Painting a room yourself is a great, transformative task that is doable. No one is saying it doesn’t take work, but it’s painting. You can handle it. We believe in you.
But there are a few tips available that can help you transform your home without too much muss or fuss. Take a look at our tips to make sure you get the walls you want.
Wear something you don’t care about
Messy job 101: Wear something you don’t care about. This is going to get messy. Even if you are someone who has the neatest handwriting and has a collection of filled colouring books, things will go astray. Wear anything you pull out once you get in the house and don’t care what you look like.
Cover your furniture
Some of us can’t fully get a sofa out of the living room. Even if the doorway allowed that, doing it solo is going to be a chore – and where would you put it? Instead, cover your furniture up.
You might think that things won’t get messy, but you’d be wrong. Why does the paint flick back at you when using a roller? Well, because it’s a cheap roller, but it’s what you have, so cover your furniture and floors to make sure they don’t have a polka-dot effect by the end of the day.
About that roller…
There is a tip on the internet that says rolling your roller up in masking tape and ripping it off will get rid of the extra fluffy and dusty bits that are spattering your paint back into your face. Give it a go.
Additionally, while we’re playing with tape, tape up your brushes. This is a tip that you see professionals like building merchants do. Wrapping tape along the bottom of your brushes will stop the paint travelling down too far, getting stuck and becoming a nuisance to clean out. If you can’t clean it, your paintbrush will harden and you’ll have to buy a new one.
Tape up your borders
Additionally, get yourself smooth edges by taping up all your borders. However, we all know that. The real trick here is to remove the tape before your paint dries. Once you’ve gone around the whole room once with your first layer, remove the tape otherwise you will end up with strips of paint coming off with the tape.
Only do a wall?
Accent walls are all the rage right now. One bold wall can be just right. Not too much, not too bland, but just right. You can put the focus on an area, like a nook or the fireplace, or otherwise bring some colour to a neutral room that you think needs a little something.
You don’t even have to do a whole wall. Look into colour blocking, which is a trend nowadays that sees you draw any shape around anything you want in your home. That can be a TV, a mirror, artwork, or simply a shape on the wall. Channel your inner kid who liked to draw on the walls and go nuts. The look can be pretty sophisticated with pastels and neutrals and geometric shapes.
Is it the trendy option, the lazy option, or the smart option? We’ll let you decide.
