Once you move into your new home, you may want to start remodeling to give it a more personal touch. One great way to give your home a new look is by repainting. You can give each room its own personality and style by using creative color schemes and painting techniques.
Planning resources
There are an infinite amount of color combinations and styles you can use when painting a room. There are many resources available to give you design ideas and to help you paint. Here are a few:
- Magazines - There are magazines that are dedicated to home remodeling. These often will include pictures of what the finished product will look like. This can help you be more certain that your design will look good.
- Paint stores - Paint stores not only provide you with supplies, but they can also give professional advice, paint swatches for sample colors, and a number of other resources.
- Internet - There are countless websites available that are dedicated to helping you remodel. Look at several sites to get as many ideas and options as possible.
- Television - Home improvement television shows have become extremely popular in America. These shows often give viewers tips on choosing colors and styles, as well as practical advice about painting and remodeling techniques.
It's impossible for you to research all of the possibilities because there are just too many, but, by using a lot of varied resources, you can find the style you want. If you're uncertain of how a color will look in the room you will be painting, you can paint a small section of wall to get an idea of how the room would look if you used that color. If it's not what you want, you can always paint over it. If you paint the whole room and then decide you don't like it, you'll end up wasting a lot of time and money repainting the entire room.
Painters
The next step in planning is to decide who will actually be doing the painting. There are many painting services available that can do all the work for you. Professional painters will most likely be well-versed in a variety of techniques and will also bring their own supplies. Painters, in addition to the resources above, can even help you make style and color decisions.
You may also choose to do the work yourself. This is likely to be cheaper than hiring a professional service, despite the fact that you will have to buy all of your own supplies. Painting can be tricky, so make sure you research techniques before you start. Painting can also be a fun project for the family that is also practical.
Preparing the room
Once you've decided on a color scheme and purchased your painting supplies, the next step is to prepare the room you'll be painting.
- Protecting floors and furniture - Obviously, you won't want paint to get all over your floors and furniture. There are few simple steps you can take to make sure that they stay safe.
- Move any small furniture and personal effects to a different room.
- Use canvas tarps to cover the floor. If you don't have canvas tarps and don't want to buy them, you could always use old sheets or blankets.
- Cover your furniture with canvas or plastic coverings. You may want to secure these by wrapping them tightly around the furniture and then taping them down using painters tape.
- Don't forget to protect the legs of your furniture as well. Just wrap them in tape to keep paint off.
- Couches and chairs often have fabric flaps that hang down, near the floor. Tape these up so that they are under the protective furniture coverings that you use.
TIP: Regardless of what you have to tape up, remember to use blue painter's tape. Any other tape can be difficult to remove and could leave residue behind after it is removed.
Protecting door knobs, outlets, etc.
- Door knobs are very easy to protect. Just wrap them in plastic or tape.
- You'll most likely want to remove all your light switches and outlet covers to prevent them from getting covered in paint. If you wish to paint them, put them aside and paint them separately. Remember to keep all screws together so they don't get lost. Leaving outlets and light switches uncovered can be dangerous, so put strips of tape over the exposed wires.
- Plants should be moved out of the room. Keeping plants in the room and wrapping them in plastic isn't a good idea. Doing this will deprive them of the carbon dioxide they need to survive.
If there's anything else in the room that you want to protect, either move it out of the room or wrap it up in plastic or tape. Once you have everything protected, you can go ahead and start painting.
Photo by: Imagery Majestic (Freedigitalphotos.net)