Once you have purchased the paint, it’s time to prepare your room. You need to empty out your room or at least create enough space to paint your walls without any hassle. You can cover your existing furniture with sheets to avoid any spillage of paint. You can also cover the switch boards and electronic items before you start the process. There are covers available in the market to protect your flooring as well. Once you have done that, you can start scrubbing your walls to remove dirt, dust or oils or debris of paints from last time. This will smooth your walls and will allow the paint to adhere to the wall.
How to paint a room
Painting a room is probably the most common DIY project, and is a job that can easily be accomplished by most homeowners. Painting walls and ceilings is also a relatively cheap way to refresh a room and achieve a high impact look.
Although painting a room is a fairly straightforward task it’s still essential to plan properly. When you’re choosing your new paint, work out how the colour will complement existing woodwork. If you’re using tester pots to pick the right shade, then apply a small square of paint in a darker area of the room and apply two coats. This will give you a realistic preview of what the finished shade will look like.
What is the right order to paint a room?
To achieve the best results, the best order to paint a room is as follows:
- Calculate the amount of paint you need and prepare the surfaces.
- Paint the ceiling.
- Paint the walls.
- Paint the woodwork
Do I need to prime the walls before painting?
If you want the best results then generally the answer is yes. Primers are used to help surfaces absorb the paint properly, which provides the optimum finish. But the type of primer you need can vary.
A specialist primer should be used on a bare surface such as wood or metal, or on a new surface which has never been painted, such as a newly plastered wall. These primers are usually white or off-white in colour. Make sure the plaster is completely dry before applying your primer. You can tell if plaster is dry when no dark patches remain.
For surfaces which are already painted, washed, and in good condition, apply a matt undercoat before your topcoat. Again, a white or off-white colour is best.
Depending on the nature of the job and the surface you are painting, be sure to carefully check the manufacturer’s instructions on application when you’re choosing your undercoat.
1. Plan before you start
The first thing before starting your painting journey is planning. You should imagine how your room will look after painting is done. You need to understand how your room is built. Is it a perfect square? Or the room looks too small or too wide? So accordingly you can choose color schemes to create an illusion to increase or decrease the size of your walls. You need to also understand if you want to paint all 4 walls with the same color or choose an accent wall and paint it with bold color. You can even plan to create an accent ceiling with bold or subtle hues. Another question you need to ask yourself is for margins. Whether you want to paint margins with the same color as walls or highlight the same with different colors. So once you are able to imagine a complete picture of your room, you can draft the same in a rough sheet for your reference.
Next thing to understand is the quality of light available in your room.
2. Quality of light
Once you have understood the build of your room, you also need to consider the availability of light in your room before choosing your living or bedroom wall paint. Are you getting sufficient sunlight in your room or you are using artificial light to brighten your room. Also you need to understand the purpose of the room. If you are using a room for entertainment, it should be a small and cozy space but if it is for study or office, it should have sufficient light. After you have understood these nuances, you can choose the color coding for that room.
When you are searching for a color code or scheme, it can be quite overwhelming as there are so many colors and shades available in the market and choosing the right color for your room can be confusing. To resolve this confusion, we need to understand, whether we require a warm or a cool hue or a neutral or saturated shade. We can even choose a bedroom wall paint shade which complements the existing furniture or art. Once you have developed the understanding of which shade you are looking at, you can pick a few shades and get samples.
Many companies such as BMH paints have software where you can upload the image of your room and preview how your wall will look like in those shades which you have picked. They also give you options of different themes you can choose for your room which include the color of your walls, margins and ceiling giving you a better understanding so you can make better decisions.
You should check the entire room scheme and not just the wall. A color can be overpowering on a wall but it looks fantastic when looked as a part of the whole scheme.
4. Test the paint
Although you can preview your walls in that software, there is still a difference of how the paint will turn out in real life. So best is to test the selected shades of paints on your walls with different lighting conditions. Once the color gets dried, you should check how it looks in day as well as night. This will give you an understanding which color to choose. You should try different colors on the wall and not stick to white, off –white or beige. Dark color schemes can add texture and depth to your walls and light shades can open up spaces and make it feel larger. Experiment with the shades till you get the perfect color which you need for your walls.
Once you have made up your mind on the color scheme, it’s time to invest in materials. You need to measure your walls and determine the area of your room so you can buy the paint. Once you know the area, you also need to know how many coats of paint you will apply. A well primed wall might require only one coat however; a non primed wall might require two or more. Once you are clear on this, you can easily determine how much paint will be required along with that you can buy other materials in bulk which will help you stay in your budget. You need to buy base paints, primers, brushes, rollers, thinner and other material before you can start painting. You can check and compare prices of different paint dealers and finalize whoever is giving the best quote. You should spend money on proper supplies to get the right paint effect you want for your wall. This includes roller extender, sturdy ladder, high quality brushes and tapes.
