I need your best interior house painting tips...

[redshoes]

My DH and I are building a new house and the contractor is allowing us to paint before we close. The painters wanted $3000 to three tone the house and we have spent our upgrade allowance already which lead us to painting ourselves. So, I need your best painting tips. We have painted bedrooms, family rooms etc.. before but I'm always up for ideas on how to do things easier and better. The house has no flooring installed, there are no cabinets or light fixtures in yet. It is a blank canvas. The baseboards, trim, ceiling and doors have been painted white and will not need to be done, so we are just doing walls. We have picked the colors (a tan, light blue, and a cream). The plan is to paint the kitchen and bathrooms before we have to tape off everything and depending whether we are still speaking to each other doing the bedrooms and great room after. One of the biggest questions I have is how do you determine where to make a straight line with rounded corners on a wall and how do you go about making that line (I hope that makes sense). Please, give me your best tips and horror stories .

 

[Michie]

Hire somebody. Honestly, it will make all the difference. Pawn the DH, the kids whatever.

 

[makinorlando]

Hire somebody. Honestly, it will make all the difference. Pawn the DH, the kids whatever.

Too funny, I was just going to say the same thing and saw your post. I hired someone to paint the interior of my house last year, and it was sooo worth the money. Took them four days to do what would have taken me four years!!!! I 12' ceilings in a large part of my house, so it would have been next to impossible for me to paint.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

I do know that you do the whole wall (corner to corner) without stopping. A painter we hired gave us that tip.
It looks great and uniform doing it like that.

 

[Tink&SquirtsMom]

We had to change colors on the corner of a round cornered wall. Here's what we did, it turned out perfect... Use a laser level to establish a straight line up the corner (we picked a point just inside the curve so the around the corner was primarily the main house color and inside the corner was the color of that room). Make sure you are using that same point on all the other corners that are the 2 colors to keep it uniform. Tape up that laser line. First paint the color that is the one next to the new color you are painting (so if your wall is tan and you are painting blue next to it, first you would paint tan on the line you just taped) then paint the second color on top of it (so now paint the blue over the tan after it has adequately dried). By doing it this way any color that bleeds under the tape is the color of that area and you have sealed those holes by the time you apply the correct color (the tan will bleed through to the tan wall and because that seals the tape your blue will not bleed so it will be a perfect straight line). Pull the tape and you have a perfect line. This also works for baseboards and moulding. Lay tape down. Paint your white basboard color just above the tape, allow to dry, then paint the actual wall color. When you pull away the tape your baseboards will still be perfectly white with a nice crisp line between them.

 

[redshoes]

Tink&SquirtsMom- Thank you that was exactly the answer I was looking for. Perfect .

I so wish we could afford to hire someone (and if it turns into a total mess, we might end up doing that) but it seems like all the "must-haves" in this house are eating away at our total budget. You know, it's only $1,000 to upgrade to this, $500 for this etc.. Painters earn every single penny they get for painting a house, but we have had to cut corners somewhere and sadly this one area we thought we might be able to do. Thanks for all the advice, please keep it coming.

 

[Servants of Evan]

With everyones posts so far, I haven't seen the most important thing listed. PRIME. Yes, you need to use a primer to seal any new drywall. Otherwise, you're going to use three times the paint and it won't bond as well. First, make certain it's clean. Quickly wipe down those walls with a tack cloth or at least a damp rag/towel. Professional painters often keep a paintbrush in their pockets soley for the purpose of sweeping away any residual dust. Never use this brush for painting itself -- just for clean up. If you're able, have the paint store tint your primer to match the paint -- you'll wind up with better coverage. Don't try to get one of those "one coat is all you need rollers," unless you like the look of paint sags. With a smooth wall, you should never use more than a 3/8" nap roller. Personally, I like the look of a satin finished paint -- though builders like flat. Flat is cheaper, and it hides wall imperfections better (the builder can be sloppier and the client is less likely to notice). With the two of you, it should go pretty quickly. Paint the ceilings first. One of you will cut in with a 3" brush, and the other will follow with a 3/8" roller. Pour your paint into another container -- NEVER DIP YOUR BRUSH DIRECTLY INTO THE PAINT CAN. If you have contaminated your brush (dirt/dust, etc) and you dip it into your can you won't wind up with a nice finish. Cut in one wall at a time, and while the first person is cutting in, the other can again be rolling out the field. Usually, the one cutting in will be much slower than the person with the field, so they can pitch in and help for the first few feet before grabbing the roller. Do not wait so long as to have the cut in portion dry. If this happens, you will have what is called hat-banding. You will have edges where it looks like two coats instead of one and this a darker or noticible line will form. If it's warm and you are concerned about the possibiility of this, add some floetrol to the paint. It'll help you keep a wet edge. If you have run out of paint and need to get more, always paint an entire wall with the new batch. Even with computer mixing it's not perfect. If you paint an entire wall it won't be noticed as light hits each wall differently, and your brain will not process that it's a different shade...

Anything else, feel free to PM me!

 

[daisyduck123]

When DH & I tried to paint the family room together...the only thing I learned is that husbands & wives should not paint or try to wallpaper together. Almost got divorced over a couple of incidents there. Never again!!

BTW, we did end up hiring someone to do it!!!