The walls will need to be clean and dry and, most importantly, oil free. The first thing you will need to do is lightly sand any imperfections that you see, but make sure that there is no lead paint on the wall. You don’t want to sand a wall and release any dust filled lead into your home.

Make any repairs necessary. Check to make sure there are no small cracks or missing plaster. Small holes and cracks can be easily filled in with a spackling compound that you can find at Home Depot or Lowes. It’s relatively inexpensive.

After you make any repairs that are needed, wipe the walls down with a clean, damp cloth to remove any debris. Let the walls dry thoroughly before starting your painting project. Paint will not adhere to dirty or oily walls, so make sure that they are clean.

Prepare your room by using a painter tape such as 3M blue tape. Tape all areas that you don’t want the paint to touch like the baseboards, window trim, etc. Remove all electrical outlet and light switch covers for a neater job. Cover all furniture and carpeting with a drop cloth or plastic to protect it.

Preparing the walls, furniture and carpeting can be a tiresome task, but it will make for a nicer, cleaner look when you finish painting.

Take care. I’ll talk to you soon!

Post from: Keeping the Castle

My husband and I chose to paint our living room oatmeal.  We had looked at so many paint swatches and we knew we wanted the living room to be sort of a taupe color.  We were so glad to be rid of the cold white walls and to bring some warmth into our home with the inexpensive new look of paint.

We gave one side of the room a first and second coat and then went on to other walls.  We were on our last wall when we had to open another container of paint.  That was the “whoops” moment.  Although we had both containers mixed at the same time, the second container was just a touch off from the first one.  Thankfully, it wasn’t so badly off that we would repaint the whole room, but it was noticeable to me. 

Lesson learned.  From that moment on, we decided that when we buy more than one gallon of paint, we will mix the gallons together before using them.  We now have an extra bucket and lid in the shed that we use before we paint a room.  No more mismatched paint.

Has this sort of paint mix-up happened to you?

image (c) Karen Weideman

Post from: Keeping the Castle