How to Paint a Room
Written by: Admin | Date: Thursday, 26th May 2011

Do you want to breathe life into a dull room?  The fastest, most dramatic way to add character and personality to a space is to add color to your walls and brighten your ceiling and trim.  With proper preparation and follow-through, a single person can tackle a small to medium-sized room in a weekend. 
There is little else that you can do in your home that will reap such huge rewards in comfort and style, for so little time and effort.

Materials needed:

Low VOC Latex paint – a gallon each of ceiling, trim and wall paint
Drop cloths to cover floor and furniture (can be cloth or plastic)
Old hat to protect hair from paint drips
Blue painter’s tape
All purpose caulk and caulking gun
9 in. roller cover with 3/8 in. nap
9 in. roller frame
9 in. roller tray
Extendable roller pole
High-quality, two in. angled nylon brush, such as Purdy, Wooster, or Corona
Painter’s shield for pressing down carpet when painting baseboards
Rags and bucket of water for clean up
Denatured alcohol
Plastic gloves
Bonding primer for tile or oil-based painted surfaces
Flathead screwdriver
Sanding block, medium to fine grit
Paint key

The leading cause of indoor air pollution is VOCs, or Volatile Organic Compounds found in interior house paint.  These compounds used to be essential to the performance of the paint.  Thankfully, paint technology has advanced by leaps and bounds in the last ten years.  There are now numerous brands of low or no-VOC latex paints on the market.  However, no tinted paint is truly no-VOC because the tints have VOCs in them.  Using a low or no-VOC paint is crucial to a household containing asthmatics, as these chemicals can cause respiratory distress.

The sheen of the paint is another important consideration.  Ceilings are traditionally flat.  Trim is traditionally semi-gloss.  Egg-shell is the most popular sheen for walls, but the higher the sheen, the more the imperfections in the sheetrock will be high-lighted.  If your walls are banged up, and you won’t be repairing them, go with a flat or matte.

Not every wall can be painted with latex immediately.  If the walls were painted with an oil-based paint, then they must be coated with a bonding primer, such as Glidden’s Gripper before the latex paint is applied.  If you have tile that you want to paint, Gripper can also be used to prime the tile, so that the paint will stick.  If you don’t know if you have oil or latex-based paint, there is an old painter’s trick you can use.  Put on a pair of plastic gloves and apply a small amount of denatured alcohol to a clean, dry rag.  Rub a small spot of paint on the wall.  If paint comes off on the rag, then the wall was painted with latex.  Most latex paints on the market are self-priming (just check the label), so additional primer coats are unnecessary.

To begin preparation, move all furniture out of the room, if possible.  If not, move pieces away from walls and closer to the center of the room.  Cover floors and furniture with drop cloths.  Remove all light covers and electrical outlet plates.  Use medium side of sanding block to lightly sand down walls.  Take a tack cloth or duster to remove dust from walls.  Caulk any spaces between the trim and the walls.

Pour majority of paint into roller tray.  Leave about a fourth of paint in the bucket.  You are going to use this paint to cut in the ceiling.  Use your angled brush to paint around the edges of the ceiling.  Do not worry about getting paint on the walls.  You will take care of that later.  Your main concern is getting a good coat of paint on the ceiling edges.  Do not load your brush with so much paint that you leave heavy brush marks.

Screw your roller frame to roller pole and slide on cover.  Load your roller with enough paint to saturate, but no so much that it is dripping off.  Start in one corner and and roll a 3 x 6 foot area.  When complete, dip roller and roll back to where you started.  Continue to the next 3 x 6 foot area.  When you back roll, continue into the previous block to smooth out the transition.  If you are just refreshing the color, one coat is all you need.  However, if the room ever housed smokers, you will want to repeat the process in a few hours.

After you have cleaned the brush out, break open your trim paint.  Paint from top to bottom all trim and doors, in long even strokes.  Again, don’t worry about getting paint on the walls.  When it comes time to paint the baseboards, use painter’s shield to press carpet down to prevent drips and drags.  Take a break and allow trim to dry.  If you are just refreshing the trim, you can now move on to the walls.  If not, repeat process.

When trim is completely dry, apply your blue painter’s tape on around ceiling edges, where the walls meet and on trim edges.  Paint around wall edges and down the corners.  Fill a fresh roller tray with your wall color.  Load your cover and start in a corner.  Get as close to the ceiling as possible with your roller.  Lightly press the roller to the wall and let it drop down the wall.  If you see lines or “ropes”, you are pressing too hard.  You should be guiding the roller, not pushing it.  After each section, you should back roll into the previous one to smooth the transition.

Wait three hours, or paint manufacturer’s suggestion and repeat process on wall.  When you are finished painting, carefully remove tape.  When walls are dry, put the light covers and electrical plates back on the wall.  Give the room a good twelve hours before inhabiting.

Take a good look around and admire your handiwork.  By following these steps, you have now painted your room like a pro and saved yourself hundreds of dollars.  Now, which room are you going to tackle next?