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Wall painting for dummies or cheapskates



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seeker




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Sep 10 2017, 12:32 pm
I urgently want to freshen up my walls (urgent only because I am doing some furniture moving and at the moment there is more out than in.) Two very small rooms, nothing fancy.

1. What is less expensive, hiring a cheap painter or trying to do it myself?

2. If painter, can anyone recommend someone cheap? I don't need anything special, just don't wreck my furniture and floors, other than that there's pretty much no way to get this job wrong.

3. If DIY:
What kind of paint should I buy? I want something without dangerous fumes especially if I'm doing it myself, and inexpensive.
What other supplies do I need?
What lessons did you learn from trying to DIY that you think I should know before attempting?
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thunderstorm




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Sep 10 2017, 1:57 pm
DIY. I buy Ovation brand from Lowe's .
You need painters tape
A cloth for the floor or paper
2 paint rollers
Corner/ edge roller
Tray with liner to put paint into
Small sponge paint brush

I've painted my walls together with my husband . With two people the job goes pretty quickly. To do a proper job you need to prep the walls.

You need spackle and the flat scraper. Spackle all dents, nicks , scratched and holes. Let dry completely . Using a sanding sponge or sand paper, sand all spackled areas until smooth.

Then you need to put painters tape around all moldings, window frames, door frames and ceiling.

This in itself could be one days project.

Do the painting a different day, otherwise it's too exhausting.

Open paint can
Stir paint well
Pour a slight amount into the liner
Roll the paint roller in the paint until completely covered in paint .
Paint the walls moving up and down making sure all areas have full coverage.
You will need to do the edges and corners with the edge roller to get into the hard to reach places. My DH usually does that part while I paint the main part of the walls
Let dry
Do the same process again. Most often you will need that second coat of paint.

We were very happy with our paint jobs. Paint is about $40.00 a gallon. You may only need one can per room depending how big or small it is. Good Luck!
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seeker




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Sep 10 2017, 2:08 pm
Rooms are really really small especially since one wall is covered by closets.
Do I need to do the spackle thing? The walls seem pretty smooth to me. They have a bit of bumpy texture from past paint jobs but nothing serious. There is one outward-facing corner that is a little chipped but do I need to go through a whole spackling procedure just for that?
Basically I just want to paint over the walls because they're 6 years worth of shmutzy including some furniture-moving/wall-scraping shmutzy and some toddler shmutzy.
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pause




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Sep 10 2017, 2:10 pm
It doesn't sound like you need to spackle.
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thunderstorm




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Sep 10 2017, 2:19 pm
seeker wrote:
Rooms are really really small especially since one wall is covered by closets.
Do I need to do the spackle thing? The walls seem pretty smooth to me. They have a bit of bumpy texture from past paint jobs but nothing serious. There is one outward-facing corner that is a little chipped but do I need to go through a whole spackling procedure just for that?
Basically I just want to paint over the walls because they're 6 years worth of shmutzy including some furniture-moving/wall-scraping shmutzy and some toddler shmutzy.

You don't have to spackle. But when you paint all the walls "boo boos" show. If it doesn't bother you, then don't bother and just paint.
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seeker




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Sep 10 2017, 2:33 pm
Yeah OK then. I don't have a lot of empty wall so the boo boos won't be a big issue. I plan on hanging up some photos and art and getting some new furniture so we won't be staring at the boo-boo walls much.

The next question is what type of paint do you get if you want to paint a design straight onto the walls? Like a mural? It's something the kids have been talking about for a while and now that they're getting some space of their own I just may let/help them do it.
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Iymnok




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Sep 10 2017, 2:38 pm
Paint the walls a neutral color then get the kids some wall stencils. Since it's so little paint in the stencils, you can use acrylic paint. I got a six pack of metallic colors, they butterflies came out beautiful!
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seeker




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Sep 10 2017, 2:50 pm
Oooh stencils are a great idea! Thanks!
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Iymnok




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Sep 10 2017, 2:52 pm
Do the top of your bathroom walls too, it can add that little bit of glamour.
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Bnei Berak 10




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Sep 28 2017, 2:50 am
My post is a bit late and I guess you wanted to get the walls painted before Rosh Hashana.
When I was divored and living alone (no children) I painted my entire apartment myself, including ceilings. I live in Israel. A lot of work but a HUGE satisfaction with perfect result! (I had never painted a room by my self before, zero experience)
The painting itself is a breeze, it's the preparation that will take time (80% prep and 20% of the time for painting). I found it's like applying make-up but on another level so to say. You do the neccessary foundation work (which doesn't have to be that extensive but it could) and then the painting. Painting a small room is far more difficult then a large room. I recommend paint which is washable. If you do a thorough job and uses a washable paint then you won't have to repaint for quite a few years.
It is hard work and I personally would NEVER do painting before a holiday, especially before Pessach.
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groisamomma




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Sep 28 2017, 7:31 am
seeker, how did it go? I'm still trying to work up the courage to do mine.
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petiteruchy




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Sep 28 2017, 7:55 am
I suggest always washing the walls with tsp (comes in a powder at the hardware store that you mix into water). It removes stains, grease, any dirt, and preps the wall surface.

Spackling can be done or not, if you have time or there's major damage. The average diyer doesn't have the skill to plaster smoothly anyway, so it doesn't always help.

Use the highest quality paint you can budget. Especially if doing a color, although a quality white also looks much better than the low end version.

In a very old room, doing the baseboards and molding will make the room look amazing, but it adds a whole other step, so you can also just wash them well and leave them.

Use a step ladder and lay down a tarp or old sheet. Some people like rollers on an extension pole but I prefer just using the step ladder.

I prefer not to use masking tape and just use a small brush to do the edges. It's about the same amount of time in the end, because the tape needs to be cleanly removed after! I do small brush for edges and corners, large brush to bring the edge out for the roller, roller, roller again, large brush, and the small brush for touch ups. The last small brush coat I do when everything is dry and I take a knife with me to scrape up any splatters or messy spots on baseboards or floors.

Latex paint is easiest to clean off wood floors when just dry... Scrape up the spill and then wash. Even if it's fully dry, it usually comes off with a wash cloth.
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seeker




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Sep 29 2017, 12:35 am
groisamomma wrote:
seeker, how did it go? I'm still trying to work up the courage to do mine.

Same here embarrassed

Meanwhile, I've had a spiritual awakening in the form of Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. I still could use a paint job at least in a few places but it no longer looks gross. There are places where paint chipped away on corners, moldings, or where furniture was moved un-gently, and there's an area where some repairs are done and they didn't fix it in the same shade as the surrounding wall. And I did already buy the paint rollers and stuff. So I'd like to do this at some point, but I'm no longer depressed when I sit in my home and look around, so other things have moved farther up on the priority list.

That Magic Eraser is no joke. I have no idea why I never figured that out before. I definitely heard other people rave about it but it didn't occur to me that it could give my walls and doors a new lease on life. I got an 8-pack and so far 3 did almost my whole apartment. One more should finish off the bedroom, and then I'll need a couple more to just go back over everything one more time because when you really were due for a paint job there is enough built-up shmutz to leave smears behind when you clean. But it's incredible how much brighter everything looks already.
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amother
Mistyrose


 

Post Fri, Sep 29 2017, 8:14 am
Maybe skip the wall painting and do the stencils and moldings.
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