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| Painting the kitchen with all the surfaces protected |
A little disclaimer here. I am by no means a painting and decorating expert. As I've already mentioned in previous posts, Jared and I were total novices when it came to anything DIY. Let alone deciding to redecorate basically the whole house.
But we have learnt a fair bit along the way. So I thought I would share what we now know for anyone else looking to embark on their own decorating venture for the first time. If you have no idea what to do or how to start, then don't worry. Neither did we!
I tried to find a guide for amateurs but could only come across blogs by professional decorators. While they were really handy, they didn't cover some of the really basic level questions that we had. So I thought I would write my own guide to help anyone else out there who needs it.
1. This is not an easy job.
Now as far as DIY goes, painting is definitely one of the easier things and you don't need to have any particular skills but it is worth mentioning that it is hard work. It's also time consuming. It's not as simple as just slapping some paint on the walls and calling it a day. It will take you a fair bit of time to do properly.
The task will be more complicated if you have high ceilings or very textured surfaces to work with. The amount of work involved will also depend on how many rooms you want to repaint. If you think it's too much for you then start small and work up. If it goes horribly wrong (unlikely but it could) you can always call in a professional to help.
Conversely though, don't be put off by the fact it's hard work. Provided you have got a house in good condition and all you want to do is spruce it up a bit you should be able to do it yourself.
Just be realistic about the amount of work involved and how much time you have to commit to it. There's nothing worse than a half bodged DIY job.
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| Lampshades for each room, plus decorating kit. |
2. Think about what you are trying to achieve.
What look are you going for? How is that different to how the house currently looks? Remember that dark, strong colours can overpower a small room and make it feel smaller. But equally painting everything bland, boring colours can make the house feel sterile.
Ask yourself realistically how much work needs doing. Is it just the colour of one wall you want to change or are you redecorating the whole room?
If you are, then consider that unless the ceiling and skirting boards have been painted recently they are likely to suddenly look dingy once the rest of the room is freshly painted. Although it is more effort, it makes the whole room look brand new.
Basically, you need to know the direction you are trying to go in so that the finished result matches with the rest of the decor in the room. It's no good repainting the room only to discover that your new colour looks awful against your sofa.
If you're not sure where to start, try picking the curtains and lampshades you like and then design the room to go with them. Or pick a cushion to be your centre piece and use that to pull inspiration from.
3. Preparation is key
This is the part of the job that involves the most work. It's takes the most time and its very labour intensive. It is also very frustrating because it feels like you aren't making any difference to how the room looks. But it makes the most difference to the overall quality.
4. Fill in all the holes
First step is to carefully inspect the walls for any holes and fill them with a suitable filler. Professional decorators mix their own filler as this is significantly cheaper if you have a very large amounts of holes to fill. But you can also buy pre-mixed stuff that you take straight from the pot and put onto the wall.
If you're not a pro with only a few rooms to do there probably isn't much point in buying the product to mix yourself as you will only use a tiny amount of it. We used a premixed Ronseal version and had four rooms with loads of holes in all of them. We only used a tiny bit of the pot as you only need a small amount for each hole.
To fill the hole in, remove any screws that are still in the hole and lightly sand any uneven edges around the hole. A good tip for dealing with annoying plastic rawl plugs is to hammer them in so that they become flush with the wall; pulling these out can sometimes make the hole even worse. Also, the filler will have something to stick to when the rawl plug is still in the hole.
Get a small amount of product onto the plastic spatula that comes with the filler and carefully smear it over the hole. Use the edge of the spatula to spread the product evenly so it is flush with the wall by wiping over the product in a diagonal cross shape. This removes the excess product and gives a smooth finish.
Try to use just enough to fill the hole, but not so much that you've covered more wall then you need to. The more filler around the actual hole the more sanding you have to do when it dries and it doesn't look as neat.
Once the filler has dried (takes about two hours) you might find that is has shrunk back inside the wall a little. This often happens if the hole is quite deep. If this is the case add a second layer of filler over the hole so that the filler is flush with the rest of the wall. It is better to do several thinner layers rather than one massive thick one as the finished result looks better.
Once you are happy with the finish and it is completely dry, sand the surface of the filler so that it is level with the rest of the wall. This is particularly important as it helps blend the hole in with the rest of the wall once you've painted over it.
Doing the above won't completely disguise the hole. You will be able to see where it was once it is painted if you look closely, but it will look better than an actual hole in the wall!
There are lots of YouTube videos on this if you need more help.
5. Repair any damage around the windows and doors
As houses expand and contract the edges of doors, window frames and skirting boards can become damaged and look like they are coming away from the wall. As long as the actual frame is still attached and doesn't need replacing you can neaten this by using decorators caulk.
Snip the end of the caulk off with a stanley knife and then flatten the end slightly so that the caulk comes out in a thinner stream. Then carefully pipe a thin layer around the edge of the window sill or wherever needs a slight tidy up. You can get specialist tools to smooth the caulk out but you can also use your finger.
Smooth the caulk out so that you have a neat finish and wait for it to dry. Once it is completely dry you can use this as your edge for painting to and it will make the overall result a million times neater. Again there are lots of video tutorials if you need them.
6. Sand the walls, ceiling and skirting boards
We have found that it is a lot easier to do this all in one go. Basically you need to sand the whole area you are going to paint. This could well mean the whole room. You can get electric sanders which will make the whole job a lot quicker and easier.
But if you don't have access to one, aren't confident using one or aren't doing a very big area then you can do it by hand. You can use a block of wood to wrap some sand paper round, which works fine but if you are going to sand a fair bit, then spend a few quid on a sanding block. They make the job a lot easier.
We did all four rooms by hand as we don't have an electric sander and used 180/200 grit sandpaper. We found this to be fine enough to not damage the wall, but it still sanded off any imperfections.
