It’s officially warm weather season now, and you may be thinking it’s time to spruce up and get a fresh coat of paint on the interior of your home. If you’re like most people you might dread painting, but it’s really not that rough. It all comes down to how well you prepare your home for painting. Here you’ll find some tips to get prepared to paint the interior of your home.
First thing is pretty obvious: move your furniture. If you are working in a room large enough, you
can just push furniture from one side of the room to the other as you work your way around the
room. If your room is smaller, just go ahead and move it all completely out. You’ll thank yourself
in the long run if you aren’t trying to reach over or squeeze behind your furniture.
If you cannot move the furniture out of the room for any reason, make sure to cover it very well
with plastic sheeting or fabric drop cloth and secure snuggly under the piece of furniture. This
will ensure that no paint gets on your furniture.
Now it’s time to remove your pictures and hanging shelves from the wall. It’s pretty easy to
handle this one and it just makes sense to move all of this out of your way. Keep things
organized by putting items from each wall into their own box, that way you’ll spend less time
trying to figure out what went where as you reassemble the room.
After you’ve removed your hanging items, you need to remove the light switch and outlet
covers. Removing them is much easier than painting around them and your end result will look
much more professional. Save yourself a little time and grab a screwdriver and remove the
covers. Be sure to keep the screws with the covers so that you don’t misplace them.
Now that your walls are bare, it’s time to clean them. Cleaning your walls ensures that your paint
goes on evenly and uniformly. Oil residue can keep paint from adhering to the wall, and stains
can show beneath the color of your paint. This will look unprofessional and there really is not an
easy way to fix it. Start off right and clean your walls before you start. What works best is a mild
dish-type soap and warm water. Be sure not to leave any soap residue behind, as this will
cause problems as well.
If you have holes from pictures you have moved, drywall damage or any other dings in your
walls that you want to remove, now is the time. Enlist the help of your local handyman or if you
have the skills, get these imperfections fixed now. Allow time in your schedule for the spackle or
filler to dry and sanding to be done to smooth out the surface. This ensures you have nice fresh
surfaces free of damage to paint and our walls will look refreshed once completed.
It’s time to cover your floor now. It’s easy to overlook this step when planning out your painting,
but once you get started, you’ll quickly see how crucial it is to making the task of painting so
much more efficient. When you paint, there will be specks of paint that fly off of your roller or
brush. No matter how hard you try, there will be the occasional spill, or large drip from your
work. It just happens. Covering your floor makes it less stressful when accidents happen and
clean up is a breeze. No need to scrape paint off of your floor when you’re done or depending
on the type of floor you have, you could save yourself another time consuming project.
To make sure your floors are properly protected, make sure your cover is fastened to the floor
firmly with tape (this will eliminate tripping hazards as well). If you have baseboards or trim that
you do not want painted, be sure to extend the covering over those as well.
Finally, set up a workstation. In a central or convenient area of the room you are painting, set up
an area where you will keep all of your supplies. Keeping your supplies together saves the time
of hunting lost things and makes accidents easier to deal with. Make sure you have plenty of
brushes and rollers, any solvents you may be using and paper towels and rags for clean up. Set
up an area to wash your items and hands ahead of time so that paint isn’t spread where you
don’t want it. Grab any ladders you may need and put them in a safe area in the room as well.
Now, grab your paint and you are on your way. A little planning and work before you start your
interior home painting project will help for a smooth time in freshening up your home. Planning
and preparing will ensure your project success.