Want to Paint Your Own Interior? Here’s What You Need to Know

One of the most important things about interior design is colour. If you’re a budding DIY designer and you want to inject some much-needed colour into boring white walls without paying extortionate amounts for wallpaper, you should think about painting your interiors. If you want to dramatically change the mood of your interiors and want to do it on a budget, here’s what you need to know.

You probably won’t do it perfectly

The first and probably most important thing to note is that professional painters exist for a reason. If you’re doing DIY painting and you have faith in your abilities, that’s great, but don’t expect to do it as well as walls painted by professionals. Even the most careful painter is bound to make mistakes as a beginner, so if you’re a bit obsessive or a perfectionist, to save you from getting frustrated every time you see a bit of paint on a light switch or ceiling you should consider house painting services.

Prep the room

Painting is miles easier when you don’t have furniture in your way. Empty your room as much as you can and wipe the walls down. This is a really important step as if you don’t wipe the walls down properly some paint won’t stick to the walls, and you’ll get inconsistently applied paint and even some patches without paint. You should fill in nail holes and cracks and tape off anything that you don’t want to be covered in paint. Cover the floor with newspaper to stop the paint staining the floorboards.

Test, test, test!

Looking at the colour in a shop or even worse – online – won’t do it justice. Looking at a paint colour in your house but in a different room won’t do it justice. The exact amount of light that enters your room can and most likely will dramatically change the colour. That’s why you should buy a sample of the colour, allow it to dry and then observe it in daytime, dawn, dusk, evening and night with all the different lighting options that you might choose to employ.

Know what colour does

A lot of colour can be a bit off-putting, especially if you have more modest tastes, but don’t be scared into only choosing drab greys. Test a few different colours to see what they do to the mood of the room. Also, consider what the room looks like – if it is a large room with tall walls and a lot of space, dark colours like midnight purple or deep emerald green can add some depth to the space. Smaller rooms without natural light would benefit from lighter colours that open them up. Colour can change a space.

Don’t forget the Finish

The finish of the paint matters a lot. It can be glossy, satin, semi-gloss eggshell or flat. High gloss finishes are much easier to clean and quite long-lasting (which may be ideal for a kitchen), but they can highlight any imperfections. Flat finishes can hide imperfections but can be damaged more easily themselves. Eggshell finishes offer a nice mixture of the two.