DIY Monday: DIY Painting Preparation

I've posted before about our dark red dining room. I love red dining rooms, but unfortunately the one I inherited when I married my husband was painted by the woman he bought from - complete with orangy-red, flat paint.

Now I'm sure there's a time and place for orangy-red, flat paint, but it just doesn't "go" with my style. I'm a more berry red, satin paint kind of girl. Yes, it's a little OCD, but it bothered me. A lot. And apparently it bothered my husband too because smack dab in the middle of our holiday season he got the bug to re-paint the dining room... all two china cabinets, multiple antique mirrors and eleven foot ceilings of the dining room. And so we did. Here's how.

First, the preparation - which is almost as important as the right painting technique. We moved as much of the furniture as we could out of the space and covered the floor with a heavy tarp. If you have a carpeted floor, I'd suggest you NOT use the thin, clear plastic tarps they sell in the paint department - especially if you're painting with red paint. Trust me on this. One false move of the ladder and you have a minuscule tear in your plastic that you might or might not notice. One paint splatter later, you have a lovely red spot on your carpet. Heavier tarps help guard against this.

Then remove everything from the walls. In the places where you aren't going to keep the same holes, patch and sand the holes. While we waiting for the patching to dry, we remove all the switch plate covers. I then cover the remaining sockets and light switches with a piece of the blue painter's tape in case I get a little too enthusiastic with the paint roller.

We then taped the trim pieces, corners where the paint would stop and ceilings with blue paint tape. I use the wider 1.5" or 1.75" tape because it helps protect the surfaces when you're using a roller - keeps stray roller marks off your contrasting paint. Make sure you "seal" the tape securely by running your finger over the edge of the tape you'll be painting up to so that the paint won't seep under the tape.

Be very careful to keep the line of your tape straight. When you pull that tape off, if you've put the tape on crooked, you'll see it. Believe me, you'll see it! And when you're joining pieces of tape, make sure you have one continuous seam. Don't let the edges overlap in a way that makes a jagged edge because that too will show afterward.

If you're worried about splattering from the rollers onto the baseboards, there's a handy product that's part tape, part plastic tarp that's great. It's available in the tarp/tape section of your local hardware store. You roll it out like you do regular painter's tape - the difference is that it's got plastic in various widths attached to keep those baseboards safe.

Finally - and I can't stress this enough - WASH your walls. Dust particles keep your paint from sticking well and form yucky little bumps in your finish. Cobwebs can get caught in your roller and create a sticky, painty mess. Wash the walls. Let them dry. THEN you can paint.

Next up: Gathering your tools.

DIY Monday: Choosing Paint

I assume we've got several different levels of skill among Swoon Studios DIYers. Some know more than others about different subjects, which is why I try to cover a variety of skill sets. This week I'm focusing on the beginners in the group and we're going to talk about paint.

Starting a painting project without knowing anything beyond what color you want can be a dizzying process. You get to the paint counter with your trusty swatch that took you a week to decide on the color. You're ready to give the person who'll mix your paint this important decision and they start asking questions. Oil based or latex? Semigloss, flat, eggshell or satin? Indoor or outdoor? WHAT?

Take a deep breath and let me try to explain.

First, oil based or latex. Oil based requires paint thinner or turpentine to clean up, so I usually stick to latex, which requires water to clean up. Sometimes, however, it's better to use oil based - especially when painting a piece of furniture that needs to be water resistant or that will take a lot of wear. It takes a little longer to clean up, but sometimes it's worth the work.

Second, indoor or outdoor? Well, sometimes that's pretty self explanatory. If you're using inside on walls, use indoor. If you're painting your front door or outside trim, outdoor. Sometimes, though, I have the same situation as above where I want a particularly durable paint on the item I"m painting. In that case I might use outdoor paint for that project as well.

Lastly, the luster. The terminology may differ, but the concept is the same: do you want a high gloss or no gloss to your paint. Our home was painted with flat paint. An entire home in flat paint. And I HATE it. I can't clean it. It seems to hold the dirt. I like a little sheen so that I can WASH the walls when they get dirty. I also like the way the light reflects off of walls with a little sheen. For that reason, I choose a satin finish for walls. I tend to go toward a semigloss for woodwork - again because I prefer the sheen and it's easier to clean. Also, a good rule of thumb to remember is the shiner, the more durable. Some people choose a shinier finish in kitchens and bathrooms for that reason.

And if you forget everything I've just told you, ASK. Usually there's a helpful guide to finishes at the paint counter and it's not often that the person mixing the paint can't answer your question. I've found myself helping them on occasion when they've been stumped, so you might just run into someone at the counter that can give you help as well.

That's the basic skinny on choosing paint. I can't help you with choosing the color, but maybe this will make the process a little easier.