How to Paint a Room: A Guide for Homeowners

Painting a home’s walls is one of the easiest ways to customize its look. Whether it’s bubblegum pink or a stylish neutral beige, every room undergoes a metamorphosis with a fresh coat of paint. Hiring professional painters guarantees a high-quality finish, but the costs add up quickly, especially if the entire home needs new paint. Because of this, many homeowners opt to do the job on their own. But where should homeowners start if painting walls is a new project for them? Before you pick up that brush, start with these essential steps for painting a room.

Free the Room of Furniture

It’s no secret that paint stains. The easiest way to protect everything in a room is to take everything out of the room. So roll up those rugs, box up those books, and carry the chairs away. But wait–what about that sectional sofa in the living room? Bigger and bulkier items may be more challenging to remove. In that case, move the furniture or items away from the walls into the center of the room and protect them with a cloth or plastic tarp covering. In the case the paint splashes or splatters, the furniture will remain stain-free.

Clean the Walls

It can be tempting to dive into painting as soon as the room is clutter-free, but this is a mistake. Instead, homeowners need to clean the walls before putting anything on them. Don’t skip this home painting tip! Walls have a tendency to carry a lot of dirt, grime, and other impurities that can prevent the paint from sticking properly. You likely don’t notice the dust clinching to the surfaces, especially depending on your paint color, but it is there.

Clean the walls to ensure the new paint stays where it’s put. Use a vacuum cleaner or a dry Swiffer cloth for the first pass and get larger debris like cobwebs. After that, a simple wet cloth can remove anything that remains. Now is also a good time to remove their light switch and vent covers to protect them from paint.

Line the Walls with Painter’s Tape

Both amateur and professional painters get a lot of use from painter’s tape. Painter’s tape is like masking tape, but it’s specially formulated to prevent paint from seeping beneath it and to be easily removable. The homeowner first places the tape on the wall, either just around the edges or they can create a design on the wall to paint over.

Take your time to get the lines and edges just right. It can be frustrating to redo the paint, but it’ll be more frustrating fixing paint bleeds or missing patches.

Once the wall is painted, remove the paint for clean edges that look like a professional did them. This tape is the easiest way to get crisp lines with minimal effort, and every painter should pick up a roll in preparation for their next painting project.

At this time, add painter’s drop clothes to the floors or something else to protect your flooring. You can use cardboard or newspaper, but these can slip and move underfoot.

Paint Vertically, Not Horizontally

After all this prep work moving and protecting the furniture and trim, it’s finally time to start using the paint rollers. One pitfall homeowners fall into when painting for the first time is they try painting horizontally and end up with visible drips drifting onto the wall. The way to prevent this is simply by moving the roller vertically. When the roller is moved up and down instead of side to side, it automatically catches any drips that form and evens them out, creating a smooth finish on the wall.

Another way to help prevent drips is not to saturate the roller with paint. Always remove the excess in the roll pan, which will also help prevent dripping on the floor.

With the proper guidance, even a beginner can easily tackle painting a room. It’s one of the most-friendly do-it-yourself home improvement projects. These tips can help anyone give their home a new look inexpensively, thanks to a fresh coat of paint.

Updated February 2024