Get yourself a step ladder for reaching the ceiling and tops of the walls and get sanding. Make sure you wear a dust mask and goggles as it gets very dusty very quickly. Open all the windows to get as much fresh air in as you can. Work from top to bottom and focus on removing any flaws in the existing paint job as they will show through.
Don't forget the window sills and door frames if you are planning to repaint those.
This step is absolutely necessary as otherwise your job will look scrappy.
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| Jared washing the ceiling and walls in the kitchen after we finished sanding |
7. Wash the walls
Once you have finished sanding, wash the walls, ceiling and skirting boards down to remove any dust that will stoick to the paint. Use a big sponge as it makes it quicker.
Sugar water is fantastic for removing any greasy marks or dirt on the walls. You can also hoover the skirting boards to remove most of the dust that collects here, as it is much quicker!
8. Get the kit for the job
We wasted a fair bit of money on poor quality kit, stupidly assuming that it was all pretty much the same. A bad workman blames his tools, but even an amateur workman can achieve a good paint job with the right ones!
This is a list of stuff we bought. This post is not sponsored by Toolstation but we did find them to be the best source of equipment but at extremely reasonable prices. You don't have to be a professional to buy kit from there either, but many trade people do. If you have one near you, I would highly recommend going there rather than one of the large high street names like B&Q or Wickes for kit.
Equipment list:
Some extra tips:
- Get proper drop cloths to protect your floors, they work far better than the disposable ones. You can use them again and again.
- Plastic wrap will cover all of your furniture better than dustsheets. It's also very static so it sticks to furniture on its own a lot of the time. It is fantastic for covering the kitchen units, work surfaces, fridge etc.
-If you want to take a break you can wrap your brushes, rollers and roller trays in black plastic bags and seal with sellotape. You can also use clingfilm, but plastic bags will fit a whole roller tray in. Your paint will stay wet and ready to use for a day or two so long as they are well sealed.
-Wash your paint stirrers straight away so you can reuse them for separate colours.
-We didn't bother washing out our rollers once we were ready to paint a different colour and just threw them away as they only cost £2. It was more effort than it was worth.
-Paint pots might seem pointless but it allows you to decant paint from the can for cutting in. This is particularly handy if there is more than one of you working as you both need a supply of paint. Plus they are light enough to hold when you are standing on a ladder.
-In the same vein, you can buy liners for the paint pots that mean you can seal your paint for later use. Plus it means you don't have to keep washing them. They cost hardly anything and make the overall job a lot easier.
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| Jared painting the ceiling in the living room |
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9. Paint the ceiling
Always start at the top of the room and work down. We painted all of our ceiling in Crowns Vinyl Matt in Brilliant White and they look great. It even covered up a seriously dirty corner of the kitchen that we couldn't get to come clean no matter how much we scrubbed it.
Before you roll the ceiling, cut in around the walls and light fittings. By this I mean use a paint brush to paint about a four inch strip around the edge of the ceiling. Also make sure you paint the ceiling paint onto the walls themselves by a couple of inches.
This might seem like pointless work but you cannot get a neat edge using the roller alone. By painting the ceiling colour onto the walls this makes sure that you do not end up with a gap where the ceiling and wall paints meet. As most people paint their ceiling white, when you come to paint your walls you simply paint over the white with the colour of your choice.
Once you have cut in the ceiling you are ready to roll. Make sure you get an extending roller pole and that it extends to a suitable length for you. If you have a tall boyfriend like I do I suggest you get them to paint the ceiling. It is hard work, but the further you have to have the pole extended, the harder it is. A taller person doesn't have to extend the pole as much and therefore it is much less unwieldy to handle.
Paint the ceiling parallel to the natural source of light so that any roller marks are less obvious. If you are right handed, it is easier to roll a room from left to right and vice versa if you are left handed.
Pour a suitable amount of paint into the roller tray and roll it onto the roller. You are aiming to have a fair bit of paint on the roller.
Start your first stroke about a rollers width away from the edge of the wall. Roll the paint out in a straight line and then spread it out in a W motion to either side. Watch some YouTube videos if you are not sure how.
The key to getting an even finish is to make sure you have enough paint on your roller. When the roller is making a harsh sound on the wall, you don't have enough paint.
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| The spare room with the new paint colour cut in around the doors, walls, skirting boards and radiator. |
10. Paint the walls
This is the step that makes the most impact. Again, start by cutting in around the ceiling, skirting boards, light switches, radiators and any plug sockets.
This is the most time consuming part but is essential for a good job. Take your time with cutting in, especially the ceilings and skirting boards because a neat job will make the whole thing look more professional. Use a proper cutting in brush and watch a few YouTube videos so you get the technique. Then the only thing to be done is to just go for it. If you're a bit nervous start with the skirting boards as they are easier and pick a section that won't be seen very often. For example behind a door or where a large piece of furniture goes. Then any mistakes will be less obvious.
Once you have cut in you can roll the walls using the same technique you used for the ceiling. Again, if you are right handed, paint from left to right. You will probably need to do at least two coats to get an even finish and make sure none of it looks patchy.
11. Paint the trim
Once your walls are dry it's time to paint the skirting boards, window sills and door frames. We used Dulux Satinwood for ours as it gives a more modern, flat finish as opposed to gloss. It's also easier to work with and more forgiving. However it isn't as durable as gloss, which is one drawback.
A cutting in brush is fantastic for doing the skirting boards as you can paint virtually the whole thing in one go and the pointed end is great for fiddly bits.
Use painters tape to protect the floor by taping along the edge of the skirting board so you can paint the full length of the skirting board without ruining the carpet.
We only needed one coat for this and it has made a big difference to how the rooms look. As everything is freshly painted they now look brand new.
