6 Tips To Keep Your Interior Paint Job Less Messy

If the interior paint in your home in San Diego is looking a little dull and dated, a fresh coat of paint could be all you need to restore its initial glorious looks. Paint is the most affordable and transformative home improvement project if you want to increase your home’s aesthetics and value on a budget.

If you have an upcoming home interior painting project, hiring a professional painting contractor is the best way to get high quality, consistent, and durable results. The professionals have the right tools, skills, and experience to complete the job more efficiently and quickly compared to DIY painting.

However, if hiring a professional is not an option, and you would like to try out DIY interior painting, we have some tips to help you make the process easier and less messy. Here we go;

1. Purchase High-Quality Paints
Low-quality paints are generally difficult to work with because they tend to splatter a lot and have inadequate coverage compared to high-quality, high-cost paints. When it comes to DIY interior painting, you want to keep the number of paint coats as low as possible to minimize the chances of creating a mess. High-quality paints offer better coverage, splatter less, and are also more durable.

2. Move Furnishings for Easy Access
This will be probably the first step you will need to take before you start painting. Working in a cramped up room can easily lead to messy accidents. Remove furniture from the room or stack them up at the center of the room and cover them up. You can stack them into two small stacks to leave a space for a ladder when painting the ceiling. Cover everything else using a plastic sheet and secure the sheet in place with duct tape.

3. Cover the Carpet Using Drop Cloths
Use canvas drop cloths to cover your carpet instead of plastic sheets. Canvas is easy to spread and doesn’t need duct tape to stay in place. They also don’t cause your ladder to slide once they get wet. Canvas will prevent normal spills and splatters from getting to your carpet, but large spills might go through if not cleared off immediately.

4. Remove Cover Plates
You don’t want to redecorate your cover plates with new paint. So remove the cover plates and tape over the switches and outlets using wide masking tape. Removing cover plates takes just a few seconds and makes for a faster, neater paint job. Additionally, remove curtain hardware, picture hooks, wall décor, and anything that might get in the way.

5. Roll The Full Height Of The Wall To Avoid Lap Marks
Uneven layers of paint buildup often cause lap marks. You will notice them when you roll over partially dry paint. To avoid lap marks, you need to maintain a ‘wet edge.’ A “wet edge” allows each stroke of your roller to overlap the previous stroke before the paint can begin to dry. Start near a corner and run the roller up and down the full height of the wall, moving over slightly with each stroke.

6. Start With the Trim, Then the Ceiling and Walls
Professional painters usually follow a particular order to minimize creating a mess. The standard order is to paint the trim first, then the ceiling, then the walls. This order makes painting faster and neater because it’s easier to tape off the trim than the wall.

The Bottom Line
The above tips and hacks should make your interior painting project less messy and easier. Remember, DIY interior painting can be challenging, especially if you’re painting multiple rooms of an already occupied house.

If you would rather hire a professional painting contractor in San Diego for your interior painting project, Peek Brothers Painting would love to help. To give us a try, call us on (858)505-1361 for a FREE estimate.