How to Prepare for Painting Your Living Room

When preparing to paint a living room, there is a process to follow. By doing some easy prep work, the task of painting will go much faster and smoother.

Baring the Walls

This must be done first. Take all pictures, shelves, and mirrors down off the wall. Go back and remove all picture hangers and nails from the walls. Making sure that nothing is left in the walls is necessary to ensure an even paint coat.

Filling in Holes

Having some spackle on hand will be necessary for this next portion of the prep work. Using the spackle, go back to where the wall hangings were located at, locate the nail hole and slap some spackle over it. Don’t gob it on there, but using the applicator, smooth it over the hole, making sure to remove the access. The spackle should be flesh with the rest of the wall. If there are smaller holes in the wall, maybe from the door hitting the wall too hard, these are easily corrected with spackle as well. It might be an eye sore now, but as long as the spackle is flat with the rest of the wall, once the paint is on the walls the spackle won’t even be noticeable.

Moving out the Furniture

All the furniture should be moved out of the room. If the room is large enough, some furniture can be moved to the center. Preparing the room for the painting process is the main reason the furniture needs to be relocated. This will also prevent any accidental spilling of the paint on the furniture.

Painter’s Tape

Painter’s tape is another step in prepping the room. Place the tape around windows, on base boards and ceiling trim. This will protect those pieces from the paint, allowing them to be painted another color if required. By placing the tape around the base boards, this will help prevent the floor from having stains.

Laying Down the Plastic

This is the last step in preparing the room for painting. By laying the plastic down over the floor, this will ensure no paint gets spilled on the carpet of flooring. If you have ever painted before, you might know how hard paint is to remove from carpet. The plastic is an important step to finish and will back up the tape placed on the baseboards.

Painting the living room can be a chore, but hopefully these steps and tips will make the job a bit easier.