PAINT–THE EASIEST CHEAPEST REFRESHER
December 15th, 2009 categories: Lifestyle, Selling
Try it–you’ll like it! Paint has to be the easiest cheapest way to improve the appearance of a room or an entire home. You don’t need a building permit. You don’t need an electrician’s or plumber’s union card–all you need is a bit of paint and some decent equipment and a bit of time. And–you can paint the room or the home any color you want–passionate purple, cheery chartreuse, yummy yellow, raucous red–it’s your place to paint as you wish. Here are a few simple steps that will insure your success.
- Clear out everything possible from the room. If there are things you can’t remove, push them together in the center of the room and cover with a drop cloth.
- Make cleanup easy. Tape drop cloths around the room–that way they will stay in place. If the ceiling is part of the painting plan, drape your ceiling fan and light fixtures. Also remember to take off the outlet covers and paint them separately.
- Prior prep prevents poor performance. Fill cracks, scrape and sand the walls, tape dry wall seams, sand, sand, sand–all of these steps are necessary for a great looking finished paint job.
- If you have any grease stains or crayon marks left after your cleaning and sanding is finished, use a product like BIN or Kilz as a primer. This should prevent any bleeding through to your fial coat of paint.
- Masking tape is a great help and there are some really super ones available now. This helps keep unwanted paint from the edges of woodwork and glass window or door panes.
- Paint and equipment. Use latex base paint–it cleans up with soap and water. If you are going from dark to light, you’ll probably need two coats of paint. A roller, a pan, a brush–that’s all you need. Well, a stepladder is a good idea too. Did you know that there are different naps on your roller? A wooly nap will give a stippled appearance and a smooth nap gives a smoother finish.
- To avoid lap marks, edges of paint that dry before you get back to continue around the room, paint one distinct area at a time. Outline a door by using a brush to paint a few inches around the door. Another good idea is to roll on a coat in horizontal strokes and then paint another coat with overlapping vertical strokes.
- Light–use temporary floodlights so that you can really, really see what you are doing. If it looks great under extremely strong light, it will look even greater under normal lighting conditions.
There you are–how to paint a room in one easy lesson. If you would like info on Chicago real estate, just call me–direct, 312-981-2306. My cell phone is 312-607-1306.
Here are a few other posts that might appeal to you:
To Remodel or Not to Remodel and When
Out With the Old, In With the New–Slowly
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