It’s often said that painting is the home project that gives you the most bang for the buck. A fresh coat of paint can make a room feel brighter, bigger (or more intimate) or give your exterior an entirely different character, and you don’t need a ton of skills or special equipment to accomplish it.
But just because painting is a project just about anyone can do doesn’t mean you should just crack open a gallon and start splashing it onto your walls. Rushing through a paint job is actually a great way to wake up a few weeks later to discover your paint peeling, bubbling, or showing mysterious stains—which will mean doing the whole thing over again, making an easy and affordable project decidedly less easy and affordable. To make sure that doesn’t happen, here’s what you need to do.
Prep the walls
The number one way to guarantee that your paint job fails pretty spectacularly is to skip the prep work. Taking the time to properly prepare the substrate you’ll be painting is key. Here’s what you’ll need to do:
Patch. If your walls have cracks, holes, or other damage, break out the joint compound and patch them up. If the wall is showing a seam or loose drywall now, it will still be there after you paint, and even if the new paint seems to cover it up, it will reappear. Clean. Wash your walls before painting. Dust, grease, dirt, and anything else clinging to your walls can prevent the paint from bonding with the surface, eventually resulting in bubbling and peeling. This goes double for your exterior walls, which are probably filthy. Consider the climate. Paint works best when the humidity isn’t too high and the temperature is within a specific range—typically between 50 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit—but you should consult the instructions printed on the paint can. If it’s very cold or really hot and humid, the chances your paint job will fail are higher. Make sure the surface is dry. If you’re planning to paint freshly installed wood (a new staircase, or custom-built furniture), make sure you’ve allowed the wood to dry properly. New wood straight from the lumber yard (or pressure-treated wood) is often damp (even if it doesn’t seem that way when you touch it), and your paint will never bond to it properly. If the wood seems pretty dry, check the knots—they are often “wetter” than the rest of the wood, and chances are they will bleed through your paint in a short time. While waiting for wood to dry is exasperating, it’s essential to ensure your paint job lasts. Prime. After you’ve cleaned and prepped the area, prime it with an appropriate primer. If your walls have stains, you’ll want a stain-blocking primer; if you’re painting raw drywall you’ll want a primer-sealer product. You might also want to use a mold-resistant or moisture-blocking primer if you’re painting over repaired water damage or working in a damp space like a bathroom. The key here is to use a primer in the first place—aside from blocking stains and sealing patches, primer gives your paint a uniform substrate, eliminating variations in sheen and texture that will really pop out once you have color on the wall. This is especially crucial if you’re painting over a darker color with a lighter one. (Note that while many modern paints as billed as “paint and primer in one,” you’ll always get a better result with a separate coat of primer.)Choose the right products
With any job, using the right products and tools is always better than cheaping out. High-quality paint can be pricey, but it looks better, lasts longer, and requires fewer coats. If you go with the cheapest paint you can find, your chances of blistering, peeling, and discoloration are always going to be higher. This goes for your other tools too—from painter’s tape to brushes, don’t buy the absolute cheapest stuff you can find. You don’t have to buy the most expensive or professional-grade tools; just avoiding the bottom of the barrel will result in a superior paint finish.
You should also invest in the right roller for your walls. This will be determined by the sheen of the paint you’re using (woven roller covers work best with high-gloss paints, for example) and the surface you’re painting—rougher surfaces will need a deeper “nap” or pile height, and a more shallow nap requires loading the roller with paint more often, which can result in a smoother finish but a higher chance of leaving roller marks on the walls. Asking someone at the paint or hardware store for advice can help reduce the chance you’ll see problems once the paint has dried.
Combine multiple gallons of paint
Finally, a simple way to ensure your paint isn’t discolored or mismatched is to mix all your paint cans together before you start painting. If you’re just using a single gallon of paint on a small room or single accent wall, you can skip this part; just make sure your paint is well-mixed, especially if it’s been sitting for even a few days after purchase.
But if you’ve got several cans of the same color for a large room, pour them all into a bucket and mix them together. There are often slight variations in pigment in cans of paint, even if they were purchased and mixed at the same time. Mixing them will eliminate any chance of having one section appear just a shade off-color.
