by Melissa Raissa

Created on: November 17, 2010

Painting a room can be a fun activity with very rewarding results. The best way to improve the look and feel of your living space is through a beautiful application of new wall colors. But for a rookie painter it can be a lot more stress than you bargained for especially if you don‘t plan ahead. Coming from someone who likes to paint rooms without heeding the professionals, here are some helpful tips of what to do, and what not to do, when it comes to room painting.

~ Preparation is key ~

When you’re in the middle of a DIY painting project, and you’ve got all your stain-covered working clothes on, the last thing you need is finding out that you’re missing an important item and now you have to go back to the hardware store all grungy from your remodeling attempts. Skip this unnecessary trouble by doing all the research beforehand - the  preparation for the wall, equipments that you need, protective measures for you and your furniture, how much time the whole project will take, and so on.

Things needed: Interior painting resources from experts, books or websites

Duration: As long as it takes for you to finish reading and researching

~ Protect furniture and hardware from paint transfers ~

Painting can be messy and sometimes even cause irreparable damage to your belongings. But, hauling your stuff out of the room can sap a lot of energy. Protect your furniture with plastic covers instead, then tuck and tape them underneath to prevent paint and dust from getting in. You can use any large piece of paint-proof materials that you already have at hand such as garbage bags, inexpensive canvas or cheesecloth and the like. Move all items to the center of the room, away from the walls. Cover hardware, switches and electrical outlets with tape as well.
 
Things needed:
» Large plastic covers or garbage bags, old curtains and other large inexpensive fabrics
» Duct tape for pinning the covers in place and for sealing windows, doors and other openings

Duration: Less than an hour to cover all basic room furniture

~ Prep the wall surface to properly accommodate new paint ~

There's nothing worse than seeing all your hard work go to waste because of bypassing a tough yet important step. You need to do some pre-painting procedures so that your new paint applies well and stays put. A general rule is to scrape and sand off the old paint first. This is important to make sure your paint or primer has something to adhere to that has a rough texture

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