Painting Your New Home

Nothing makes your new home feel more like yours, than a fresh coat of paint. At Ace, it is easy to transform that empty space in to a living, growing home. Check out our tips for choosing, prepping, painting, and cleaning your new home!

Painting Your New Home


Selecting Paint Colors

  • It’s important to sample paint colors so you can find hues that work in your new space, and that make you feel at home. Even if you used go-to colors in your old home, you’ll want to give them a test drive in your new space. The color could appear completely different based on the lighting in your new home.
  • Have sample sizes mixed in 2-3 colors you like. Paint a large swatch on the wall or on a foam poster board that you can move around. Look at the undertones and color as it appears at different times of day.

Preparing to Paint

  • Spend the most time on surface preparation. You’ll get the best finish and fewer touch-ups later on.
  • Give the wall surfaces a thorough cleaning. Smooth over cracks and other surface imperfections with spackle and a putty knife and then sand smooth. Viewing the surface from an angle will reveal any spots you missed.
  • Protect furniture, countertops and other areas not to be painted with drop cloths and plastic sheets. Canvas drop cloths will be a larger investment in the beginning, but they will last longer than plastic and aren’t as slippery underfoot.
  • Painter’s tape is designed to stay on the wall during your painting project, without leaving a residue when you remove it. Use it to mask off outlets, switches, door hardware, trim and moldings. To get a clean edge at ceiling lines or where one paint color meets another, use a premium painter’s tape, smooth over the edge with a putty knife after you apply it and score the edge lightly with a utility knife before you remove it.

Use High-Quality Paint, Brushes and Rollers

  • Lower quality brushes and rollers can ruin your paint finish by shedding onto the surface or showing more brushstrokes. High quality applicators will not only give you the best finished results, they can help you get done more quickly. They hold more paint, requiring fewer trips to the paint pan. And, with a smoother finish, you’ll have less touch up to do when you’re finished.
  • High-quality paint helps you get even coverage and truer color in fewer coats than a low quality paint. Paint and primer in one can help you save a prep step, especially if you have previous coats of paint to cover up.

Starting to Paint

  • Even if the paint was shaken at the store, give it a good stir. Paint separates into layers as it sits. Use the stir stick you get when you buy paint to draw paint up from the bottom of the can up until it’s uniform in thickness and appearance.
  • When painting an entire room, start from the top and work down. Paint the ceiling, walls and then trim around windows and doors, also working from the top down.
  • When using a paintbrush, make sure you dip only the bottom third of the bristles into the paint so as not to waste paint and create a mess. Hold the metal band around the bristles with your thumb and fingers allowing the handle to sit in the bend of your thumb. Use long, overlapping strokes applied at an angle while keeping the whole tip of the brush on the surface.
  • When painting with a roller, work in three- to four-foot square sections and follow a zigzag or “W” pattern. Fill in the section with horizontal strokes and then smooth over the section with vertical strokes. This will maintain the same pattern and will help to blend the edges of each section into one finished surface when dry.

 

For more tips, go to Tips.acehardware.com.

Published:  3/5/2020