How to Professionally Paint Your Interior Walls

When it comes to making your house a home and adding your personal touch to it, paint is a must. Even if you are keeping the existing color, adding a coat of paint gives your home a fresher and cleaner look to it, as well as a new feeling to the whole place. When it comes to painting, many people get a little worried and over cautious. This is a simple project that anyone can do. You can also add designs and custom looks with little to no hassle. We will start with the basics and move on to some of the more extravagant additions that even the most novice artist can achieve.

The first thing that you will want to do is get the whole room prepared. There are many people that make this part sound very difficult. This is the easiest step. First you will want to move large furniture out of the room if you can. If you cannot, just move everything at least two feet away from the wall. You want enough space to comfortably get to the wall. The more space you have, the easier your painting will be. Next, you will want to remove all the outlet and light switch covers. This will give you a more professional look and minimizes the amount of tape you have to use. Now cover the plugs and switches with some masking tape. Once you have these covered you can start to tape off the windows and door frames. You want the tape to be as close to the edge as you can get and perfectly straight. If you are like me, you may want to use shorter strips to ensure a straight line. You will want to lay plastic along the floor. This will need to extend at least two feet from the wall. If you are painting the ceiling as well, then you will want the entire floor covered. You will want to tape the drop cloth to the wall to make sure it doesn't move away and risk paint spots on the floor. You can use the tape that you put along the baseboards to hold the cloth in place. Now you are ready to move on.

It is now time to slap some paint on your walls. If you are changing colors, you will want to use a primer or a primer-and-paint combo for the first two coats. You want at least two coats to ensure that your paint is uniform and even across the wall. Before you start painting, you want to make sure you have all of your supplies within reach. You will need the roller pan, roller, spare roller cover, rags, stir stick, and your paint. You may also want a flathead screwdriver to open the paint can. This will also come in handy if you come across an outlet that you missed and need to remove while painting. It is better to have extra things on hand and not need them than to need the things and have to run all around the house trying to find them. If you are using a separate primer, you will want to use a grey or white primer to ensure that the colors you put over it will come out the way they are supposed to look. If you use a dark primer it will darken your colors. If you have any drips or runs in the paint you can use the rag to wipe it away and then repaint the area. You want the paint to be as smooth as possible. This is another reason for multiple coats. It will give a more even spread of paint across the wall and fill in any imperfections.

Many of us want to get a little creative with our walls. Whether you have kids and want to add their favorite characters to their room or want to put some of your own art on the wall, it is rather simple. The first thing that you will need to do (after the base coat is completely dry) is cover the area that you want the design on in masking tape. You will want to look at the design and divide it into colors. For each color, you will need to mask the area again. You will need to repeat these steps for each color. Draw all the shapes that will be the same color on the masking tape. With a small razor blade, remove the tape from the inside of the shape. Paint over the tape. Once it is dry, you can remove the tape. If you need to add more colors, wait for the paint to be completely dry and repeat the steps.

You will want to remove the tape from your walls as soon as the paint is dry enough not to run. It can still be a little tacky, just not wet. The longer your tape is on the wall, the more you risk sticking to your existing paint and "tearing" it from the wall, or leaving a gummy residue. If you do have a gum residue, you can use rubbing alcohol to remove it. If the tape is really stuck and doesn't want to come off or is peeling the paint, you can use a hair dryer to "age" the tape and it will start to fleck off. There are several tools that you can also use to get crisp edges and hard to reach areas.

This is a very simple project that anyone can do. If you want to add a design, but don't trust your personal artistic talents, you can always print out the images that you want on the wall and trace them onto the tape. There are no limits to what you can do to make your house a home.