Beforehand, paint round the edges where the ceiling meets the wall or any architectural features, using a small brush. If you are doing the ceiling, that should be done first you can get up there with either a ladder or a roller on a pole. Photograph: Cultura Creative (RF)/Alamy The ceiling If painting a ceiling, start by painting the edges and other tricky bits. Apply primer to your walls, and don’t worry too much what it looks like it’s just there to provide a stable painting surface. Sand to create a key (an adhesive surface) for the new paint. Fill cracks and nail holes, and sand flat. Push all the furniture into the middle of the room and cover it with dust sheets. Professional painters spend far longer prepping a room than they do painting it. “Preparation is everything,” says Studholme. “Normally, to make a paint cheaper you use less of that, so you’ll have less coverage.” Getting ready “One of the expensive ingredients in paint is titanium dioxide, the basic white pigment,” says Bulmer. Cheap paint is probably a false economy, because it won’t go as far. Emulsion is for walls and ceilings eggshell for woodwork. “It will help the paint lay a bit more like it would with a brush.” As for paint, the amount you need varies depending on the type, but five litres of emulsion will cover around 60 square metres. “We advise a medium pile roller, not a foam roller,” says Bulmer. Tools and suppliesĪt the minimum you will need a scraper, masking tape, some sandpaper, filler, ample dust sheets, a decent brush or two, and a roller and tray. “Some decision that’s already out of your hands,” says Bulmer. If you don’t know where to begin, try being led by the colours of other surfaces in the room: floors, worktops, tiles, any large bits of furniture. “You might feel like a right idiot doing it, but that’s the best way to gauge how it’s going to look.” “Then place it against the wall round the room and look at it in different lights,” says Studholme. Instead of applying it to the wall, paint a generous piece of card – A5 or larger – or a bit of old wallpaper. You can still order sample pots from many companies, including Bulmer’s and Farrow & Ball (delivery times may be a bit longer, but none of us is going anywhere). “If you think about it, it’s not often that we can contemplate our rooms at all times of day,” he says, “and in varying weathers, and probably with full-on use, if you’ve got your family around.” Lockdown may seem like fertile ground for ill-advised decisions, but Edward Bulmer, an interior designer and head of the Edward Bulmer Natural Paint company, says there may never be a better time to pick colours. When you have some idea of what it entails, you can move on to a room. “Paint the inside of a cupboard in a jolly colour and that will make you smile every time you open it,” she says. Smaller things are much better to do.” For beginners, she suggests starting with your front door, or the legs of a table. “I do it where I think: ‘Oh, I’m gonna paint this, and it’s gonna be really soothing,’” says Studholme, “And, actually, painting is stressful. Painting a whole room will certainly keep you busy, but if you are new to it, you probably won’t find it terribly therapeutic. There you can indulge your fantasies of doing something quite strong and bold, which might be something you’re feeling you want to do right now, but then you don’t have to look at it all day.” “If you have a small hall, that can be a good place to start. “My main piece of advice is to start small,” she says. The biggest mistake first-timers make is thinking too big, according to Joa Studholme, author of How to Decorate and colour curator for the paint company Farrow & Ball. The bad news is, there’s a reason painters are expensive. The good news is, you can save a lot of money by painting your own home, because labour accounts for the majority of decorating costs.
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