Applying a new coat of paint to your home is a fantastic way to breathe new life into its look. However, it’s critical to proceed with caution, especially if you’re not receiving guidance directly from a professional painter. A lot of people don’t know the correct ways to paint their homes, leading to disappointing outcomes that require further maintenance down the line. But there’s no cause for concern – this blog post will detail the crucial mistakes to steer clear of when tackling your home’s indoor or outdoor painting tasks:
Not Using Primer Before Painting
The first common mistake in first-timers of painting are not making the use of a primer. The primer serves as a base for the paint to be applied on, which prevents it from peeling off in no time and also provides protection against water, stains, and other elements that may damage your painting project. If you don’t use a primer before painting on a wall, you may end up with paint that’s easily coming off your wall. Furthermore, primers can help fill in the cracks and rough surfaces, so that paint can be applied more smoothly.
We recommend using either a latex or oil-based primer, depending on the surface you’re painting over. If your wall is made out of concrete, for example, then it’s best to use an oil-primer as opposed to a latex one; this will ensure the paint you apply won’t easily deteriorate.
Oil-primers are made of heavy oils that fill in any cracks and uneven surfaces on your walls, providing a surface for the paint to stick onto. On the other hand, latex primers are usually applied on walls made out of wood or drywall.
Painting on Top of a Wallpaper
Before you start your painting project, it’s vital that you make sure you remove the wallpaper. If you fail to do so, you will find that the new paint job is running and peeling off from your walls. Furthermore, bubbles might develop underneath the paint’s surface if a wallpaper is present because of air trapped between the layers.
Taking out wallpaper is pretty easy and isn’t time-consuming as everyone dreads it to be. Start by using a putty knife to scrape away at the glue on top of the wallpaper. Once you’ve scraped it all off, take some water-diluted dish soap and scrub over where the wallpaper was with a sponge or a cloth to get rid of any adhesive that might be left. Now use a scraper to scrape off the paper itself.
Once you’ve taken out all your wallpaper, make sure that it’s dry before proceeding with painting over it. This will prevent future bubbles from occurring and delaying the paint job process because of air getting trapped between layers as mentioned above.
Using The Wrong Painting Brush
Surprising as it may seem, not all painting brushes are the same. If you are going to be using paint that is water-based, make sure the brush has synthetic bristles. If it’s oil-based or latex-paint then a natural bristle will work best for those types of paints. The painting brush you used needs to be specific to end up with a great-looking finish.
Forgetting to Cover Furniture
The last thing you want to end up with is your thousand ringgit worth of sofa getting splashed with drips of paint! Not only will this be an eyesore, but it will also be really difficult to clean up. To avoid this happening, one of the best ways is to cover any furniture that you don’t want getting touched with a tarp or plastic sheets first before doing your painting job. If you fail to do this, you might risk ruining all your hard work by having to go back and fix paint spills.
The same goes for any carpets that you don’t want getting contaminated with the paint colors, too. When painting a room it’s best to move out important furniture or cover it with some plastic. This will not only save you a lot of time and effort, but it also helps to make the job easier for yourself in general!
Not Using The Right Sheen
If you ended up using the wrong type of sheen for your painting job, you may have to go back and re-paint the entire room. This could be a hassle, especially if you were painting it to resell your home!
In this case, I would recommend using a satin sheen for all interior walls. If you are painting an exterior wall or ceiling, use either semi-gloss or high gloss since these kinds of sheen levels are weather resistant.
Final Words
s you can see from this list, most of the mistakes that people make when painting is simple things they could avoid if they took a little bit more time to plan out how their paint job would look. If you’re looking for some professional help in your DIY project or just want to ensure that there won’t be any errors made while painting on your own, it’s always best to consult with a professional painting contractor before getting started.
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