The Art of Prepping Walls for Painting
Every single step of painting is important to be done correctly. Yes, it’s time consuming and it’s why hiring professionals is so darn expensive. Often, they spend more time prepping than painting. It seems ridiculous, but if you put fresh paint over beat up walls and trim, it’s going to still look like crap, so if it’s worth doing at all, it’s worth doing right.
“If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right.”
Investment
$20
2 hours (one medium size room)
Supplies*
Flathead screwdriver. A basic one will do, but I LOVE this autoloader because then I have one screwdriver with all different tips with me all the time! By the way, best Father’s Day gift of all time!
Spackle. Crawford’s is my favorite brand. It truly is awesome. Great results require great tools and products!
Steps
Remove all nails, curtain rods and anything else hanging on the walls. Even if you’re going to hang the picture back up in the same spot, take the nail out so you can roll over it when it comes time to paint. You can maybe get away with not patching it, but you increase the risk of a paint drip by not doing so.
Scrape off old caulk around trim or other gunk that shouldn’t be there. Favorite tool is the Purdy all-in-one tool noted above. Fits in your pocket and can do everything from scraping, hammering, removing a flathead screw and opening and closing paint cans!
Remove all light switch plates and outlet covers. Common’ people, no laziness here!
Patch holes. You are looking for holes created by nails as well as dents created from children’s trucks, etc. My all time favorite patch product is Crawford’s. It goes on like butter and sands like a dream. If you hear me say it once, you’ll hear it ten times, your end result is all about the tools of the trade and your time you put in. Don’t go crazy when patching - only use the amount of product you need to decrease sanding time later. Use a small flexible putty knife and fill the hole and then scrap the wall flat. Wait until fully dry (at least an hour) and then gently sand with sanding block. Don’t look; feel. Blind people would be far better at this than those who can see. Your wall is not going to look pretty at this point and we tend to sand what we see instead of what we feel; which is what you will then see with paint over it. I mean it…shut your eyes and run your hand over your wall. When you feel a bump or an edge to a patch, sand until you feel it’s smooth.
Redo caulk. Look for holes, cracks and bubbles around windows, door frames and trim. When you cut open your caulk use a heavy duty pair of scissors and cut a SMALL angle at the tip. Caulk should be used sparingly. Again, only use as much as you need. You do not want extra on the walls or trim. After you run a bead of caulk (and by the way, use a dripless caulking gun to save yourself a mess on the floor), then get your finger moist and run it firmly against your bead. When it starts to feel full on your finger, stop, wipe your finger off with a wet rag and start again. Continue until you’re done. Don’t work in more than three or four foot sections so it doesn’t start to dry on you. I like to keep a bucket of water to rinse my rag as needed. When your water looks more like milk, get a fresh bucket!
Wipe walls. You need to get the dust off you created from sanding and may need to wash them in high traffic areas such an entry ways and kitchen. If the walls are filthy, the paint won’t stick. My all time favorite combo for cleaning everything is a gallon of hot water and a teaspoon of powdered Tide from GoCleanCo with microfiber towels. You don’t need to rinse. Be careful not to wipe off your spackle patches. Just go around them.
Prime patches. This may or may not be necessary depending on the current state of your wall, but if you had any major holes to repair and have areas of large spackle (think curtain rod holes or soccer balls), then take a primer such as Kiltz Clear and just brush over the patched areas. Any primer will work, this just happens to be my favorite that I always have on hand. If you don’t first prime the patches, your paint may “melt” them when you roll it on and you’ll have a mess!
NOW you are ready to paint!
Enjoy the Project
Playlist | Kelsea Bellerini Radio by Spotify
Wine | Bread & Butter Pinot Noir
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