If you’ve ever painted a room inside your house, you know what I mean when I talk about an “oops!” moment.
Even experienced painters have them, those little, preventable mishaps that leave tiny blue specks on your white carpet or uneven, celery-green lines here and there on the edges of your bright white ceiling. They happen, of course, because we didn’t take just a little extra care when laying the tarps or taping the windows.
You can prevent almost any painting mistake. Here are six of the most common, and how to avoid them.
Mistake #1: Stationing the paint bucket in the middle of the room. Do that, and you’ll drip paint everywhere; I guarantee it. Solution: Cover the floor from corner to corner with old sheets or plastic tarps, and carry the bucket around with you. Keep it within a few inches of the wall you’re painting.
Mistake #2: Painting straight, vertical lines. If you roll on the paint straight up and down, you’ll wind up with visible lines that show where one stroke left off and the other began, and the sheen on the wall won’t be consistent. That’s because the paint will go on the wall thinner where the middle of the roller hits, and thicker where the edges touch down. Solution: Using a roller, paint a big W on the blank wall, and then paint a couple of big X’s over top. Fill the gaps by rolling paint on in vertical lines.
Mistake #3: Going with high-gloss paint all over the house. My friend Toni Berry of Century Painting in Prescott says her high-end clients choose flat paint for every room of their million-dollar mansions, and it looks classy and clean. As the quality of paint has improved, it’s gotten easier to scrub all sheens. Solution: If you want a higher sheen in the bathroom, mud room and kitchen, try a semi-gloss or satin finish rather than a high gloss—and roll on flat in the bedrooms, living areas and hallways. A bonus: Flat paint hides imperfections like puttied-over nail holes better than glossy.
Mistake #4: Buying a cheap roller. If you spend $3 on a roller frame, you’re going to get a paint job that looks like it cost you $3. Cheap roller frames bend as soon as you press them against a wall, and that’s what causes roller marks. Solution: Invest $8 or $9 in a good roller frame and $5 to $7 in a roller cover. They’ll clean up nicely, resist bending and last through many paint jobs.
Mistake #5: Using masking tape instead of painter’s tape. Masking tape, like the kind you use to wrap packages, is super-sticky, so it leaves a residue. Painter’s tapes are formulated not to leave anything behind. Professional painters sometimes skip the tape, which is the best way to keep a straight line between paint colors, because they’re experts with a paint brush. Solution: The rest of us should use a high-quality painter’s tape to protect the ceiling when painting the edge of the walls, and vice-versa, and to keep paint off of windows, woodwork and trim.
Mistake #6: Applying flat paint over a previously painted high-gloss wall without sanding first, which can cause the fresh coat to “alligator.” Solution: Rough up the high-gloss surface with sandpaper or by applying a bit of the cleaner TSP (trisodium phosphate) before painting.
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