How To Paint A Room • Nifty 101

a quality paint job is one of the least expensive ways to judge up your space and really transform your home but there's a lot of intimidation when it comes to painting a room what if I hate the color what if I spill it what if it takes all weekend painting may seem like a lot of work but just follow these simple steps and the next time you paint might not seem so daunting in this video I'm going to walk you through everything you need to know to achieve the perfect paint job we're going to cover how to shop for paint and design your space the brushes and supplies that you'll need prepping your space before you paint the detailed step-by-step painting process and easy cleanup and caring for your new walls check out the time codes in the description of this video if you want to skip around to different topics and with that let's get to it the first step is to pick a color that fits your space first choose your color family next once you've picked a color family pick light or dark if it's a large room you can work pretty freely with either and maybe play around with an accent wall but if it's a small space you want to stick to light colors or shades of white dark colors will always add shadows and make a room appear smaller whereas light colors will make a room appear larger next decide if you want the colors to be bright or muted bright colors will have more pop and energy whereas muted colors are soft and homey so this is the room that I'm gonna paint it's like my living room dining room hybrid and for some reason it's this awful blue color and just looks like a very confused dorm room I just can't live like this so before you choose a color take into account what is already inside of the room what color is the furniture what color is the floor can you see any other rooms from this room in the case of my room we can see the walls of the adjacent room so we have to pick a color that complements that wall color I'm gonna go with a monochromatic theme here and the best rule of thumb for that is to pick one color and experiment with different shades since my adjacent room is pretty light gray I'm gonna go with a dark grey for this room it's gonna give it a nice contrast and it's good to stick to the same color family like all cool tones or are all warm tones if you're mixing up cool tones and warm tones it's gonna look kind of weird paint stores will often categorize these color families for you into little pamphlets so you don't have to do the dirty work I would definitely suggest picking up a few sample paints of some colors that you're toying with because the worst thing is when you paint half a wall and you stand back and you look at it and you're like I hate this now that you've picked your color it's time to pick a finish it can seem kind of difficult to know which finish to pick but they're actually all designed for pretty specific things so paint comes in six finishes flat matte eggshell satin semi-gloss and high-gloss flat and high gloss aren't super common as they're both pretty extreme flat is what you'll find in like a crappy low-rent apartment I would only ever recommend using flat if you're painting a ceiling and high gloss is only going to be found on a few embellishments like doors or fences so let's stick to our four common finishes for right now matte eggshell satin and semi-gloss matte paint will have no Sheen at all which makes it durable against scuffs and dirt however its rough finish makes it difficult to clean and it isn't great for high-traffic areas like hallways or cabinets this one is also probably the easiest to apply you'll notice shinier enamels are much harder to work with and a matte paint will just go on super smoothly and no matter how messy you are it's gonna dry and look perfect eggshell is a nice flat look that's perfect for walls but I wouldn't recommend using it on anything else in your home it resists dirt and grime a lot better than a matte finish which makes it great for active households and high-traffic areas like hallways and kids rooms a satin enamel is an all surface finish with durable protection from dirt and grime it's got very minimal shine and is great for kitchen cabinets and bathrooms but probably not quite durable enough for something like a trim semi-gloss is what you're going to use for things like doors cabinets window shutters and trim it's extremely durable and resist stains moisture and we're making it a great exterior finish as well it is more likely to pick up hand grease and oils but its shine also makes it very easy to clean like a flat or a mat wait since I'm painting a living room I would normally go with either a mat or an eggshell finish but I'm gonna go with matte because I like the look of it and I don't have a very active household when you're buying paint the general rule is that one gallon will roughly cover 400 square feet so just multiply the length and height to get the square footage of each wall and for the trim you usually can get away with one quart for any regularly sized room before you're ready to paint make sure you have all the right materials the first question to ask is do you need primer the answer to that most of the time is probably not primer is only really needed when you're painting over bare drywall stained or repaired areas high gloss finishes or like drastic color changes so unless you're going from midnight black to pearly white skip the primer you'll also need painters tape there are a million different kinds but I stick to the basics honestly they're all the same a 3.5 inch angled latex brush it's about 12 to 15 dollars but it's well worth it and will do a much better job than any cheap brush which tends to be streaky and make weird textures it will also hold more paint than a cheap brush and it makes it easier to cut straight lines which is super super important when you're painting a wall a roller with a nap cover depending on the texture you want there are different types of nap covers use 3/8 inch for smooth surfaces 1/2 inch for semi smooth surfaces 3/4 of an inch for rough surfaces and a 1 and 1/4 inch for very rough textured surfaces a 1/2 inch is the most commonly used nap cover and pretty standard for a basic wall so that's what we're gonna go with today a two to four-foot extendable roller pole trust me this will make your life so much easier you will also need a stepladder a drop cloth a cutting bucket you should never work directly out of a paint can you're more likely to spill it and if something falls in like dust or dirt you've pretty much ruined the whole thing it's also just easier to carry around you'll need a paint tray and some disposable paint tray fillers the fillers aren't necessary but they definitely help with easy cleanup because when you're done you can just throw them away spackle pry sandpaper and a putty knife I know I just said you probably don't need primer but we're gonna get to that in a second now that you've purchased your paint and supplies it's time to prep the space sometimes this part takes longer than actually painting the room which can be annoying but trust me it is worth it first wear an outfit that you really don't care about it's going to get messy then take everything out Furniture wall art carpets take it all no matter how careful you are paint tends to splatter and get on nearby things and that's sex so don't do that you'll want to remove any outlet covers and switch plates and cover them up with some painters tape give your space