Roll up your sleeves and let’s dive in.
1. Cover up
Protect the floor and any furniture that you cannot move from paint splatters and spills. For the floor, choose fabric drop cloths instead of plastic ones, as plastic can be slick under your feet or, worse, the ladder.
2. Start with a fresh surface
Paint would not adhere as well to a dirty surface, so use a wet cloth or sponge to dry-dust the walls and to remove any fingerprints, soot, dust and cobwebs.
3. Protect the woodwork and ceilings
Make sure to tape off any areas you don’t want to be painted, such as mouldings, baseboards, or window frames. You could tape the borders with special painter’s tape for clean lines. Also, remove the outlet and light switch covers beforehand.
4. Skip a step
If you are painting over a dark wall with a light colour, you would require a coat of primer and two coats of paint, which needs at least, six hours of drying time. Save yourself some time by getting self-priming paint instead. If your walls are light in the first place, then you can get away with two coats of good-quality regular paint.
Read more: 6 mistakes to avoid making with a DIY paint job
5. Start painting
You are now set to start painting. With an angled brush or a sponge tool, paint a two-inch swath around the edges you have taped off earlier. Then, fill in the central unpainted space using a paint tray and a roller in overlapping W- or M-shaped strokes for the best paint distribution. Let the first coat dry at least a couple of hours before coating again.
6. Clean it up
Make sure to rinse your paintbrush and roller and decant the tray’s leftover paint back into the can. To make sure your leftover paint lasts, seal the can tightly by placing a paper towel over the lid and tapping the lid edges with a hammer. Have a moist rag handy to wipe fresh splatters. Scrape off dried drips with a credit card or plastic spatula. Do not forget to remove the masking tape, make sure to pull it off at an angle to avoid tearing the finish.