Great Interior House Painting Tips and Techniques

Maybe this is your first time painting in your home, or maybe you have painted before and it has turned out less than what you had hoped for.

I mean, how hard can it be to slap a coat of paint on the walls? If that’s your approach, that’s exactly how it will look when you’re finished. To paint a room and make it look as nice as possible can be a little tricky.

Here are a few tips and techniques that can help you get great results:

Begin by not forgetting about “Good Preparations”.

1.  Buying your paint:
   1. Once you’ve chosen your color, how do you know how much paint to buy?
   2. Typically, 1 gallon of paint will cover about 400 sq. ft. But that can be affected by the type of surface you are covering; If your walls are rough or textured, you may need more, or if you are covering over a darker color and you didn’t prime, you may need more.
2. Combine your cans of paint: If you are buying your paint in 1 gallon cans, combine them together in a 5 gallon bucket. Even though they were mixed at the same time, using the same color number, all cans of the same paint are not necessarily created equal…they can be off enough to really show once the paint has all dried.  If you can see that you haven’t bought enough paint and will need to head back to the paint store, leave a good amount in the bucket to mix with the new paint to keep the color as consistent as possible.
3. Don’t be afraid to put a good amount of paint on your brushes or rollers, being careful not to have so much that the paint runs when it’s on your walls. By the way, a roller does a better and quicker job than trying to paint a whole room with a brush.
4. Keep your paint edges wet: This is especially important when you’re “cutting in” at your edges. Do one section at a time, painting about a 3″ strip around the edge. Keeping your edges wet before you roll on the rest of the wall or ceiling will help eliminate that tell-tale line that shows where you rolled and where you brushed. If you absolutely need to stop the project for a while, feather out the edges with a brush to help prevent obvious stop/start lines. Finish one wall before starting another.
5. Painting Millwork: Once your walls are totally dry, you can apply your painter’s tape around your trim work, and use about a 2 inch angled brush. Begin by painting doors, windows and crown molding first and then do the baseboards last.
6. Applying paint with a roller:  Painting one wall at a time, roll a “W” shaped pattern, and then without lifting the brush, fill in the unpainted spaces.
7. Painting the ceiling: This is one place where you don’t want excess paint on your roller. Begin painting in the corner of the ceiling and work your way across the width.
8. Let the paint dry thoroughly before starting to worry that it might be streaky. Paint always looks streaky as it’s drying, so give it some time before you decide if it needs an additional coat.

Even with all these great tips, you may not want to do your own painting…that’s ok, you’re not the only one!

Give us a call for a free estimate – (425) 888-3634

Claffey’s Painting is a full service painting contractor serving Western Washington, Chelan, Douglas and Kittitas Counties. We have painted over 7000 homes and would enjoy the opportunity to help paint yours. We can guide you through all the decision making processes so you get the right paint for the right job, and the professional job you’re looking for.