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You just purchased your dream home, but your rooms are painted with some unsightly, dated colours. Giving your home a fresh coat of paint is going to be a top priority, but before you begin, you’ll want to know exactly what you’re getting yourself into.
Before you begin painting, you’ll want to ensure your room and walls are prepped for the painting project. First, ensure you cover your floors with drop clothes to avoid getting paint on them. If you have trim in the room, you’ll want to make sure you tape the trim with tape that won’t peel off the existing paint. Remove all outlet covers throughout the room to avoid getting any paint on them as well.
When it comes to furniture, it’s best to remove it from the room if possible. While this is the best solution, the next best option is to move all of your furniture to the middle of the room and put plastic over top of them to prevent any damages while you’re painting.
Once you’ve protected the floors, taped the trim, removed the outlet covers and moved your furniture, it’s time to prep the walls themselves.
Before doing any painting, it’s always a good idea to wash the walls to remove any dirt, dust or oil from fingerprints that may create an uneven finish. If the walls are relatively clean, you can get away with wiping the walls down with warm water and a sponge to remove any dust. If you notice any dirt or grime on your walls, use a mild detergent to remove it.
While primer will typically help achieve a better finish, it’s not always necessary. Times that you should use primer include when you’re transitioning from a dark to light colour, the wall is porous, the wall has drywall repair and imperfections, or the previous paint had a glossier finish. If the walls are in tough shape, it’s best to use a separate paint and primer rather than an all in one solution.
Depending on the end result you’re going for, you’ll want to use 1-2 coats of primer. After you’ve prepared the room, washed the walls and primed the walls, you’re likely looking at 1-2 hours or more of preparation time.
The size of the room ultimately determines how long it takes you to paint the room. A small bathroom will take far less time than painting a living room. Timing depends on how many coats of paint your walls require. The larger the room, the bigger the time commitment you’ll need.
The preparation itself will likely take a couple of hours for a larger room, so when you factor in adding multiple coats of paint, you’re looking at a DIY project that will likely take you a full day.
Since painting larger rooms is time-consuming and tedious, you may find that paying a professional painting company in Vancouver is worth the cost. Not only will a professional create a crisp, clean finish, but they will achieve the end result in far less time than it would take the average homeowner to do the same job with a lower quality finish.
Once the paint is dry, you’ll want to do a walkthrough of the room to check for any spots that may not have covered completely. It’s best to do a walkthrough with natural lighting since this lighting will reveal any imperfections you may not notice with artificial lighting.
Depending on how thorough you were with applying the paint, touching up can take 30 minutes to an hour. Cleanup should be fairly quick as you just need to remove the plastic, replace the furniture and clean your brushes and rollers.
