Painting Your Walls and Ceilings

The walls of any room usually dominate and set the tone for that room. This is why it's so important to choose the right paint when renovating or redecorating any room in your home. Painting a room to redecorate it wins hands down over the expense and mess of using wallpaper any day of the week so you'll find most DIY and fixer-upper types favour paint in their projects.

Prepare For Painting

Some people rush into painting their walls and ceilings without taking any preparatory steps. You should always use a primer or base coat when painting any interior wall in your home (or any interior wall for that matter). Be sure that the primer or base coat matches the surface paint color of the wall to create beautiful blending and even layered effects. Another huge benefit of using primer is that it stops you from having to use 2 or 3 coats of the more expensive final finish painting. This alone can save you an awful lot of money.

If you've never painted the interior of a home before then don't be shy about asking for help, hints and advice from people working in hardware and DIY stores or even just from friends. Asking for help in advance can save you an awful lot of trouble later on. For example certain types of paintbrushes work far better with certain types of paints. Or that foam brushes are great for applying touch-ups to worn paintwork.

Another important tip is to never attempt to paint over a wall or ceiling that needs to be repaired (for cracks for example). Always repair any imperfections or cracks before applying paint over them. Are you starting to see the benefit of seeking advice in advance?

Choosing Paint And Color

Sticking to a single color for the entire room or even your entire home can help you stick to your budget. This is simply because you only need to worry about the base coat and the surface color when shopping. Most people, however, tend to want to use several colors (one for each room perhaps) when decorating their home. Bear in mind, howdever, that different paint colors and textures produce different results so plan your painting well.

For example, matte paints on walls are excellent for hiding any potential imperfections on the walls themselves. Gloss finishes will actively reflect more sunlight around the room so would be worth considering for rooms that don't receive a lot of natural sunlight. Then you can look at the colors being used. Painting with shades of blue or green for example can make a room feel a lot "cooler". Other colors like red, yellow and orange can make rooms feel much "warmer" than they actually are.

The main thing to take away from reading this article is that you shouldn't just rush out and spend hundreds of dollars on paint and brushes. Plan your color schemes, decide on your budget, get advice from friends who've redecorated recently. Planning and preparing is equally as important as the painting itself. Oh and don't forget to have some fun too - it shouldn't be all work, work, work!