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Interior house painting can really improve you home. BUT it's harder than it looks. Many of my clients have started their interior painting project and discovered it takes much more time and effort than they thought. Don't believe 'The Block' or 'House Rules' with their overnight paint jobs.
Most people can do a pretty good job themselves ... if you don't skimp on the quality of materials and tools, or try to rush the process,. You just need to remember that: House painting takes a LONG TIME. House painting requires a LOT OF PREPARATION and set up. House painting requires a LOT OF EQUIPMENT. House painting requires QUALITY materials and tools. Here's how ... 1. PLANNING - 1 PAINTER = 1 ROOM = 1 WEEK Allow plenty of time. A good painter can paint a room in about a week. That includes prep., crack repair, scraping loose paint, and 2 coats of top coat paint on all walls, ceiling, doors, windows, skirting boards, and picture rails. So if you have 10 rooms (eg. Hall, 4 x bedrooms, 1 x kitchen that adjoins 1 family room, 1 x lounge room, 1 x dining room, 2 x bathrooms) it will take one good painter 10 weeks, or 2 painters 5 weeks, or 5 painters 2 weeks. 2. TOOLS - QUALITY TOOLS = QUALITY RESULTS. CHEAP JUNK TOOLS = CRAP RESULTS You will need: A step ladder - 5 or 6 steps Rollers and trays - sheepskin roller covers are best 6cm angled cutting brushes - 3 or 4 Plastic drops for furniture - NOT the floor Canvas or fabric floor drops Masking Tape - 3M Masking paper Plastic buckets - 2 Foam sanding block Selleys No More Gaps - for long corner cracks and gaps along skirting boards Selleys spacfiller for small holes 3. PAINT - DULUX FOR WALLS & OIL BASED TRIM - TAUBMANS FOR CEILINGS AND WATER BASED TRIM WALLS - Dulux Wash and Wear low sheen. (I've tried them all. Dulux W&W is the best for walls) Allow 1 litre for every 16 square metres of wall. Times 2 for 2 coats. Do NOT try to get away with only one coat. Just don't. CEILINGS - Taubmans Tradex White Flat Interior ceilings (better and cheaper than Dulux ceiling paint) 1 litre for every 16 square metres again. And 2 coats again. TRIM - (Doors, Windows, Skirting, Picture rails) - EITHER Dulux Super Enamel Semi Gloss (if you want oil based enamel) OR Taubmans Ultimate Enamel Alkyd Based Semi Gloss (if you want water based enamel). More info on oil and water based paint here. 4. EMPTY THE ROOM AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE Clear your work area. Remove blinds and move as much furniture as possible. Large furniture such as beds or chests of drawers can be walked (move one end a little bit at a time) to the centre of the room. You will need at least 80 cm clear space around all walls. 5. WRAP OR COVER EVERYTHING LEFT IN THE ROOM Protect, protect, protect. Wrap large furniture in plastic sheeting. Use high quality masking tape on your floors (carpet OR floor boards) where they meet the skirting boards. THEN use a strip of painters paper about 20 cm wide. THEN put fabric drop sheets on all floors. The floor and furniture should be completely covered. 6. REMOVE DUST Remove dust. Sweep or vacuum dust from the room edges, above doors and cupboards, along picture rails. 7. WET SAND Scrub all trim (doors, wooden windows, skirting, picture rails). The best way to clean AND sand is to use a good quality foam sanding block rinsed regularly in a mixture of water and sugar soap. This cleans any dirt AND sands the glossy surfaces. BUT the added advantage is that all paint dust sticks to the wet sanding sponge rather than turning into airborne dust. it is then rinsed out into a bucket. This is a great way to protect yourself from any residual lead paint in all old houses. 8. SCHEDULE - 2 ROOMS AT A TIME Try to work two rooms at a time. This allows you to always have something to do as a surface dries. 9. PAINTING ORDER The correct order of room painting is as follows: 1 - Cut (paint edges with a brush) the ceiling. 2 - Roll the ceiling. 3 - Cut Trim 4 - Cut the ceiling a second time. 5 - Roll the ceiling a second time. 6 - Cut the trim a second time. 7 - Cut walls. 8 - Rolls walls 9 - Cut walls a second time. 10 - Roll walls a second time. 10. VENTILATE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE Ventilate, ventilate, ventilate. Fresh moving air helps painted surfaces dry faster and is good for your lungs. Some people are sensitive to paint fumes especially oil based paints, so ventilation is important. And thats it! House painting is really an exercise in patient, step by step, time consuming, application. If thats you, then go for it. If not I'd be glad to supply a quote. THE AD – Hi, I’m Tony Richardson, The Tidy Painter. I paint home interiors in Mosman, Cremorne and the Lower North Shore. If this article has made you think of hiring a SPECIALIST interior painter instead of doing it yourself, lets talk. CLICK HERE Comments are closed.
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