5 Quick Tips to Paint Like a Pro

Here at Rock Painting and Gutters, we pride ourselves on putting the customer first and making sure you’re happy and satisfied with the work we do to beautify and protect your home. We use our decades of experience to provide the very best interior and exterior painting services, in addition to our gutter installation and repair services.

All that said, some jobs you just want to do yourself. DIY is a big thing these days, and if we’re honest, we can see that doing a home repair job yourself can instill a newfound sense of pride in your home. With that in mind, we’ve borrowed a handful of great DIY paint tips from the DIY Network to show you how to paint the interior walls of a room like a pro.

The following 5 tips and more can be found at https://www.diynetwork.com/how-to/skills-and-know-how/painting/15-painting-tips-to-paint-like-a-pro.

Do a thorough visual inspection and prep.

Any cracked, flaking, or peeling areas need to be lightly sanded or scraped (and then thoroughly rinsed) before applying new primer and paint, because the weight of the new coat will pull the old paint loose. “You’ll just end up wasting your time and money if you don’t tackle that first,” says Tom Lee, Senior VP of Consumer Marketing for Behr. Greasy spots may also need a bit of washing with soap, followed by a rinse with clean water. Otherwise, give the walls a quick wipe-down with a damp cloth so that paint will have a clean, dust-free surface to stick to.

Buy high-quality brushes, roller covers, and painter’s tape.

If you’re splurging on great paint, you definitely don’t want to pinch pennies on the application. Good brushes and roller covers give excellent coverage so that you don’t waste time and paint on re-application, and high-end painter’s tape is the real deal when it comes to sealing out drips and blurs.

Protect anything you don’t want painted.

You will never regret the time you spend covering floors, furniture, and hardware before you begin a paint project. Drop cloths are a must, and small plastic sandwich bags secured with tape are an easy way to protect doorknobs.

Remove light switch and outlet covers. 

If you’re impatient, you’ll be tempted to skip this five-minute step, but don’t.

Paint from top to bottom.

After you’ve cut in your edges at the ceiling and baseboard using a brush, use your roller to apply paint from the ceiling downward. Amateurs often have telltale drips and spatters at the end of a paint job, but pros paint right over their mistakes as they work their way down the wall. Once an area starts to dry, it’s best to leave it alone. Going back over it can leave marks and color streaks in the paint’s surface.