Top coat: the specialist guide to painting your house perfectly– from walls to floors to radiators
Paint sales are up, but it requires to be used carefully if you wish to change your home for the better. Here is how to prepare, continue and get your favored surface
Over the course of the past year you might have offered idle idea to repainting all or part of your home. In lockdown, you may have decided now is the time. If so, you are not alone: paint business are still delivering and sales are brisk. But is this really the time to embark on such a job? And can you make a success of it, even if you have never done it before? We asked the experts the very best way to go about it.
Before you start
The bright side is, you can save a great deal of money by painting your own home, because labour represent the majority of decorating costs. The problem is, there’s a factor painters are expensive. Painting is difficult.
The biggest error first-timers make is thinking too big, according to Joa Studholme, author of How to Colour and embellish manager for the paint company Farrow & Ball. “My main piece of advice is to begin small,” she says. “If you have a little hall, that can be a good place to start. There you can indulge your dreams of doing something vibrant and quite strong, which might be something you’re feeling you wish to do right now, but then you don’t have to look at everything day.”
Painting an entire room will certainly keep you hectic, however if you are new to it, you probably will not discover it terribly restorative. “I do it where I think: ‘Oh, I’m gon na paint this, and it’s gon na be really relaxing,'” states Studholme, “And, really, painting is difficult. Smaller sized things are much better to do.” For novices, she suggests beginning with your front door, or the legs of a table. “Paint the inside of a cabinet in a jolly colour which will make you smile each time you open it,” she says. You can move on to a room when you have some concept of what it involves.
Selecting colours
Lockdown might appear like fertile ground for ill-advised decisions, however Edward Bulmer, an interior designer and head of the Edward Bulmer Natural Paint company, states there may never ever be a much better time to select colours. “If you think about it, it’s rarely that we can consider our spaces at all times of day,” he says, “and in differing weathers, and most likely with full-on usage, if you’ve got your household around.”
You can still purchase sample pots from lots of business, including Bulmer’s and Farrow & Ball (shipment times may be a bit longer, but none people is going anywhere). Instead of applying it to the wall, paint a generous piece of card– A5 or bigger– or a bit of old wallpaper. “Then put it against the wall round the space and look at it in different lights,” says Studholme. “You might seem like a right moron doing it, however that’s the best way to gauge how it’s going to look.”
If you don’t know where to start, try being led by the colours of other surfaces in the room: floorings, worktops, tiles, any big bits of furniture. “Some choice that’s already out of your hands,” states Bulmer. Deal with what you’ve got.
Tools and supplies
As for paint, the amount you need differs depending on the type, but 5 litres of emulsion will cover around 60 square metres. “One of the costly components in paint is titanium dioxide, the fundamental white pigment,” states Bulmer. “Generally, to make a paint more affordable you use less of that, so you’ll have less coverage.”
Preparing yourself
” Preparation is everything,” states Studholme. Expert painters invest far longer prepping a room than they do painting it. Press all the furniture into the middle of the room and cover it with dust sheets. Scrape away any loose old paint. Fill cracks and nail holes, and sand flat. Sand to develop a key (an adhesive surface) for the new paint. Mask the edges of carpet. Apply guide to your walls, and do not stress too much what it looks like; it’s simply there to offer a steady painting surface.
The ceiling
If you are doing the ceiling, that should be done first; you can get up there with either a ladder or a roller on a pole. Ahead of time, paint round the edges where the ceiling satisfies the wall or any architectural functions, utilizing a small brush. You can mask the edges with tape if you are unsure of yourself. Then roll. Anticipate to come away heavily speckled.
The walls
Do the same along any woodwork edges (you can be a bit less exact here, because you are painting the woodwork later on). If this part sounds complicated, Studholme has an easy solution that also takes place to be stylish: paint whatever– walls, ceilings, woodwork– the exact same colour. Georgian rooms were typically painted in one colour.”
When it comes to rolling your walls, the primary suggestions is to keep going. “That’s the single pitfall, truly,” says Bulmer. Paint a single coat in one go, and let it dry over night.
Woodwork
This is where genuine care is required: painting windows, door frames and skirting boards with great straight edges and without getting any drips or splatters on your newly painted walls. Not once but 3 times, since you will require primer plus 2 leading coats. “One technique is to paint the spindles of your stair balustrade dark,” says Studholme.
Floors
” I enjoy a painted flooring,” states Studholme. “The guideline with painted floors is that they always look much lighter than you expect. No one realises just how much light bounces on to a flooring. If you paint a floor light, it will bounce light all round your space.” It’s also practically the least expensive method to cover a flooring there is.
You will require a robust, hard-wearing paint. There are specialist flooring paints, and some professionals even suggest boat paint. It is a huge undertaking– you need to entirely empty the room– however is not that technically difficult. “Painting floors is easy,” says Studholme. “Gravity helps. Having stated that, you do need to let them cure for a couple of days prior to you stroll on them.” If you are stuck in two rooms throughout the lockdown, now may not be the time to limit yourself to one. You likewise require to consider what part of the room you are going to end up in when you end up, or you might actually paint yourself into a corner.
Radiators
The factory surface of a modern radiator does not need to be painted but if it is obtrusive, you might wish to hide it. Because case, a light sanding and an oil undercoat, followed by “the eggshell variation of the wall” need to suffice, says Bulmer. There is such a thing as radiator paint, but it might not come in the colour you need. The radiator ought to be cold when you paint it and will require to remain off for 24 hours afterwards, so the weather forecast might be a consideration.
Finishing up
When you have finished the job, Studholme suggests you make a record of all the finishes and colours you have utilized in case you require to repaint any bits later. Shop remaining paint in a cool, dry, frost-free location, prepared for touching-up or any other little projects. “Last night, I got on a ladder and painted a square round the mirror above our fireplace,” she states. “I believed it might be nice to have a little bit of colour there. It took me probably eight minutes to do it, and I can paint it out once again tomorrow if I do not like it.”
“I do it where I think: ‘Oh, I’m gon na paint this, and it’s gon na be really soothing,'” says Studholme, “And, in fact, painting is difficult. “Paint the within of a cabinet in a jolly colour and that will make you smile every time you open it,” she states. “One trick is to paint the spindles of your stair balustrade dark,” says Studholme.” I enjoy a painted floor,” states Studholme. There are specialist flooring paints, and some professionals even suggest boat paint.
* NOTE: Combine the our painters dublin service with house painting, Exterior & Interior Painting, commercial painting, furniture spray painting,wallpapering, plastering services and benefit from our discounts. Or just simply contact us for a free quote. Please also have a look at our amazing testimonials and gallery. Our sitemap, about us and blog. Areas we cover.
Areas We Cover (AlexTrendPainters.ie)
Related Articles
Learn More About Painting and Painters