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One of the easiest (and most budget-friendly) ways to transform a room is with paint. And while it might seem simple, there are a few crucial steps to ensure you get the most polished, long-lasting final product. To help you on your next painting journey, we tapped the expertise of Wendy Doornink, color services manager for Hirshfield’s, an independent, family-owned paint and decorating company in Minnesota (with 45 locations statewide) who shares five tips for how to paint a room properly.
1. Consult With an Expert
Picking the right color for a room can be an overwhelming task—there are a wealth of choices on the market and there are many variables to consider: the lighting in the room, the furniture and decor you plan to use, and more. Resources beyond the internet can be invaluable. Companies like Hirshfield’s and other paint outposts have employees trained to help you navigate your color choice, finish preference, and other factors. Doornink works with color tools and the color services team to identify trends and help clients select the right shades for their project.
“The color services team are consultants that go into people’s homes and help pick [a] color,” she explains, noting that her team members are trained in identifying undertones of different hues and how they interact in your environment.
You can also ask the experts what paintbrushes, rollers, and other supplies will be best to have on hand for your project. Ask these questions up front to eliminate multiple drives to the store later.
2. Test the Color in Your Space
While the paint cards in the store can help you narrow down your selection, Doornink highly advises buying sampler sizes of a few shades you like and taking the brush to your wall. You’ll be able to see how those colors look in the room’s natural and artificial lights, which can be drastically different than how they appear in the store. You can also see how the colors pair with any trim.
“My recommendation? Get a lot of space painted. Not the whole room, but a lot of space so you can really sit with it and feel what the color is,” she says.
3. Prep the Walls
Before you go all in on your new color, it’s essential to properly prep the walls. Before you grab that painter’s tape, you’ll want to make sure walls are smooth and clean. That means:
- Cleaning the walls: The wear and tear of daily life can leave your walls dirtier than you realize. Oil from hands is an often-overlooked problem. If you have kids constantly tapping the walls, they will probably need a wipe down.
- Cover up nail holes: Any nail holes from hanging artwork or furniture anchors need to be filled. Putty and putty knives are readily available at local paint or home improvement stores.
- Smooth out imperfections: Sand sections of the walls that have rough patches left from putty to fill nail holes or any other cracks or imperfections, since they’ll still be visible after you paint.
The same guidance for smooth and clean surfaces applies when painting trim and furniture.
The final step is lining the room’s borders with painter’s tape: apply to the walls, trim, and ceiling to achieve those straight lines for a clean, polished, and professional look.
4. Consider a Primer
Not every paint job requires a primer, but some colors might. Doornink says dramatic color changes may call for a primer, and certain shades like whites, reds, and yellows won’t have sufficient coverage without one. You might also want to use a stain-blocking primer if you are in a home that has water or smoke stains.
If you’re painting wood trim, cabinetry, or furniture for the first time, you will always want to start your project with a primer coat.
5. Sit With the Color for a Few Days
Change can be hard. And that holds true for transforming an entire room with a few coats of paint. Sometimes, the completed project can feel jarring. Even Doornink, a color expert who has helped transform many rooms over her career, feels hesitation when painting her own spaces, including most recently, her bedroom. “[At first] I was like, did I go too dark … it’s a big change, and it takes a little bit of adjusting to the color,” she says. “But after, I thought it was perfect.”
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