How to Avoid Mistakes when Painting a Room

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By Julie Sullivan
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A professional looking project

Learn how to avoid common mistakes when painting a room in your home.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

An "inspiration" item
Color fan deck from your local paint store
The name of a good color consultant
The name of a professional painting company

Step 1

Paint Colors in a Fan Deck

Choose the right paint color. Often people have a great decorating idea but then they don't know how to get exactly the right color. The project doesn't turn out quite the way they envisioned. If you have a pillow or a picture in the room, this can serve as your "inspiration" piece. Use a fan deck from your local paint store to find a color you think will make your piece "pop". You may need to get someone with a good eye for color to help you pick out a complementary color that will highlight your focal piece. Time and time again I see people choosing an orange, but it's the WRONG orange and it looks too bright. The same thing can happen with yellow. It looks like a nice creamy color but then when the wall is finished it's too yellow. The best way to avoid this is to have a color consultant come out and help you pick the color. This costs around $75 an hour and is well worth it if you are going to spend money on paint and labor. If you can't afford to do that, you can take your pillow into Sherwin Williams and ask them to assist you. Once you get in the right color range, you can use the fan deck to choose a darker or lighter color. Or you can move to the left or right one step to see how that looks. The final part of getting the color right is to ask the store to prepare a color to go sample. Take this home and paint it in several areas of the room. Wait a couple of days so you can look at it in daylight and at night. This way you can decide if you like it before you move forward with the painting. Another important note: Alot of people are using reds these days. Some reds require a special primer. Be sure to ask at the store if this step is necessary.
Step 2

A tray ceiling with three colors

Paint everything in the room. The second biggest mistake I see people make is they decide to paint only the walls. They ignore the trim, crown moulding, and ceilings. Sometimes you can get away with this, but more often than not the trim has pulled away from the walls and requires new caulking. After it's caulked, it needs to be painted. Also, trim paint can yellow over the years, and a fresh coat of paint will make everything look new. The ceiling is something you may not really notice, but it can be dirty or have lots of nail pops which also need attention. Nowadays a lot of people are using soft colors on the ceiling instead of the traditional flat white. Taking care of the small details will give your room a finished professional look.
Step 3

Professionals have the right skills to handle drywall repairs.

Patch the nail pops and holes properly before painting. I went into one house in Owings Mills, Maryland where there were multiple spots with caulk smeared into them. I see people putting caulk into nail pops, holes, and divets in their walls. Caulk is not the right product to use. Professionals will use a quick set joint compound mixture to fill these. My advice is If you don't know how to do this, leave it to a professional painter. They will do it quickly and effortlessly and you will never even know the hole was there. To learn more about my company visit www.certapro.com.

Comments

elhuber said

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on 1/24/2009 the painting can be a bit challenging if you don't have the proper tools to do the job right.
you got to have a good
brush, (not those cheap brushes)a good brush can also help you draw a straight line when dividing two colors.
If painting gets difficult leave it to us. We are professional painters.
www.hotpainting.biz