The Dublin Painting Diaries

When it comes to picking out paint, the choice is limitless. My community DIY shop, Designer Colours, can mix up any specific colour you want. You may take in an merchandise and they’ll scan and colour-match it for you.

To workout the amount of paint you may need, work out the world of your ceiling and walls, and remember you’ll be executing two coats. A 5L tin covers about 50m2, but this can fully rely upon the thickness within your paint, so Test the again in the tin.

I’d recommend using acrylic undercoat and best coat, as it's a faster drying time and less fumes. Don't use an oil-primarily based and an acrylic paint jointly. If you utilize an oil-based paint, you’ll need to have white spirit. Almost everything else washes off with water.

Planning is all the things In relation to portray

There is absolutely no place strolling right into a space, cracking open up a tin of paint and slopping it more than all the uncovered surfaces you'll be able to see. You must prep – this requires a few several hours, but could make The full task simpler, less expensive, superior and, most of all, you won’t spill paint all around the sofa. Should you’re performing this more than a weekend, I’d endorse doing as much of the prep to the Friday evening, so you've got far more time to paint on the following times.

Begin by relocating all the hefty stuff (sofas, beds, bookshelves, TVs) in the room into the centre, leaving not less than a 30cm hole between your furnishings along with your walls throughout. Future, take down any curtains, blinds or nets and lay these to the furniture. Now lay any wall hangings, images and lightweight shades on your curtains, and canopy The full point up with plastic sheeting. Attempt to avoid cotton or twill sheeting – this gained’t continue to keep dust out or significant blobs of paint (in the event you fall any).

With the valuables coated up, it’s time for a certain amount of sanding. Utilizing eighty-grit sandpaper, lightly rub all of your woodwork – the skirtings, architraves and doorways. Make sure you rub only the face on the doorway that looks to the space, Except you’re arranging on decorating the corridor too.

The moment every one of the sanding is done, have the vacuum cleaner out and provides almost everything a thorough clear, ensuring that never to skip the tops on the doorways, architraves and skirtings. You might need to scrub the woodwork that has a damp cloth and some washing-up liquid. I’m not judging you in your cleanliness, but some rooms is often greasy and paint doesn’t follow grease.

Now you will be cleared, sanded and cleaned, it’s time with the masking. Use 50mm decorators’ tape to mask where by your ground meets the skirting boards. Whether or not your ground is carpeted or smooth-surfaced, it's a good idea to do this, mainly because it stops drips and will save you from needing to Lower-inside the paintwork towards the floor (portray a straight, neat line throughout the boundary and afterwards ‘colouring in’ Within the lines). If you are arranging on painting about picket windows, it is possible to mask these up way too – it will take ages, but will save a great deal more time in reducing-in and scraping paint off of glass.

With the masking all finished, all you must do is put plastic sheeting on the ground (you are able to Slash a substantial plastic sheet into very long large strips with scissors – this could make it a whole lot more valuable) and In any case that, you’re at last Prepared for that enjoyable stuff!

Start out portray at the top and perform down

Paint the ceilings initially – this way any drips or spots will never muck up other bits you’ve already accomplished. Make use of a 4” brush to paint throughout the top edge of one's ceiling. For those who’re painting the partitions later, you don’t must Lower this ceiling paint into them, while you’ll be portray excessive. As you’ve painted around the edges from the ceiling, use the same brush to chop in around any lights you have.

With the sides still soaked with paint, utilize a roller to put the very first coat around the ceiling. Pour some of your paint into your roller tray and start painting. Begin in the corner of the home and get the job done outwards from there, painting in little sections and always rolling back again into your moist perform.

Once the main ceiling coat is completed, wrap the roller inside a plastic bag and begin undercoating the woodwork.

To undercoat, consider your 2” brush and start painting the skirting. As you haven’t place any paint on the walls nonetheless, you could coat the woodwork with no need to cut-in – this could make the perform go considerably quicker.

After the undercoat is completed, your ceiling should be dry sufficient to put on the second coat. Use your 4” brush yet again to paint the perimeters of your ceiling, and afterwards roller the rest. Wash the roller out and leave it to dry. You now have an hour or two to go exterior and get some refreshing air before you start the final stretch.

Whenever your undercoated woodwork has dried, you can begin portray the partitions. Engaged on separately, make use of the 2” brush to chop-in the road among the partitions, woodwork and ceiling. After 1 wall is fully Lower-in (such as within the light switches, sockets and any wall-mounted light-weight fittings), pour some paint into the nicely with the roller tray and start painting the wall.

Get started in one corner and roll up and down (as opposed to aspect to side), making sure you address a roller width with the wall completely from leading to base before shifting on to the remainder of it – by doing this, you’ll usually Use a damp fringe of paint to roll on to, which can lessen your likelihood of having any streaks. After you’ve concluded rolling 1 wall, repeat the slicing and rolling approach for every other wall during the room.

According to how fast you might be at portray, or how major your room is, by the time you’ve painted each of the way about your space, the wall that you simply started off on must be dry, or at the least approximately dry. The moment it's, you'll be able to paint on the next coat in exactly the same way as you did the very first. Then, clear out your brushes and roller ahead of the paint dries on them.

Now for the final bit of painting. Use some high-quality sandpaper to flippantly brush any imperfections off your undercoated woodwork – don’t rub also tough or else you’ll go from the undercoat and also have to repaint it. Whichever topcoat you decide on for your personal woodwork, bear in mind that it's most likely to drip effortlessly – drips that may demonstrate with your finished occupation – so be careful never to load far too much paint on your own brush.

For the last coat, use a two” brush over the woodwork. Paint the architraves and skirting boards initially, remembering to control the paint you’ve not long ago utilized – You need to use your brush to wipe away drips you won't have discovered earlier on, In the event your paint continues to be wet.

And lastly, paint the door. Paint the mouldings within the panels 1st, then the panels themselves, then the broad strips of Wooden that make up the rest of the doorway. Brush the paint in the identical course since the grain of your wood (this tends to be simple to see should you look closely with the doorway).

Depart this remaining coat of paint to dry fully (normally right away) prior to peeling off all the masking tape and rolling up your entire plastic sheeting. Just after possessing secured your place for All of this do the job, your plastic sheets will likely be in rather poor situation, so roll them in on on their own to have many of the dust, paint and garbage, and place them straight in the bin.

Set again all wall hangings, curtains and lightweight fittings and rearrange all the home furniture, ahead of flopping onto the sofa for a nicely-earned cup of tea.