The Handy Homeowner Girl

So finally, let’s paint!  Once you’ve got all of your painting supplies, it’s time to find some time to dedicate to painting.  I painted at night after work and on the weekends, which worked great for me.  However, I do recommend that if you’re painting a room a dark color at night, wait to put away all of your supplies until you’ve seen it in the light of day.  You may just spot a section of the wall that could use another coat!

Paint always looks different at night than it does in other lights

But before you get out your paintbrushes and rollers, you’ll want to prep the walls.  Some people wash the walls, and in the “cat room,” as I like to refer to the guest room, I did have to do that.  But at the minimum, you will want to lightly dust the walls to get rid of any cobwebs in an older house or drywall dust in a newer one.  In a newer house, you may be lucky enough to have no nicks or scratches in the walls.  But in a house that is previously owned, there is likely to be nail holes, gouges from furniture moves, etc.  In that case, you’ll want to get some spackle and a putty knife, along with some sandpaper (I used a sandpaper block for ease).  I found some spacklel that starts out hot pink, and becomes white as it dries, so that you know when it’s ready to paint over.  Spackling is best for smaller repairs, so if you recently punched a hole in your wall because, say, the electrician overcharged you, you’re going to need to do a little bit of a larger repair.

But for smaller holes, spackling is pretty easy - I’ll describe how I’ve done it, but I plan to detail it with pictures (and maybe video!) in a future post.  I started by running the sandpaper block over the hole to get rid of any excess roughness that might stick out and interfere with the smoothness of the final repair.  Wipe away any dust created and use your putty knife to apply the spackle. For holes from hanging pictures, you won’t need that much spackle, maybe the equivalent of a dime (use more spackle for larger holes and don’t be afraid to use too much – you can always wipe it away).  Use the putty knife to wipe the spackle into the hole, and then, after wiping any excess off the knife and back into the container, run the edge of the knife over the hole, to level off the spackle with the wall.  Then, if you’re using pink spackle like me, wait for it to turn white and dry.  Even if you’re not using pink spackle, you’ve got to wait for it to dry!  If you need to, you can repeat the process for a second coat of spackle.  Once it dries, use your sandpaper block to make sure that it’s level with the wall.  Wipe it with a damp cloth again to make sure that the paint will go over it without having any dirt or dust stick to it, and then, you’re almost ready to paint!

Make sure to put on some old clothes and keep these as your “painting clothes” – it’s like having to put something down to cover the floor: no matter how careful you are, you will likely get paint on yourself at some stage.  If you have furniture in the room, move it as far away from the walls as you can, and cover it with a drop cloth.  In a smaller room, you may have to do one wall at a time, moving furniture as you go.  Remove all of the outlet covers and switchplates, as well as any vents – a word of caution here: be very, very careful when removing switchplates and outlet covers.  Because there are live wires behind here, there is always the possibility for electrocution (especially since you’re using a metal screwdriver to remove them).  I got a little jolt replacing a switchplate in my kitchen a few months ago(which, on a side note, likely requires a professional fix as it’s now stopped working but the fuse hasn’t blown), so just be mindful that you’re still dealing with electricity.

Can you tell this room was crying out for a paint job?

Once you’ve got the walls as bare as possible, cover the floor and get out your paint can (if you’re using a primer, just follow these directions for the first coat of primer, then start with your paint once it dries).  I put my paint can on top of a piece of cardboard to give it a little stability and protect the floor from any paint seepage.  When you bought your paint, the store should have given you a wooden stirrer to mix up the paint that has settled on the way home.  They should also have given you a little tool, like a tiny can opener, that will help you to open the paint lid.  If they didn’t, a flat head screwdriver works well in a pinch.  Stir the paint around with the wooden stirrer, put the liner in your paint pail, and break out the brushes!  I always start with “cutting in,” which is painting around the edges of the room – this includes going around the switches and outlets.  The purpose of this is to give you a nice edge so that you’re not rolling paint right up to the edge.  You’ll also want to cut in at the corners of the room too. 

Once you’ve cut in the whole room (or just the wall you plan to work on), get out the paint tray, liner and rollers.  I like to fill the tray well with quite a bit of paint (though certainly not to the top!) and roll my roller in it until it’s evenly coated.  You want to make sure to roll off as much of the excess paint as you can so that you’re not dripping paint, but you still want to have enough paint on the roller so you’re not constantly reapplying it.  All the home shows that I’ve watched recommend that you roll in a “w,” but I found my own rhythm and methods and I’m sure you will too.  If you’re rolling a darker color, keep an eye on the wall as you go – rollers will often miss some wall imperfections, so you’ll want to make sure that those get covered, or you’ll end up like me, always looking at the few white dots on my bedroom wall. 

After you’ve finished your first coat, you’ve got to let it dry before doing the second.  I did at least two coats of paint in every room of the house, but it’s up to you how many coats you think are necessary.  Generally, if you’re painting a whole room (instead of just one wall at a time), the paint on the first wall you painted will have already dried by the time you finish the last wall, so you can just keep going.  But some of that will depend on the time of year that you’re painting – I was working in late September/early October, so the humidity was low and it was nice and cool – great painting conditions! 

When you’ve finally painted enough coats that you’re satisfied with the color (always keeping in mind that paint dries darker than it is applied), it’s time for clean up.  If you’re using acrylic paint (which is what I used and recommend), cleaning is easy.  Throw out the tray and pail liners and rinse your brushes and rollers in the sink.  I dried mine on the counter on a paper towel, but quickly learned that the absorbent paper towels would soak in the tinted water from the rollers (remember I said I could never get them fully clean?) and almost ended up staining my light countertops.  So you may want to throw a piece of cardboard under there, or dry them outside if you can.  When the paint in your room is all dry, take up your drop cloths, move your furniture back, and enjoy your hard work!

I'm happy with this lovely little corner of my office