It can be exciting to add a fresh coat of paint to the interior of your house. It makes everything feel new, different, and clean. It’s especially fun when you are changing the color scheme for a whole new look and feel.
Once you choose your paint color and you’ve got all your tools ready, there are some steps you should take to prep for interior paint. From covering furniture to removing outlet covers, we’ve put together a list of steps for prepping your house for interior paint.
Furniture and Floors
Stumbling over and around furniture while you’re trying to paint can be annoying. You will be doing yourself a favor by moving your furniture out the way, or even out of the room, while you’re painting.
Painting can also be messy. Covering your furniture is one thing, but it’s still in the way. Removing your furniture from the room will insure that there are no messes to clean up later.
Once the furniture is out of the way, you should lay down floor coverings. You can usually just put them around the perimeter of the room to catch any paint drips. Canvas drop cloths are recommended for interior paint projects. You can even use something simple like newspaper, as long as it can catch the paint.
Cleaning Your Walls
Why clean the walls when you’re just going to paint over them, right? Wrong. You really need to make sure your walls are clean before you start painting. You’ll get a nice even coat of paint and there won’t be any bleed through from dirt or oils that were left on the walls.
Most walls can be cleaned with water and a lid detergent. If you have any mildew or mildew stains, you should use a combination of bleach and trisodium phosphate.
Once the walls are clean you’ll want to make sure that they’re dry as well. If you’re in a hurry, feel free to turn a fan on and get some air moving.
Removing Outlet Covers and Switch Plates
You’ll most likely be masking quite a bit of trim before you get started. Most people just mask off the outlet covers and switch plates. It’s a better idea to just simply remove them.
By removing them altogether you’ll be making sure that paint doesn’t get on them at all. You’ll also have nice clean edges around the covers and plates once you put them back on. Make sure you replace them as soon as the paint is dry, especially if you have children in the home.
If you’re painting the ceilings in your home, it’s a good idea to remove the covers for those as well. It can be a real hassle to paint a ceiling and have to work around light fixtures.
Taping Trim and Sideboards
Do not skip this step. Taping your trim and sideboards can be a time consuming process. You’ll have a much more professional looking paint job if you do.
It’s not that expensive either. You’ll only need 5 or 6 rolls of painters tape, depending on the size of the area you’re painting. If you’re doing every room in the house, you may need more, but painters tape is fairly inexpensive.
Setting Up A Staging Area
It’s a really good idea to keep all your paint and tools in one area. Scattering everything around the house can turn into a nightmare really quick.
It’s aggravating if you have to search around the room, or the whole house, just to find the one brush or roller you need. Painter tape has a notorious way of disappearing as well.
You’ll be doing yourself a huge favor by setting up one area of the house where you keep all your tools and paint. You can thank us later.
Call Greenwood Painting
Painting the interior of your house may seem like a fun, easy job. Until you’re halfway through and realize you haven’t even started putting paint on the walls yet.
At Greenwood Painting, we have a professional team of painters who would be happy to do the job for you, at a price you can afford. Call us today at 541-699-2940 for a free quote, or fill out our contact form.
