Top 5 Painting do’s and don’ts!

Now that you’ve decided that you are ready to do some painting, it’s not just a matter of buying a tin of paint, a paintbrush and slapping some paint on the walls. Painting can be straightforward, provided you follow some of the below painting do’s and don’ts recommended by the professional domestic cleaners, MOLLY MAID.

Top 5 Painting Do’s

1. Preparation: High Rollers & Rollers: Generally speaking, using rollers can save you much time, although you will still require a paintbrush for the more tricky areas and for ‘cutting in’ (see below). However, before you begin painting the ceiling for example, it’s worth buying an extension handle for your roller. These are easy to find in any DIY shop. When it comes to rollers, you need to ensure you have the right thickness (or nap as it is known in the trade). Follow this rule: for rough and uneven surfaces use a greater nap.

2. Internal preparation: Do spend some time moving and covering furniture and protecting your floor or carpet with dust sheets. To make painting easier in the long-run, remove all door handles, picture hooks or lights if possible to save accidentally marking any with paint.

3. Cutting in: Do use a technique called ‘cutting it’. When you are painting the corner of a wall, where the wall meets the ceiling at a right angle, it’s best to ‘cut in’. To cut in, paint along the top of the wall in a horizontal line, keeping the edge of the brush tight to the ceiling using firm and steady strokes to give you a nice straight edge. This technique is particularly handy if the ceiling is one colour and the wall another. Use the technique along skirting boards and windows too.

4. Quantity of paint: Do paint using the tip of the brush, so you don’t leave brush marks. Emulsion paint should be laid on in different directions (not just vertically as is most common), so the brush marks blend in and don’t catch the light.

5. White magic: White paint can be tricky, because it’s hard to keep track of where you’ve painted. Fortunately, there is such a thing as magic white paint. It goes on pink and then fades white as it dries. There are various brands available from the DIY shops.

Top 5 Painting Don’ts:

1. Don’t hurry! You’ll get the best results with practice and patience. You should work on the assumption that a normal sized room can take up to a whole day to paint.
2. Don’t paint directly out of the paint tin. If you’re up a ladder and it gets knocked off, you’ll have 10 litres of emulsion to clear up! Meanwhile, it can transfer debris from the brush back into the pot, leaving lumps in your paintwork. Decant some into a smaller container bucket instead.
3. Don’t dilute all the paint at once. Should some diluted paint be left over it will deteriorate quickly. Undiluted paint can be kept for up to three years.
4. Don’t paint on wallpaper. Remove it by softening the glue with a wet rag. If it still won’t come off the walls, you can use steam or a specially made product available in your local DIY shop. Whatever wallpaper remains stuck on the wall should be delicately scraped off.
5. Don’t leave any imperfections. If the wall has imperfections, you’ll need to sandpaper the affected areas and fill–in.

Top Tip: Paint spills

Surprisingly, cat litter soaks up spilled paint up a treat. Try to contain the spill first, then pour a generous amount of cat litter onto it.

Warnings:

N.B. Never pour leftover paint down the drain. Take all paint to your local recycling centre.

N.N.B Ensure that you ventilate the rooms properly by opening windows and doors.

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