DIY Interior Painting

Painting the interior of your home is just like any other do-it-yourself painting project. It begins with proper preparation, and if it is done, the results will look professional and be something that you make you proud.

Unlike exterior home painting, you will need to be much more cautious when it comes to splatters and spills. Covering up what you do not want painted is a big part of interior painting preparation. Removing hardware and covering lighting fixtures is generally not difficult but it is somewhat time-consuming.

For the most part DIY interior painting preparation will involve making minor repairs to drywall and trim. The walls and trim work in your home are subject to lots of the abuse and damage especially if there are children in the house. So before you begin your interior painting project look carefully at the surfaces and make all the necessary repairs.

Filling nail holes and cracks

Filling small holes and cracks in your walls is easy. You can use either a drywall compound, or spackling available in small containers to get the job done. Choose a product that dries quickly and does not have shrinkage, and they can generally be painted within 10 to 15 min. after application. Use a putty knife to apply the material, and when dry, sand smooth using 100 grit sandpaper followed by 150 grit sandpaper. Sometimes to avoid drywall dust sanding you can use a damp sponge and achieve a high degree of smoothness with a lot less mess.

Depending on how much damage is done to your drywall, you may need more than just a putty knife and some joint compound to repair the damage. Drywall repair kits are available in most home improvement warehouses.

Damaged plaster walls can also be repaired using a drywall compound board patching plaster. As a rule of thumb holes are no larger than your fist can be repaired with drywall compound and larger areas will require a patching plaster.

The corners of your room generally suffer more damage than any other area. Again depending on the damage you can either patch these areas with joint compound and a putty knife, or you may be required to add a new corner bead to fix the damage.

Repairing the woodwork

Sometimes wood trim gets minor nicks and dents and you’ll want to repair these areas before painting. You can patch minor nicks in your trim use wood filler hoary compound putty. If it becomes necessary to replace the wood trim you will find would trim readily available. Older homes with more distinctive trim may require that you repair what is in place. Make sure you fill all the holes in your trim, caulk all the gaps and sand until smooth. Stripping paint from woodwork requires brushing on a chemical generally and scraping the wood until clean. You may also choose to sand the surface down to its original state.

Removing wallpaper

You may find that the idea that you had for the wallpaper in your room no longer appeals to you. You will want to remove all old wallpaper before painting a room. Generally if you find a seam of the wallpaper you can begin to strip it off. Some older applications may require a treatment of either water or chemical to help you remove the wallpaper. Be careful when removing the wallpaper so that you do as little damage to the wall surface as possible. It may require some additional sanding once the wallpaper is removed.

Once you have prepared your walls and trim with either repairs and or replacements, you can begin your final prep and sanding. Closely inspect all the walls and trim to make sure you’ve covered every area that required attention. Sand the walls and trim smooth, and you will now be ready to apply a good primer.