Paint Prep - The Art Of Preparing To Paint Your Home
Here are the top six most important tips for prepping your home for that painting job:
1) Using tarps to cover valuables: it is very difficult to remove paint from carpets and lampshades. It is better to invest some extra money in tarps than to try to get paint out of a carpet. Over the past few years the cost of purchasing this kind of protection has gotten much cheaper. You can pick up 10 tarps made out of clear plastic for less than $10.
2) Buying 'Kilz' paint to cover over problems from the past. Kilz is your best friend when preparing for a painting job. It covers over mildew and rust. It is always best to clean the underlying area before painting over the problem spot with Kilz paint.
3) Speaking of mildew, you can spray mildewed areas with a combination of water with a few drops of bleach. It's much easier to fight mildew than most homeowners realize.
4) Use a sander to remove peeling paint or old drips from the last paint job.
5) Use painters tape, which is usually blue, to protect areas that you don't want painted.
6) Sherwin Williams has a 'paint visualizer' on their website! If you go to their site, you upload a photo of the area that you are going to paint. You can then click on different paint colors to see how the color coordinates with the rest of your home. To find this site, go to the Sherwin Williams website and type 'visualizer' into the search box.
7) Priming: It is good to paint a coat of primer on a wall that is going from a very dark color to a very light color. It is also helpful to prime a wall that is going from an enamel finish to a flat finish.