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Painting
Interiors - Page 1
Page 1 of 2
PREPARING INTERIORS
The key to a successful, good-looking paint job is
preparation. As with anything in life, when you are more
prepared, you tend to be more efficient and to look
better! Painting is no exception. Preparation usually
takes longer than the actual painting and is thus tempting
to skip, but trust me. The time you take to properly
prepare at the beginning of the job will save you lots of
headaches and money in the long run.
If your interior walls have been well maintained, and you
are simply going to freshen them up or change the color,
then prep time can be kept to a minimum, and may even be
as simple as washing the walls.
If the walls are in bad shape, however, be prepared for
some serious effort. I once spent two weeks preparing a
single bathroom in an old rental apartment; not only were
there layers and layers of cheap paint from years of
quick-fix property-manager jobs, but the paint was
covering wall paper from the 1950s. By the time I got to
the paper, I felt like I was on an archaeological dig!
Apart from the walls, the studio apartment had old ornate
plaster ceilings—beautiful, but a nightmare to scrape
backs all the flaky, hanging paint.
How to prepare interiors:
1. Remove all furniture and rugs, or move these items to
the middle of the room and cover them with a sheet.
2. Remove all pictures, shelves, hooks, curtain rods,
brackets, and any other moveable items from the walls. Be
sure to keep all screws, nails, etc., with the item so
they do not get lost.
3. Remove cover plates from electrical outlets and
switches. Be sure to keep all screws with their plates.
4. Protect any other item in room with either a drop cloth
or tape. You can use the blue painter’s tape for base
boards, corners, windowsills, or any area that you would
like to mask off.
5. Fix the walls by repairing any small holes. Fill these
with joint compound or putty with a small putty knife.
Once it’s dry, sand it until smooth with 100-grit sand
paper. Seal these spots with primer.
6. Wash down all walls with a sponge or wet rag.
TIP: Tape screws to the objects you remove so that the
hardware stays with the objects.
PRIMING INDOOR
SURFACES
You should prime most surfaces that you intend to paint.
If you are covering an old paint job, and the color is not
too dark, you can get away with not priming. Priming is
just as it sounds—it “primes” or prepares the wall for
paint. You should definitely prime any wall surface that
you have just re paired and unfinished wood that you
intend to paint.
How do you prime? Priming is just painting, so follow the
directions in the next
page2. Instead of paint, use primer! |
