Preparing a Room for Painting

No matter what room you are painting, it is essential to take the proper steps prior to painting. The better your preparations are, the less time you will spend having to clean up any paint drips later.

The first thing to do in any room is to remove whatever furniture that you can. You will probably have to keep the larger items where they are. Appliances, couches, and armchairs will probably be too difficult to move, plus you may not have anywhere to store them. All furniture remaining should be covered with an old sheet or blanket.

The floors should be covered with old sheets. If paint accidentally gets on the carpeting, it can be removed with a razor blade.

Remove all paintings and pictures from the walls. For nail holes, use putty to fill them in. This type of putty can be purchased at any hardware store or home improvement store. Once the putty dries, check to see if it needs to be sanded. It will then be ready to be painted over.

To prepare the windows, remove any curtains, drapes, and blinds. If you are painting the frame, use masking tape or painter’s tape to cover the window area immediately surrounding the woodwork. This way if you accidentally paint outside of the wood, you will only paint over the tape and not the window. If you do get paint on the window, use a razor to gently scrape it off.

For painting above and around doorways, you might want to remove the door and its hinges. This ensures that no paint gets on the hinges. The door can be put back on after the room has been painted. If you need to paint the door, you can do that once the room is finished and the door is put back on its hinges.

Ceiling lights and fixtures should be carefully removed and stored someplace they will not get stepped on. For electrical outlets, remove the covers. Be sure not to paint over the socket once the cover has been removed.

If you are painting a kitchen, you should remove all cabinet doors. If you are painting the cabinet doors, leave them open until they are dry to prevent paint from sealing them closed. Kitchen drawers should be painted while they are closed. Once you are done painting them, open them to allow them to dry to prevent the paint from sealing it closed.

Now that you’ve gotten the room ready, you can finally start painting. All of these things do take some time, but it will be worth it when you finish painting without a lot of extra cleanup.