How To Paint Your Home: A DIY Beginners Guide

Exterior and interior painting projects are indeed a viable option for the average DIYer. There is never any harm in hiring a professional painting service, but the process is relatively harmless and it gives you chance to establish your own sense of self-reliance. And if something does go wrong, it is very easy to fix your mistakes. However, before getting started, you should always have a plan in place. Interior and exterior painting services require a lot of precision and prep-work, and we want to help you go about it the right way.

Begin by conceptualizing your project. How do you want your home to appear? What kind of colors intrigue you? What kind of look appeals to you? These are questions you should consider before moving forward with your project. Take a close look at all of your options and try to go off of any samples if you can. Also, take a good look at your ceiling and see if it can use some sprucing up as well.

Browsing all of your available options can certainly be overwhelming. Think about the characteristic of the color before you make a decision. You have a variety of styles, including soft, warm, and bright colors. Think about the furniture and decorative fixtures inside your home. Which color will have a complementary effect on your interiors? Once you get an idea of the color you want to use, look at the different shades and accents that it comes in. You should always remember that your home is going to look different depending on the time of day and the lighting.

If you go online you will find that many companies feature a tool where you submit a picture of your home and you can preview how it will look with different colors. You should remember, however, that those colors are going to look a lot different in real life.

This involves a drive to the home improvement store and purchasing everything you need to complete your DIY painting project. Here are some of the things that are a must-have: paint, paint roller, paint roller, extension pole, paintbrushes, paint tray, sandpaper, painter’s tape, rags, and putty knife.

Painting your entire home will obviously require more paint than if you were to focus on a single room inside your home. A good general rule of thumb is that a gallon of paint will cover 400 square feet. Also, what kind of paint are you purchasing? Some of them will produce a highly-textured surface, and others will produce a smooth and glossy finish. Depending on the color base of the paint, your home also may require multiple coatings.

The painting process does not begin once you obtain all of your materials. Every professional interior painting service will tell you that the most important step in the process is to prepare your walls to receive the paint. Also, you need to move all of the furniture and interior fixtures out of your way and you will need to seal off your window casings. Furthermore, your home has several electrical outlets throughout it. You will want to ensure that no paint gets inside of them.

In other words, how are you going to apply the paint? Are you going to start from the top of the wall and work your way down? Are you taking it one wall at a time? Will one person focus on the trimmings and another on the larger portions of the wall? When using a roller to apply paint, you should use long strokes that form a W pattern because it ensures ample coverage. Once you finish painting the wall, allow it to dry before applying a second coating. When painting the trim, you should always start near the ceiling first and then work your way down.

A well-ventilated workspace will make the project go a lot smoother. If you can, open up the windows fully. An airy environment is perfect for a DIY painting project because you don’t want to inhale a lot of the fumes and it helps the paint dry faster. Trapping moisture inside the room where you apply the paint will make the process a lot more difficult than it needs to be.

You have successfully applied multiple coatings of paint. Everything is looking marvelous and exactly the way you want it. However, now everything has to go back to the way it was. You need to remove the tape, dispose of your rags, and clean up any spills or splatters. You also need to wash your paintbrushes with soap and water.

You are putting a lot of effort into your DIY home painting project. However, you are not exactly sure how long it will take to get everything done. A residential painting service will vary depending on the scope of the project, but professional painters are very good at managing their time. Your skill level will factor into the time it takes to get everything done. We strongly recommend that you try and establish a work schedule and try to adhere to it as closely as you can. You never want your DIY painting project to drag on for an extended amount of time.

If you live in the Missoula area and require residential painting services, then feel free to give us a call! Speak with one of our painters today and they can tell you everything you need to know about home painting projects. They can also offer you advice on how to select the right color for your home.