first tools you should use are a pencil and a piece of paper. Take ten minutes to plan what you'll do and what you'll need for the job. Unless you're Jackson Pollock, painting is an activity that doesn't take kindly to improvisation.   Calculate how much paint you'll need. Measuring each wall tells you how many square feet you need to cover. If a wall is 12 feet long, and eight feet high, that's 96 square feet to cover. (Don't forget the ceiling, either, if you plan to paint it.) Any paint manufacturer has the approximate "square-foot coverage per can" listed on the can.   Decide if you need a primer. Primers help paint adhere and cover uniformly. If you're painting over a white surface (assuming it's in good condition) with a darker color, you might be able to skip this step. Otherwise, plan on laying at least one layer of primer before painting with your final color. When tinted to match your final coat, excellent results are the norm. It might seem like extra work, but it's actually less work than laying on two additional final coats to insure opacity.   Choose the type of paint. Generally, flat latex is used for walls and ceilings, with semi-gloss latex or oil used on trim for contrast. Latex paint does not adhere well when used over old oil-based paint, so be careful with your choices.   Choose your brush. Use either a foam or bristle two-inch brush. Foam brushes leave less brushmarks, but they fall apart after only a little use. A good bristle brush that is well cleaned after each use can last many years Prepare the wall The night before you paint, or several hours before you start, you need to prepare the surface. A clean, dry, and flat surface produces optimum coverage and adhesion.   Wash the walls. Using household cleaner and a sponge, thoroughly clean any surface to be painted. A capful or two of cleaner in a bucket of hot water will do the trick. Make sure that you clean oily or greasy surfaces very carefully.   "Out, out, damned spot!" Have you scrubbed and scrubbed, but that stain or mark just won't disappear? If the stain looks dark enough to show through the imminent coat of paint, an application of sealer will cover it up. This is a liquid compond similar to paint that has better masking qualities than primer (you can find it at most hardware or paint supply stores). If the stain doesn't look too bad, ordinary primer will suffice.   Remove any picture hooks or adhesive tape on the wall. These can snag and tear a roller cover, and will interrupt your painting rhythm. Any holes left by nails and hooks should be filled with putty and a putty knife.   Remove wallpaper. If you want to a paint on a surface that currently has wallpaper applied, you'll need an extra day to remove it. See 2torial #0527: Remove Wallpaper for details. Protect the room   Professionals use cloth dropclothes because they're reusable and they absorb paint spills--there's no slipping and sliding on wet, unabsorbed paint. Many self-painters buy those thin plastic dropcloths which will be with us for the next three to six centuries. Save some money (and the planet)--use old bed sheets instead, if you don't want to buy new dropcloths. If you must buy the plastic kind, get the thicker variety (3-4 millimeters) for the floors, and the thinner variety (.5-2 mm) for draping over furniture. Just cover everything!   Remove all of the furniture and carpeting that you can. After laying a dropcloth on the floor, move the remaining items into the center of the room. Drape them with other dropcloths, and tape down any loose flaps where paint mist might enter.   Cover the floor completely. A fine mist of paint will adhere to any exposed surfaces. Protect the edges of the floor by using strips of wide masking tape. These will cover the remaining gap between the wall and the dropcloth.   For wall-to-wall carpeting: Slide a thin piece of cardboard between the baseboard and the carpet to protect it when painting the baseboards. For better handling, use a plastic paint shield instead of the cardboard.   Remove the faceplates of electrical outlets and lightswitches before beginning. If you have an overhead fixture, remove its cover also to avoid getting paint on it. Use masking tape to protect doorknobs and locks.   For the best results, protect the trim. These are the wooden pieces that surround the doors and windows, and in some homes, outline the walls and ceilings. Protect the trim by taping it where it meets the wall (press tape in place with a putty knife for a good seal). After the final coat of wall paint dries, you'll remove the tape and paint the trim. If the trim is being painted for the first time (i.e is raw lumber), don't protect it. Instead, cover it with the primer when painting the first coat.

Paint the first coat--corners

Whether you use a primer as your first coat (highly recommended) or not, the mechanics are the same. When painting, you want to work from the ceiling to the floor down, so splattering doesn't mar your finish. This means painting the ceiling first, then the walls and finally the trim.

 

• Fill up a bucket. There's no need to carry around a heavy gallon-can of paint, unless you're very keen on the idea of it. Instead, fill up a plastic quart-container and dip your brush into that.

   

• Dip and tap. Rather than soaking the brush up to your knuckles in paint, and wiping it on the side of the can, try this alternative. Dip about a third of the brush length into the paint. Then, with a snap of the wrist, tap the side of the brush on the side of the can, two times. This removes just enough paint so that the brush won't drip.

 

• Paint the corners in three locations: where the ceiling meets the wall, where the walls meet each other, and where any trim meets the wall. You're doing this so that the roller doesn't have to make it all the way to the edges. When applying the paint, put the wet brush down just ahead of a freshly painted area, and brush back into it to blend nicely. Avoid leaving globs of paint. For both the ceiling and the wall surfaces, paint out from the corner about two inches. Use the width of your brush as a guide

   

Use a stepladder. To reach some of those corners, it's best to use a stepladder. If none is available, tape the small brush tightly to the four-foot roller extension. With this rig, you may need to retape the brush a few times to make it around the room.

