Perfect Interior House Painting? Here are 7 Steps

Posted on March 11, 2019

A new paint job in your house can easily be ruined by finding a nick or missed spot in the middle of your beautiful wall. Either could have been easily avoided with some solid preparation before your painting begins. Here’s how to prep for paint, and 7 steps to paint for a perfect interior house painting job.

Prep for interior house painting.

Removing the furniture from the room completely is ideal for a perfect interior house painting job. The reality is most people don’t have that option. If you are one of the latter, spend time moving all of the furniture away from walls and into the center of the room. Cover it with plastic and tape it down.

Clean the walls.

Dust and wipe the walls completely clean to remove fuzz and dust long before painting begins. Use a vacuum or towels to wipe down everything. Mix 3 teaspoons of laundry detergent in one gallon of water and use that to clean.

Cracks and bumps.

Repairs to cracks and bumps will make the difference in your finished product looking home-done or professional. Use a scraper to get any flaking paint to let go. Smooth out other imperfections with sandpaper. Use plaster to fill in holes. Sometimes pushing a nail head in further with the back of screwdriver and filling it with spackle results in a more level wall. The flatter the wall before paint, the better the job will look after.

Gather materials.

Once all of the preparations have had time to dry, gather all of your painting supplies in the room: primer, paint-can opener, stir sticks, roller covers, paintbrushes , paint tray, gloves, drop cloth and an extension pole for the roller.

Tape time.

Afterwards, remove or tape any trim, plates and fixtures that are in the room. Taping will take time. Don’t skimp here. It may be faster to remove some items rather than tape around them.

Prime the walls.

For an interior house painting job, a high quality primer is recommended to help hide small imperfections in the walls. It also creates a good bond between paint and wall.

Painting party.

Start with paint in the corners by cutting in. Be careful to keep paint even and apply it with long strokes. Paint walls in a W pattern, repeat until the whole wall is covered.