6 Essential Tips for Preparing to Paint a Room

Painting isn’t as easy as dipping a brush in a can and putting it on the wall. There’s a lot of necessary preparations that many people don’t realize they should be doing when they decide they want to give a room a new look, or help prepare a home seller's staging plan. Here are six tips to keep in mind when painting to help the process go as smoothly as possible.

Use the Best Paint Available

With paint, like many things, the cost is directly influenced by the quality of it. It’s possible to get bargain paint for around $10 per gallon, but despite being cost effective, using these paints will likely require more coats to do the same job as more expensive paint, which means more time and effort is needed to finish the room. Brands such as Behr, Valspar, and Sherwin-Williams are all higher quality paints that will cost around $30-50 per gallon, but the difference between those and the cheap paints will be obvious.

Pick the Right Paint for the Job

Anyone who takes a trip to a hardware store will be able to confirm that there are many, many different types of paint, and they all have different uses. For interior walls, there’s a wide variety of different finishes that make paint better for bathrooms, kitchens, or other rooms. If unsure of which paint is best, be sure to consult a paint department attendant, and they’ll be able to select the right type.

Test the Paint

No one wants to paint an entire room only to realize that the color just doesn’t fit quite like they thought it would. Fortunately, many hardware stores sell small paint samples that can be purchased in any color. They cover just enough of the wall to give the painter a good idea of how it will look in the room without having to commit to buying an entire quart or gallon of paint.

Clean the Walls

When preparing to paint a room, this can be an easy step to forget. Dust and cobwebs tend to collect in corners and behind furniture, and if painted over, the walls will look like something got stuck in the paint—especially in the case of spider webs. To prevent this, homeowners can either vacuum the walls, dust them, or wipe them down with a towel or cleaning cloth.

Combine All Paint

Sometimes, two gallons of paint that are supposed to be the same color might not be. Whether it’s due to human or machine error, mistakes can happen. For this reason, if painting a room in a St. Petersburg Beach home that requires more than one gallon of the same paint to complete, pour all the gallons into a large bucket and stir them together. This will even out the color so it doesn’t look like one wall is darker or lighter than the others.

Protect Furniture and Floors

Paint stains, and no one wants to get it on their furniture or floors. To prevent this, be sure to move everything out of the room beforehand so it won’t get damaged, or if the room is large enough, put it in the center of the floor where it should be in the way. For floors, laying down a tarp or drop cloth can be a big help. Just make sure it isn’t slippery, or else the painter will risk tripping and hurting themselves. 

There’s a lot of nuances to painting to remember in order to get a good result, but with practice, they’ll become second-nature, and keeping these tips in mind can help anyone get a good result whether they’re a beginner or a pro.