How to paint a wall like a pro

Are you tired of staring at your drab white walls? Painting walls is a lot easier than you may think. Before you know it, you will be painting like a pro, just follow these simple directions.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Walls
• Paint
• Paint tray
• Masking tape
• Paint roller
• Paint brush
• Floor and furniture protectors

1. Prepare the walls for painting by taking off everything that is attached to the walls, such as pictures, posters, drapes, hooks, electrical outlet covers and light switch covers. Fill in the nail holes with a filler paste. (you can easily find that in any hardware store) Move the furniture out of the room if you can, if not, as far away from the wall as possible.

2. Take the masking tape (choose the one that peels off easy) and tape the edge of where a window or a door frame comes in contact with the wall. Place the tape right along the edge of the wall covering the door frame. The tape is going to act as a shield protecting the wood from the paint. This step is very important, so please take good care and tape evenly and run your hand over the tape several times to make sure that there are no holes where the paint can sip through and paint the wood.

3. Repeat step two, taping the edge between the ceiling and the wall.

4. Repeat step two, taping the edge between the baseboards and the wall.

5. Cover any exposed furniture and floor area with plastic or cloth protectors.

6. You are now ready to paint! Mix your paint REALLY well: you don´t want a Dalmatian looking wall. Pour just enough paint into the paint tray to cover the deep end of the tray and leave the slanted end of the tray exposed. Take your paint roller and dip into the paint. Then roll the roller in the slanted end of the paint tray back and forth until the roller is uniformly covered in paint. Keep rolling the roller until all the drippy excess paint comes off and the roller is well saturated with the paint

7. Take your saturated roller and gently roll over the wall in the up and down motion, going over each roll at least twice. Keep doing the vertical strides until all of your wall is covered. Redip your roller in paint as necessary. Refill your paint tray as necessary, taking good care not to put too much paint at once.

8. Once you are done with the first coat, let the paint dry a few hours. Then repeat steps 6 and 7 for the second coat. Wait until the second coat dries COMPLETELY (usually takes about 24 hours, more in humid climates) then peel the masking tape off SLOWLY.

9. Replace the furniture, blinds, outlet covers and pictures on the wall. Enjoy your new painted wall and feel proud of your handiwork!

Tips & Warnings

• Cover the used paint roller with plastic bag to prevent it from drying up, if you need to take a long paint brake, or want to continue to paint the following day using the same roller.
• If your wall initially has a dark color you must first paint it with a primer, let the primer dry and then paint the wall using the paint you chose.
• Don't peel off the masking tape before the paint dries.
• Make sure you mix the paint very well between the different coats.

Resources

• Lowes
• Home Depot