DIY House Painting Tips
Creating a beautiful home is everyone’s dream. In our minds, we all visualise multiple times how we want to design each and every corner of our sacred house. One’s heart lies in one’s homes, that is why everything plays a big part whether we are building a new home or simply redecorating our existing house. This is one of the main reason why many people like to diy their home paint job. The first thing about home that strikes us is how we want our walls to appear. With this in mind, we need to take into account both interior and exterior outlook of our home.
A good finish to the walls seems to be a cumbersome job and not to forget the mess it might leave behind. Fortunately, home painting does not require specialised training. Painting nowadays is an amazing and rejuvenating DIY home improvement activity. A few painting tips can deliver professional results while saving you big bucks.
House painting may seem to be an uphill task but with a little patience and guidance, anyone can take up this challenge. Find a trustworthy hardware store in Singapore for purchasing all the required paint materials, follow few do-it-yourself wall painting tips and in no time the walls will smile back at you with their bright and beautiful colours.
Research & Plan
Painting isn’t a day or two exercise. It takes quite a considerable amount of time as the both the interior paint and exterior paint must be given optimum time to dry in order to ensure its durability and firmness. So, plan well and give yourself (and your new coat of paint) sufficient time. Identify the type of paint you will need for the job required. There are various kind of paints available in the market such as latex paints, oil paints, water-based paints, all with different variety of textures and compositions and so on. Remember to go for the correct type of paint. There are interior paints, exterior paints and paints for wood and metal. Go to a online hardware store where one can buy paint online to shortlist your preferred choices according to your preference and budget.
Pre-painting
Check for any signs of water dampness and leakages and rectify the problem at once. Also look for any loose plaster and carry out masonry work to fill up all the cracks and repair broken plaster. Give sufficient time for the new plaster to dry up.
Prepare the wall surface
Clean the walls thoroughly by removing all dust, dirt, loose particles and paint flakes. Scrap every portion of the wall to smoothen uneven surface and fill every hole, crack, or dent. Preparing the wall surface is crucial to ensure that the paint adheres to the surface properly.
Priming is prime
Primers provide a strong, durable and perfect base for paint. It forms a binding layer, ensuring that the paint sticks uniformly to the wall surface. Primers are available for both interiors as well as exteriors. Good priming lays foundation for a good finishing, allowing long lasting paint. Add a little topcoat paint into the primer will allow the topcoat to be completely absorbed by the primed surface, hence giving a better finish to the walls.
Play with colours
Since wall colouring is personal to each one of us, it is better to experiment with colours in small proportions first. Thanks to technology, we can easily buy paint online at a competitive price. You can also easily get ideas on how to mix-n-match multiple shades. Explore the choices well before choosing your final colour to save both your time and effort.
Bulk mixing
Once the choice has been made, it is advisable to mix colours in larger quantities in order to avoid shade variations on the same wall. This will guarantee uniform outlook of the walls and will save your labour too as remixing might bring certain discrepancy in final finish. You may also opt for primer mixed paints.
Which one to choose? Rollers Or Brushes?
The decision in this case can be one sided as both rollers and brushes have their own usage and importance depending upon your target area. Professionals may opt for brushes and rollers both but for novice DIYers, rollers may be the safer choice as they give a smoother finish and cover a larger area especially for outer walls, ceilings, etc. However, for creases, edges, trims and smaller areas, use brushes for a finer touch in those small areas. Cover the area you don’t wish to paint with tape and remove it once the work is complete. All the materials can also be brought online from any good hardware store.
Cover your furniture
Don’t forget to cover all your furniture, home décor items, woodwork, electrical fittings, boards, and any other things you want to protect from paint splatters. It’s your choice to go for either plastic drop cloths or canvas. Canvas drop cloths are generally easy to use, durable and rip resistant. Do be careful that plastic sheets may become slippery when there’s paint on it.
Storage prevents wastage
Store and label any remaining paint so that they can come in handy when you need to do a little touch ups. Clean the paint brushes and rollers with solvent and thinners, wrap them in plastic or wax paper and store them well for use next time.
A house painting job doesn’t end here, the key to beautiful walls and surfaces also lies in proper maintenance. Clean the surfaces once in while with mild soap solution to keep them stain and dust free. Look for the signs of peeling, flaking, scraping, cracking, and tend to those issues well in time will increase the lifespan of your beautifully painted walls.
Click here to find out more about various types of paints, painting tools, primers, rollers, brushes.
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