How to Paint a Room

Interior painting is an easy, quick, and inexpensive way to improve home interiors. Painting any room in your house can brighten the overall house appearance with little effort and money. What's important though is choosing the right paint for the job.

In kitchens and bathrooms you generally want to use an acrylic enamel paint that easy to wash. Also, grease, moisture, and dirt are not absorbed into enamel paints, thus giving them more protection. These paints can be purchased in practically any desired color. In fact, if you take a sample color with you when buying your paints the paint distributor can more than likely match the color you want. In the other parts of the house you may want to use a washable flat latex paint. Again, colors can be mixed to your desired liking.

You will need to also purchase some tools and additional materials to help you complete your painting project. If you plan on painting your homes entire interior you'll want to purchase quality tools that can last throughout the entire project. The higher the quality of the tools, like brushes or rollers for example, the better your finished result will be as well. So keep this in mind when shopping for your tools.

Before beginning to actually paint you'll want to cover floor surfaces and furniture to protect them against dust and paint splatter. You will want to wash any surfaces you plane to paint. Wash the walls using TSP or Trisodium Phosphate as it is the best cleaning agent for cleaning wall surfaces.

Next you are ready to patch holes. For nail holes you will want to patch using a quick drying putty. Every paint distributor offers a variety of quick drying wall putties. For larger holes, like ones created by the back of door handles hitting the walls you'll want to use drywall putty. Although drywall putty takes longer to dry the bonding strength is much greater for larger holes.

Once holes are patch you'll want to lightly sand any patch areas. If you applied the putty properly the sanding should take just a few minutes for an entire room. After sanding is complete you'll need to remove any dust residue from the wall using a rag, dusting brush, or old paint brush. Leaving dust residue behind will affect the paints adhesion to the surface. After you have finished preparing the walls you are ready to clean things up a bit and begin painting.

When you paint you will want to cut in corners, baseboards and around windows first. It is best to use a 2 ½ in angled paint brush for cutting in. This will allow you to get into tight corners and around floor and window molding without getting paint on these areas. A edge cutter can also help you here. Edge cutters will help you make nice clean cuts.

After all the cutting in is complete you are now ready to roll paint onto the major wall area.

Rolling out a wall is perhaps the fastest part of the wall painting process. As you roll the paint out you'll want to start at one end then roll toward the other in a "W" manner. These will help you achieve maximum coverage in the least amount of time. Also, be cautious of how much paint you put on your roller. Too much paint and the roller will slide and leave roller lines. Too little and you will have to dip your roller into the pan more frequently.