Photo credit to nirak.
Most homeowners enjoy shopping for wine decor or tropical wall sculptures to add style and drama to a room. Most also enjoy doing home improvement projects, like painting, to make a dramatic change in a bland or tired looking room. However, when you paint, you want great results as well as dramatic change, and paint splattered on your furniture or flooring will cause more drama than you’ll want to deal with. Here are painting tips to help you achieve a professional looking, perfectly neat finish.
Avoid Mishaps before they Happen
Before you begin painting, remove everything possible from the room: This includes all wall art, lamps, furniture, area rugs, accessories and accents. If some pieces of furniture are too large to remove, move them to the center of the room and cover them with a large plastic tarp. Fold the corners of the tarps and tape the tarp to itself with duct tape to protect your furniture from top to bottom. If painting the ceiling, remove the globes and decorative portions of overhead lighting, as well as ceiling fans. When painting kitchen walls, protect the edges of cabinets and countertops; cabinet faces should be protected with tarps when painting overhead.
Use tarps on the floor to prevent splatters and spills. Tarps should be taped to the floor trim; this will keep the tarp from sliding while you work, inadvertently exposing the floor. Also use blue painters tape to protect wood work and trim so that wall color doesn’t end up on the corners of your window trim. Painter’s tape will also ensure that you create a straight even line, so that the finished result will look like it was painted by a pro.
Keep a supply of clean rags, papers towels and a bucket of warm water handy so that you can clean up a spill or drip as soon as it happens.
Choosing the Right Paint
There is no good reason to use oil-based paint for interior painting and the best option for interior painting is water-based paint because it cleans up easier than oil-based paint. This is important not only when cleaning up your brushes and rollers, but also if a drip should end up on the floor or a cabinet face.
When accidents do happen, you should clean them up immediately so that a temporary problem doesn’t become a permanent one. Water-based paint drips or spatters on wood or laminate surfaces can usually be cleaned up with warm water, or soap and warm water. Dab the surface until it is loosened and the drip is blotted away. If the drip is already dry, you can often pry it loose with your fingernail or a plastic tool or plastic knife. Drips on fabric surfaces or carpet should be blotted with clean towels until as much wet paint as possible is picked up. Blot next with warm water or warm water and soap to remove a stain; a carpet steam cleaner can also help remove paint residue if done before the paint has a chance to dry.
When painting a ceiling, choose low-splatter to lessen the likelihood of tiny dots of paint ending up on the walls and on your hair.
Tags: budget, decor, design, Feng Shui, home, improvement, remodel, repair, wall art
