3 Tips for Painting Your Living Room

Painting is one of the most dramatic ways we can change the look of a living room. Swapping out furniture and decorations are nice, but nothing changes the look of a living room like fresh paint. Today, we will offer three tips the pros use when painting a living room, and how you can use them to your advantage.

Should I Empty the Room Before I Paint?

In many living room painting projects, more time is spent moving furniture and cleaning up than actual painting. However, sometimes if the space is large and easy to spray paint, the effort pays off in time saved. When the pros encounter this issue, they usually prefer to use drop cloths and other tools to protect surfaces from paint, as opposed to moving obstacles like heavy furniture. The pros often do this because they do not want the liability, but it also makes the project go faster.

Especially if the room is full of furniture, some professionals will drape the entire room in protective drop cloths. Others will use removable plastic film to cover and protect items like windows and carpet. In other cases, it’s just easier to remove the furniture. However, most pros recommend using whichever method saves the most time and effort, while protecting the contents from overspray and drips.

Better Tools Means Better Results

In living rooms, it is not uncommon to find vaulted or cathedral ceilings. These ceilings can be a challenge for do-it-yourselfers to paint because they are often out of reach. The pros will typically employ step ladders, scaffolding, and even stilts to gain access to these surfaces easily. However, without these special tools, homeowners often have to get creative to accomplish this task.

A common way DIYers solve this issue is by renting tools. Nearly every tool used to paint a living room can be rented, but the most popular are step ladders, scaffolding, and paint sprayers. Painting tools like these can make painting a living room a breeze. For example, the pros will often spend the time to erect scaffolding when a vaulted ceiling will require several coats. This method allows the scaffolding to be built once, but used many times, as opposed to moving step ladders every three feet.

Use Primer and/or Sealer

Using a primer or sealer on a previously painted wall might seem like overkill. However, as we’ve discussed, when painting living rooms, half the battle is often just gaining access. As such, the pros make sure that they will not have to set up again and repaint an area by using a primer or sealer. This is to prevent any bleed through from the old color to the new, which can happen with certain colors like greens and reds. Using a primer even if the wall is in good repair, ensures that the new paint will stick and cover completely.