Painting my room, kinda clueless, but here's what i'm doing....?

Question

moving all my furniture to the center of the room. i have a daybed, a dresser/drawer and a bookshelf. i moved the bookshelf out of the room along with the lamp and desk. i'm moving the day bed and the dresser to the center of theroom and then putting flattened cardboard boxes along the edges of the room paint doesnt get on my carpet. any other tips? i'm gona need all the tips i can get cuz i've never painted a room before...

Answer 1

a sheet might work to.

and get a ruler or somhing you dont really care about thats flatt ad use it by the ceiling and doors/windows wen ur painting there so you dont get paint on them.

=]

Answer 2

If the ceiling is not going to be the same color as the walls I suggest using painters tape or a flat edge (looks like an extra wide scraper with a handle) to keep paint off the ceiling. Same goes with any trim there may be around windows and doors.

If you ARE painting the ceiling cover your bed, dresser, et cetera with plastic.

Use a paint roller on the bulk part of the wall and a brush or sponge on edges and corners.

Make sure the windows are open and the room in ventilated.

Wear clothes you don't mind getting paint on because no matter how careful you are you're most likely going to get paint on you!

Good luck :)

Answer 3

Are you only doing the walls or paint work as well on the walls use a roller much quicker and easy  get non drip paint don't put too much on the brush at a time . Wipe up any mess you make at once as when it drys your never get it up.

Have fun if you have a sensible friend ask them to help you but not one that will just make a mess.

Answer 4

1. Move everything out you can. That includes bedding, curtain rods and blinds, hooks, switchplates and outlet plates - everything.

2. Buy painter's drop cloths (cheap at any home supply store) and completely cover any furniture you leave in the room.

3. DO NOT use flattened cardboard boxes to cover the carpet. They'll shift and paint will get in between the boxes. Use painter's drop cloths. Tape them to the baseboards and to each other to completely cover the carpet.

4. Prepare the walls for painting. (I'm assuming here you're not painting the ceiling.) This will take about 75% of your actual work, and the more work you do the better it will look.

At the very least, you should wipe down the walls and trim (including the tops of the doorjambs, etc.) with hot soapy water, then rinse. (You must rinse even if the detergent says "no rinse" - you have to have a bare surface for the paint to stick to.) If the walls are noticeably dirty, you should instead use a chemical called trisodium phosphate, available at the paint store. This is not a particularly friendly cleanser - you have to wear gloves and eye protection while using it - and again, you have to rinse.

Buy two rolls of wide "painter's tape" - basically wide green masking tape. Mask off the trim around the windows and doors, the baseboard, and the ceiling (I like to put a couple of rows of tape here - about four inches' worth - which prevents the ceiling getting mucked up if the roller brushes against it). Remember to press the tape down hard so that paint can't get under it. Tape over outlets and switches too.

Also take the opportunity to fill in any holes in the walls with spackle. Fill the hole in, wait for the spackle to dry, then sand it down with sandpaper.

5. Are you changing the colour dramatically? Going from off-white to dark or otherwise, or from one colour to another? Then you need to buy two types of paint. One is called "primer" and will cover up the old paint so it doesn't bleed through eventually; the other is the regular type of paint, which is sometimes called "top coat". Get both tinted the same colour. You'll need one complete coat of primer if you use it. If you use primer, you will likely need to apply two coats of the regular paint. If you don't use primer and you're making a big change, you might need to use four, five, even six coats of regular paint, and regular paint is more expensive than primer. (This is why primer is a good idea.)

If you're wondering, you can't just paint with primer and have it work. Primer is great for hiding old colours and for sticking to things, but it is really bad for attracting and holding on to dirt if it isn't covered with one or two coats of regular paint.

You also have to decide what finish you want for your painted walls. Most walls are painted with a "flat finish" paint, but an "eggshell" finish is also nice if your walls are in really good shape. You can buy a quart of "satin" or "semi-gloss" finish for the trim (anything that has some gloss will clean up easier, and trim often gets a lot of fingerprints).

Avoid the impulse to buy the cheapest paint on the market. All paint is not the same; really cheap paint will be thinner and contain less pigment, which means that even if you're painting in white you'll need to apply more coats than with a mid-priced paint.

6. Use a brush to paint around the edges and a roller to paint in the middle. With normal paint you edge, then do the middle, then wait for it to dry. Then you'd edge again, do the middle, look at it when it's wet, judge whether you need a third coat, and if you don't immediately remove all the tape. You need to remove the tape when the paint's wet and you need to do it carefully so you don't pull off a bunch of paint with it. Then after the second coat is dry you need to do touchups.

8. Then you paint the trim. You can paint the trim before you do the walls too. Use a brush and be very careful.

9. When you're done, you can throw out the roller sleeves but don't throw out any leftover paint - take it to your local hazardous waste facility (usually a fire hall) for them to dispose of.

Don't hang any pictures or attach anything to the wall for about 48 hours, and keep furniture a few inches away from the walls for at least the first week. Paint dries in a few hours but takes a few days, sometimes longer, to harden and cure. Until then it's relatively fragile.