Paint the first coat--ceiling and walls

Rollers are fun to work with, because they cover so much area in a short time. Two important points with roller technique are: keep the roller fully in contact with the wall, and use zig-zag strokes. Zig-zag stokes prevent the visibilty of clear paint lines where each roller-stroke begins and ends. See below for details.

 

• Load up the roller. Put the appropriate sleeve (see Tips) on the roller, and screw the roller onto the extension. Pour enough paint into the tray so that the pan is full, but the slanted, ribbed area is clean. Dip the roller lightly into the paint tray (or five-gallon bucket with wire screen). Coat the roller evenly by rolling it over the ribbed area (or the screen).

   

• Do the zig-zag. With you well-loaded roller, make an narrow W-shape on the ceiling. Start painting the ceiling from a corner, and work out from there. Place the paint-loaded roller down on a dry area and work back into the wet paint. Follow the angles of the W-shape: avoid making any vertical lines. Work small areas at once, perhaps eight or nine square feet, and try to coat the surface evenly. Don't overwork an area.

   

• Roll the walls. Roll these one at a time, and starting from the top. Complete each wall before starting the next, or taking a break, using those same zigzag strokes. (An M-shape works better on walls) To reduce paint splattering, keep the roller in contact with the wall as you roll. Paint the second coat

The first coat should be left alone for a few hours--it should be dry to the touch. Then, using your final color, repeat the steps above for the corners, walls and ceiling.

 
• Protect the trim. If you used a primer on your unmasked trim during the first coat, now's the time to protect it with tape, as outlined in Step 1. Be careful not to paint the trim again with anything but your chosen trim paint.

   

• Beware of shortcuts. If you're painting white paint onto a white wall and want a "quickie" job, you might leave out the corner painting when doing the second coat. Just be aware that it won't look as good (especially in the daylight) as a properly done second coat.

   

• A third coat, anyone? Now you decide if a third coat is necesary. Wait until the second coat is dry to the touch, and turn on all the lights that you can, as the daylight is probably fading by now. Take a good look at the job so far: assess the coverage and the blending. Is the primer showing through anywhere? Are there areas of lighter and heavier coverage? If you used good-quality paint, everything's probably fine and you can go on to the trim. If you used cheaper paint, another coat might be necessary. Curse as little as possible, wait for the second coat to dry fully, and get to it. Paint the trim and doors

After the final wall coat is dry to the touch, take the protective masking tape off the trim. Avoid smearing any wet globs while doing this, and have a garbage bag handy. Immediately put the messy tape into it.

 
• Using the small bristle brush, carefully paint the trim, including the baseboards. Use small amounts of paint for a thin coat, and brush back into the wet paint to blend it well. Brush lightly on the last strokes to minimize brush marks.

   

• Protect the walls, windows, and ceiling surrounding the trim. Plastic shields with handles are handy to quickly protect windows and walls from the trim paint. While it's not a big deal to get wall paint on the trim, you definitely want to avoid getting glossy trim paint on the walls. Glossy paint will stand off and be highly visible on a flat, latex base. Wipe the shields clean after every few brushstrokes, and you can move pretty quickly. If you prefer, use wide masking tape to protect the walls, windows, and ceiling. The tape method takes a little more time, but is great for persons with shaky hands.

   

• Doors: These can be rolled or brushed, depending on their contours. When a door connects two different color rooms, paint the latch edge the same color as the room that the door opens into. Paint the hinged edge the opposite color.

Clean up your room!

After you've been playing with brushes for all these hours, it's only right to put your tools away when you're done. Leaving brushes and rollers loaded with paint is a good way to ruin them. Clean them up and they'll serve you again.

 
• Brush and roller clean-up: latex paint.This is easy. Just hold the brush or roller under a warm to hot water faucet and massage the paint out. Rinse thoroughly and you'll have a happy brush.

   

• Brush and roller clean-up: oil-based paint.This is a little tougher. You're going to need a half-gallon bucket, a quart of paint thinner or mineral spirits, a pair of rubber gloves, and a well-ventilated work space. Paint thinner easily enters your blood stream through your skin or your lungs, and the stuff is not exactly a health tonic. So put on some gloves, pour some thinner in a bucket and use as little as possible. Massage the paint out of the brush, and press it gently and rhythmically against the bottom of the bucket. Don't pour any thinner down the drain. It can go right to the water table, and you might drink it some day. Contact your local recycling center for information on a safe method of disposal.

   

• Get it while it's wet: Or before it dries solid. Scrub any excess paint off of wood floors before it dries overnight. Don't let toddlers or pets in the room before cleanup! Otherwise you'll have fresh paint all over your home.

   

• Hurray! You're done. You've acquired a valuable skill and saved yourself a bundle. Next stop--the Sistine Chapel.