Many people, thinking to themselves, “how hard could it be?”, take up a roller and brush and soon end up wondering instead, “how do I paint a room?” Painting is both an art and a science, requiring certain techniques and skills. With long experience in high-end residential painting, ALLBRiGHT 1-800-PAINTING is happy to share some tips and ideas to help you achieve better results.
One of the most important steps, though definitely not the most fun, is to protect your room and prepare your walls (click to see previous posts). Next, apply tape to all of the edges of your painting surface. Now, give your paint cans a quick shake and a good stir, dip your brush and you’re ready to begin!
Using your brush, paint a frame around each surface you are painting, along with the ceiling, floor, and walls. Also, paint a frame around the outside of the windows and doors. This frame should be 4-5 inches wide, with smooth, thorough coverage. This process is called cutting in, and it allows you to roll the rest of the wall and not have to roll too near adjacent surfaces. For best results, make sure there is not a ridge or bead of paint at the edge of your brushstroke.
Now it is time to use the roller on the large, open surfaces. Load the roller with paint, but not so much that it drips. Begin in a top corner and roll your way carefully downwards. Rolling too quickly will cause splatters. Work your way from top to bottom and from one end towards the other, always maintaining a wet edge. This means that the most recently painted spot is nearest the unpainted area, and each new stroke of the roller overlaps wet paint, not dry. This helps you to avoid lap marks. Keep an eye out for drips and splatters, and use the roller to blend them back in while the paint is quite wet.
Step back and admire your work! If you see any trouble spots, try to deal with them quickly. Don’t judge the results until the paint is fully dried and you see it in a variety of lightings. Remember to remove the tape while the paint is still wet, and don’t put tape on the painted surfaces until the paint is completely dry, then you can tape off and paint your trim or other surfaces.
Painting can be a very fun and exciting process, but it can also be a challenge to get results you will be happy with. Sometimes, for newlyweds or new home buyers, family and friends will volunteer to help. This can be a dilemma: you want the help, but you want to make sure the quality is excellent. If this is the case, an ALLBRiGHT 1-800-PAINTING painting party is exactly the answer. We provide all paints, tools and drop cloths, and one of our expert painters will spend the day giving tips and supervising the work for excellent results. In fact, we’ll even bring pizza for lunch!
ALLBRiGHT 1-800-PAINTING is a licensed and reputable painting contractor, serving the Los Angeles region.