While cooped up inside during the long, cold days and nights of winter, you have probably taken notice of your home’s walls (in between binging The Office for the 13th time). After staring at the same walls for days on end, perhaps you’re ready to give those walls a fresh set of paint or an entirely new color scheme.
Maybe you’ve even gone as far as heading out to your local paint shop or contacting professional painters to complete the job for you. But hold on there, Picasso, because we have got some prep work to do before you even touch a paintbrush.
So, today, let’s go over a few simple interior painting prep steps that you’ll want to take before you start painting your next interior masterpiece.
Step 1: Scan Your Painting Space
The first step is pretty simple–take a good, long look at your home. More specifically, your painting space, and ask yourself a few important questions:
- How much space do you have to work with?
- What furniture is nearby?
- How difficult will it be to move furniture or nearby objects?
- Are there any electronics/outlets in the painting area?
By starting your painting project by asking these questions, you are providing yourself with the information needed to plan out your painting timeline without getting overwhelmed. While there are always hurdles to overcome with any project, minimizing unforeseen hardships always helps.
Step 2: Solidify Your Painting Budget
Whether you’re painting solo, as a couple, or as a group/family, make sure that you sit down with a pen and paper and write out your project’s budget. Armed with this information, you can accurately keep track of what materials you’ll need and about how many trips to the painting store you’ll need to make. No one wants to check their bank account and learn that they’ve WAY overspent on any home project, so be sure to keep track.
Step 3: Prep Your Space
Okay, now that we’ve gotten the pre-prep work complete. It’s time to start moving furniture and other household objects away from your paint space. First, make sure that you have a plan for moving furniture, especially large or heavy furniture, away from your project space, such as clearing an additional temporary spot for said furniture. DO THIS SAFELY! No one needs to throw out their back trying to paint a wall.
Next, it’s time to lay down plastic or cloth covering on your floor. Painting is a messy job, and the last thing you want to do is scrape dried paint off your floor after or during your interior paint job.
Step 4: Prep Your Wall
Now, it’s time to prep whichever lucky wall you have chosen for a fresh coat of paint. First, make sure that your wall is clean, removing any small pieces of dust, debris, pet hair, etc. If you neglect this step, these tiny pieces of debris may get stuck under the paint, preventing the paint from fully adhering to your wall.
Next, remove all electrical outlet plates from your walls. This isn’t necessarily the most important part of wall prep, but it will undoubtedly make it easier to paint around outlets rather than navigate around the wall plate. Then, of course, it’s time to apply wall-friendly tape to protect your wall trims or any other barriers that you’d like to preserve.
Finally, it’s time to paint!