The most popular, and lowest cost, home improvement project is a basic paint job. It might just be a cosmetic remodel (in most cases), but it completely alters the look and feel of the room. In fact, a new paint job cannot just make your walls look new and fresh; it could breathe new life into your floors and furniture by creating new contrasts. But, many people dive headfirst into a paint job without properly preparing for it. This article explains a few things to do before you even get out the paint.
Clean Your Walls
Most people will also paint right over their walls without cleaning them. This might not be a huge issue in most rooms. But, it can cause problems in a child's room or kitchen where the walls are bound to be especially dirty. Cleaning the kitchen walls before appointing the is most important because grease from cooking, even if it isn't visible can affect the way that the paint dries and absorbs into the drywall. Cleaner walls will result in a uniform paint finish.
Patch Your Drywall
Patching the drywall is going to make your paint job look so much better. It will make your walls look new. If you just paint over your walls, leaving all of the blemishes as they are, it can look sloppy. The hard part of patching is retexturing large patches. That is, if you make a large repair to your drywall with traditional drywall putty, the textures will now be different.
Most drywalls surfaces have a hand troweled or spray texture. Both techniques are easy to replicate. To match a spray on texture, you need to buy small cans of texture spray. These are easy to apply, but it might take some trial and error to match the textures perfectly. Hand troweling will also take some practice. Most hand-troweled finishes are created using random patterns, so they aren't that hard to blend in. Getting your holes filled and textures uniform is essential if you want to end up with the best possible paint job.
Always Prime!
Many painters try to skip the priming step. Some paints even claim to have primer mixed into the paint. The fact of the matter is, there is no substitute for priming your walls with a separate product. A primer will protect your walls and create a surface that is more uniform, and fully ready for the new paint.