of good cleaning vacuum the corners dust off the trim get rid of any cobwebs realize how much of a slob you truly are this is always an eye-opening moment for me then lay down a drop cloth then spackle up any holes in your wall from nails or screws or scuffs whatever something that I like to do is scoop a tiny bit of spackle into a plastic bag and then poke a hole in it this makes kind of a handy little dispenser and it makes it much easier to get this Bakkal out all you have to do is squeeze it plop a little dab on your finger and push it into the hole on the wall generally that will be like the perfect amount that you need and then you can just glide on over it with a putty knife easy peasy once this tackle is dry sand it down I recommend using one of these little sanding sponges they're pretty neat seal the spot with primer to ensure the finished coat goes on nice and smooth primer is necessary to make sure the paint will adhere to the surface instead of soaking into the wall now for the fun part it's time to paint pop open your paint can with a flathead screwdriver and let's get started if you're working with more than one can of paint the best practice is to mix it all together in a five-gallon bucket this process is called boxing sometimes the color mixtures can be slightly inconsistent and you don't want to end up with two different colored walls if you're painting an entire room work from the outside in ceiling first then trim walls last since today I'm just painting the walls let's cover up the baseboards with painters tape a big misconception is that you have to cover the entire room with tape the windows the corners the ceiling but it's honestly a waste of time and it ends up looking sloppy the pros don't use tape so neither should you unless you really need it it's okay we'll just cover up the baseboards to avoid any drips and if you really feel the need to use tape everywhere I won't judge just press the tape down with a plastic putty knife to make sure none of the paint seeps through because that always happens and it's just the worst you want to work from the outside in starting with the ceiling cut then the corners then the baseboards and then fill in the walls with a roller at last pour some paint into your cutting bucket and dip your paintbrush about a third of the way in generally two fingers with tap it on the sides to get any excess paint off and do not scrape it the best way to hold the brush is kind of like a pencil like this that allows you to have nice Swift movements and hopefully keep a steady hand paint with smooth strokes and feather out the edges to prevent runs it's good to brush about four inches down from the ceiling before going in to cut because you don't want it to go on too thick you want to cut a hair into the ceiling because if you leave a tiny line unpainted it's going to be very visible from down below but if you go slightly over it it's very hard to notice fun fact and you also don't need to obsess over making it perfectly unbelievably straight because up close you'll definitely notice but as soon as you step down those tiny imperfections are going to be very very hard to see there definitely are parts of this process that do require close attention to detail but this is just not one of them continue cutting all around the rest of the edges only do one wall at a time or even half a wall if it's a biggie because it needs to be slightly wet when you apply the roller so that they seamlessly fit together generally the texture of a paintbrush is going to be different from the texture of a roller so you want them to kind of gradient into each other and that's not really gonna happen if one of them is dry for the coronaries use more paint than you think coroner's tend to be thirsty if you really feel the need to use tape you're like I can't do this my hands are shaky I don't trust myself it's cool I get it just use the tape as more of a guideline don't like paint all over it like a madman cuz I guarantee you that is going to leak everywhere once the edges are painted it's time to break out the roller dip just a little bit into the paint and roll it across the pan to even it out resist the urge to submerge the entire roller so the general role is that you lay it on and then you lay it off what this means is paint the entire wall and just get it all on there you don't really need to be super precise because once it's completely covered you're gonna go over it one more time to spread it all out evenly which is called laying it off you don't need to dip the roller in paint again to lay it off just to use whatever paint is left over on the roller so here I'm laying it off the paint is still wet there's some paint residue on my roller but it is an entirely soaked and I'm just going up and down in straight lines side by side slightly overlapping each time and don't worry about these lines as the paint dries they will disappear try to go slow to avoid paint splatters take your time to get the best results this is the sound that you want to hear [Music] it's not too saturated and not too bad reloads the paint frequently instead of pressing harder to get more paint out of it this can cause drips and give it a weird texture which we don't want after reloading start painting again about half a rollers with the way then spread it out in either direction this will make sure you aren't overlapping too much paint at a time turn the roller sideways to get tough spots like under the windows or a half wall like this one most of the time you will need two coats but it really depends on the paint once you're totally done let it dry and make sure you remove the tape within one or two hours to prevent it from adhering to the wall if you need to take a break in the middle of your painting session don't freak out and feel the need to clean everything just cover your bucket hammer shut your paint cans and don't waste time cleaning your roller because it honestly takes forever instead just cover it up in plastic wrap or shove it in a tight plastic bag and it will be perfectly fine in there for several days to clean your brushes run the brush under warm water and thoroughly scrub it out use a slop sink if you have one because it's gonna get messy you can use dish soap to help get the paint out and you can get a cleaning brush tool to really clean the paint from the bristles but make sure you reshape the brush before you let it dry otherwise it's gonna dry all weird and wonky to clean the roller just run it under water and squeeze out any excess paint this may take up to like 10 to 20 minutes but you really want to get all the paint out of there you could also get a 5 in 1 tool from the hardware store which is just this weird hook thing and it will scrape all the paint off honestly a lot of people just throw away their rollers instead of dealing with the extra work but it is possible I swear to you once they're clean store them upright to dry once your walls are completely clean put the room back together again get some new decorations maybe a throw pillow that matches your new wall and enjoy your new space [Music]

Channel: BuzzFeed Nifty

Views: 3,367,828

Rating: 4.8491621 out of 5

Keywords: 7v8j, BuzzFeed, DIY, Nifty, Nifty 101, diy projects, do it yourself, home, house, how to, how to paint, interior, nifty 101, paint, painting, painting tips, room, tips, tips and tricks, tricks, tutorial, walls

Id: 8xhi85pykFo

Length: 15min 2sec (902 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 16 2018