Although we highly recommend a professional painting company for your interior and exterior painting Florida Painting Company will be more than happy to show you fast and effective steps how to paint your apartment.
1. PREPARE YOUR WALLS
Carefully inspect walls for cracks, holes, dents or other surface imperfections before priming or painting.
Use a spackling compound and putty knife to fill and repair any holes or imperfections, remove any excess spackling with the putty knife and allow the area to dry
Once dry, use a small piece of very fine 220-grit sandpaper or a sanding sponge to smooth the repaired areas flush with the surface.
Wipe the walls clean with a damp towel or sponge and allow them to dry before priming or painting.
Use a floor duster to wipe the walls clean of dust to ensure paint applies evenly.
Remove everything possible from the walls, including all electrical faceplates.
2. MASK THE ROOM WITH PAINTER’S TAPE
If your ceiling is non-textured, mask off the ceiling where it meets the edge of the wall. Apply your tape in short, overlapping strips, pressing down firmly along the edge.
If you’re painting a room with a textured ceiling, simply run a screwdriver along the edge of the ceiling to create a small, unnoticeable texture-free surface. This will make creating a straight paint edge much easier.
3. SPREAD DROP CLOTHS AND MOVE FURNITURE
Apply a drop cloth to cover the ground and tape the edges down to secure.
If you’re working in an average- or small-sized room, remove all the furniture.
4. APPLY PRIMER
Start by painting the primer in 3’ x 3’ sections. Roll in one section at a time, moving from top to bottom and from one side of the wall to the other.
With a fully loaded roller, work top to bottom, rolling back and forth across the wall in a series of V- or W-shaped strokes until the section is covered.
Reload your roller and paint the next section, covering only as much as you can finish while the primer is still wet. Always overlap areas of wet primer. This is a painting technique called “working to a wet edge.” The technique helps prevent streaking and the need for extra coats.
5. PAINT THE WALLS
Cut in the room again, this time with your paint over the primer. If you left your painter’s tape on after priming, you can just paint over it again.
Brush onto the wall first and not the tape. Brush back and forth until most of the paint has been applied. When there’s just a bit of paint left on the brush, paint the area next to the tape and overlap your strokes onto the tape. That way, there will only be enough paint left on the brush to cover the remaining unpainted wall surface and there won’t be enough to seep under the tape.
To apply your topcoat of paint, follow the exact same process and techniques used when priming your walls. Roll in small, manageable 3’ x 3’ areas from the ceiling to floor, and from one side of the wall to the other. Blend your sections as you go.
With a fully loaded roller, work top to bottom, rolling back and forth across the wall in a series of V- or W-shape strokes until the section is covered. Before reloading your roller and moving to the next section, roll over the area you’ve just painted in a smooth, continuous stroke from top to bottom without picking up the roller. These smoothing strokes even the coat and help to cover up lines and paint roller tracks. As you overlap areas already painted, lightly lift the roller off the wall to avoid leaving end marks and to help blend different areas into one seamless surface.
For optimum results in color quality and finish, a second coat may be needed. Allow the first coat to dry completely, which usually takes between two to four hours.
6. REMOVE PAINTER’S TAPE
Remove your painter’s tape either just before the paint dries completely, or wait until the paint is completely dry and remove as quickly as possible after.
Tightly seal remaining paint in cans, thoroughly clean paintbrushes and rollers, and dispose of used painter’s tape.
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