8 Professional Tips on How to Paint Your Doors and Ceilings
Using these tips by professionals, not only will you be able to paint your doors and ceiling, and you will learn to paint your own house.
17/11/2018
Whether as a fun project or because you can't find a painter, picking up the brush is a good way to use your time. That room, where the paint has faded and started to crack? You can fix it yourself using a few tips and tricks.
While painting the side-walls seems like a fairly straightforward task, a few places like the doors and ceilings can get tricky. Using these tips by professionals, not only will you be able to paint your doors and ceiling, and you will learn to paint your own house.
1. Right Equipment Solves All Problems
Using a brush to paint the entire ceiling will leave you tired and the wall dull. So, make sure you have all the tools required before you begin the work. Always buy materials at once. Coming all the way back to the shop just to buy a scraper is frustrating.
Here is
a list of items you will most likely need:
Spackle and spatula.
Sandpaper.
Metal
paint scraper.
Ladder.
Canvas Tarp.
Painter's tape.
Paint Brush. (Angled & flat).
Extension pole for the roller.
Paint roller.
Paint Tray.
Waste cloth.
Paint.
2. Prep, Prep, And Prep Again
Prepping is boring. But painting the doors or walls without proper prep work will result in a shoddy look. There are elaborate steps involved in prepping. Prepping primarily focuses on cleaning and repairing. These techniques can be used for both ceiling, and walls.
First spread out a tarp or a newspaper or your preferred covering cloth on the floor. Look for cracks or uneven surfaces on the ceiling. Get on the ladder. Wherever the paint has cracked, scrap it. Applying paint on a cracked surface will cause the cracked part to break free and fall. Once, you have scraped the paint, clean the wounded wall with a soap solution.
Once the wall is dry, apply the spackling compound using the spatula and spread it evenly. Make sure that the compound doesn’t protrude from the wall.
If you’re painting a door, unhinge it and place it on a raised, flat table and remove all the fixtures. Remove all the fixtures. If some hinges are left on the door frame, use painter’s tape to cover it.
3. Prep The Room Or The Surrounding Area
If you’re out to paint the ceiling, everything below it should be covered or removed. That includes all furniture and equipment in the room. As a general practice, it is best to empty the room completely. Cover the floors with cloths or tarp. One step you might unknowingly skip is removing the light switches and outlet covers. These are usually made of plastic and even a drop of paint will make it look ugly.
When you are painting a door, make sure you spread a mat below the door. After painting one side of the door, wait for it to dry before flipping it over. Blobs of paint on walls don’t look pretty. While two to three hours should be enough to dry, leaving it overnight will make sure the paint won’t stick to the wall when you flip it.
4. Know Your Paint
Painting one wall (ceiling), or a room or a door will not require much paint. But, the quantity you will need won’t be a whole number either. Err on the greater quantity. While it may sound wise to get a little paint and then buy additional amounts as and when you need them, you will end up with different shades of ceiling paint.
Even though a precise amount of paint is mixed through a computer, each box of paint will look slightly different on your wall or door. Also, mix well before use. Stir the paint well before you pour a small quantity to the tray.
5. Rollers Need Pre And Post Paint Care
As tempting as dipping a new roller in paint and start rolling might seem, for best results you have to prep the rollers and brushes as well. Dip a small part of the roller in water. Grab a wet cloth and spread the water throughout the surface of the roller. Make sure that you don’t soak the entire thing. A watery roller results in a watery paint. Follow the same procedure for a brush as well.
Even though your requirement might be one-time, it would be wise to keep them after use as well. You might need them again in the future. Clean the bristles of the brush and the roller using warm water. This will ensure that the paint comes off easily allowing you to use the brush again.
6. Primer Is A Requirement, Not A Choice
While plenty of paints claim to be primer-paints, they are of use only if there isn’t a single crack or hole in your ceiling. For the paint to look consistent on a wall or a door, it needs a consistent base.
Directly applying paint will lead to a dull color wherever a prep work was done. The sparkling compound will create pores into which the paint will seep in resulting in an inconsistency of color distribution. Primer prevents that.
7. Brush The Edges And Roll In-Between
While this might seem obvious, the chronology matters the most. Always paint the edges first. Use a brush to paint the edges of the ceiling. Wherever the ceiling meets other walls, use painter’s tape. Also, use only about 20% to 25% of the brush to paint the edges. A brush fully dipped in the paint will not only leak but will transfer more to the wall which will make the paint drip excessively. If you are applying two coats of paint (you should.) to the wall, the edges must be coated twice as well for a consistent shade. Only after this, can you start rolling.
For doors, follow the same procedure. Hinged areas, panels, windows come first. However, you don’t need a roller. One small brush and a big one will suffice.
Only after this, you can roll.
8. Roll Away
Now, you’re ready to roll!
Here are a few methods to do it better:
• Top to bottom: Always begin at the top and roll downwards.
• Begin at one corner: This helps you visualize consistency properly.
• Don’t use too much pressure: This will lead to paint dripping down on the wall.
• Minimum overlap: Do not paint the same area multiple times. A zigzag pattern works on the principle of overlapping, but keeps it to a minimum.
• 2 coats: Applying the second coat won’t take another round of prepping. But the results will be far better than just a single coat.
The skills required in painting a house are indeed a wonderful asset. And while you will not have to paint all the time, you can be sure your skills will come in handy whenever the painting job arises.
And as with any art, practice makes perfect. So, don’t demonize yourself the first time for a few spatters and leaks. Instead, you should see these mistakes as lessons towards becoming a skillful painter.