How to Paint Small Apartments

Choose a color that reflects your style but is not dark so your small apartment feels open.

Giving your apartment a fresh look can be time consuming and expensive if you try to change out the furnishings, curtains, and wall accent pieces. With permission from your landlord, you can paint small apartments for less and create the appearance of a new, larger room through color selection. Whether you want to paint only one accent wall or all the walls, you should be able to get all of your painting done within a weekend or a week's time depending on the project.

Things You'll Need

• Paint
• Drop cloths
• Painter's tape
• Disposable foam brushes
• Disposable paint rollers

Instructions

1. Select a color to paint your apartment that is light in nature, but not necessarily white, beige, or pastel. Take time making your decision to avoid repainting in the future. Purchase one gallon of paint for every 350 square feet of wall space you need to cover with a single coat.

2. Take down any items you have on the walls and push furniture toward the center of each room. Drape a drop cloth over groups of furniture to protect them from paint splatter.

3. Run painter's tape along the edges of any baseboards, electrical sockets, light switches, window frames and doorjambs as well as cabinets, ceiling lines, and light fixtures. The tape should be set as straight as possible at every point where the painted walls come into contact with another surface you won't be painting.

4. Paint along the perimeters of the apartment where your painter's tape has been placed with foam brushes to create a 3-to-4-inch border around each wall that is going to be painted. Paint around light fixtures, switches and outlets as well to create a border around them.

5. Use disposable paint rollers to paint any remaining open space. Work in large "V" or "W" shaped strokes pulling the roller back and forth to apply a solid coat. Where possible, paint in 3-foot by 3-foot areas at a time to ensure even coverage and avoid rolling over partially dry areas.

6. Allow the paint to dry for a minimum of three to four hours before moving furniture around in the room again to avoid settling dust on tacky walls. Wait at least 24 hours before hanging art, clocks, or other items back onto your walls.

Tips & Warnings

• Select a one-coat paint to make the task of painting faster.

• Try to decorate your apartment working with a color palette which consists of one light color for walls, two medium colorss, and the use of one dark color very sparingly, such as on small tables or details on curtains or pillows.

• If necessary, move the majority of the furniture out of very small rooms to make them workable and plan to only paint one room at a time before moving all of the furniture out of the next room.

• Always contact your landlord or rental office first to get verbal or written permission to paint the apartment before you begin. They can also tell you whether you will be responsible for repainting upon vacating the apartment, if you will be charged for them to repaint, or if the cost of painting will be shared because the apartment needs painting.

References

• "Christopher Lowell's Seven Layers of Design"; Christopher Lowell; 2000
• "Paint and Color"; Jessica Elin Hirschman; 2002