Confessions of a DIY: 5 Mistakes to Avoid When Painting Rooms

I thought that painting would be a great first DIY project that my wife and I could enjoy and do with ease.

Boy, was I wrong!

First, I know I’ve been away for quite some time. As we all know, sometimes life gets in the way. I had a family member pass this summer, and I had gotten pretty consumed with work and closing on my home, so that took up the bulk of my time. However, since we closed in mid-August and we are all settled in, I now have a bit more time to devote to my passions and pastimes.

Soon after the closing, my wife and I decided we wanted to make the house look a bit “homier”. What better way to do so than paint a couple of rooms? “How hard could it be?” we thought (famous last words). Once the decision was made, we then picked out the paints, purchased the supplies (which weren’t cheap), and quickly got to work. And that’s where things got interesting…

Mistake #1: Take. Your. Time. I make this one first because it’s THAT important. Every time I tried to rush or take shortcuts, it resulted in rework that far exceeded the time-benefit of taking the shortcut in the first place! Furthermore, many cut corners will be made abundantly clear in the quality of your final product. Now, I used plenty of tips and tricks posted on YouTube and other areas of the internet. But beware of any shortcuts that you come up with on your own, as they could be either boom or bust—which leads me to our 1st mistake.

This gaffe was almost a big one. About 10 minutes into painting and after jerry-rigging a paint can on the ladder, we dropped about half a quart of paint onto the carpet of our master bedroom. Not onto the drop cloth that was protecting our floor, but onto the only corner in the room that was not covered. A few choice words of surprise were exchanged, and we promptly began the cleanup effort, first with newspapers/paper towels, then with sponges and towels, and finally the steam cleaner. Fortunately, the paint was white and our carpets were beige, and in a corner furniture was to be placed in, so the spill was a lot less noticeable than it could have been. But I swiftly learned that I should only leave unprotected the areas that I want paint on.

Our second mistake was attempting to paint from the floor up on the first coat of paint. This caused issues while trying to paint the corners and edges, since we were painting gray walls and a white ceiling, and painting over my mistakes was proving difficult. We then worked from the top down on the second coat and things went much more smoothly and quickly.

Mistake #3 was a really annoying one. Stepping in paint sucks. What’s worse is when you step in the same spot multiple times instead of cleaning/drying it up with a cloth or paper towel. So what we started doing was cleaning up paint spills and puddles immediately instead of fruitlessly trying to avoid them.

Mistake #4 delayed us by at least 6 hours because of rework. We had finally gotten the hang of cutting-in (painting the corners where the walls and ceilings/baseboards meet) by using painter’s tape as a paint barrier. The guys at The Home Depot specifically said not to let the paint dry too long and that’s exactly what we did—or so we thought. We cut the walls in, painted them and began to rip off the tape. Unfortunately, I guess latex-based paint dries a little faster than we thought, because it began coming off with the tape! Our pretty paint job was marred by jagged rips of wall paint near the ceilings and the floor! Another learning lesson: finish the wall, then IMMEDIATELY take off the tape. Repainting the walls after you thought you were done is a very deflating and cumbersome experience.

Our 5^th and final mistake was not cleaning/reusing our paint brushes, rollers, and pads. These things can get expensive! And at the end of a long day of painting, the last thing we wanted to do was clean these things out for use the following day. So a lot of time and money were spent making trips to The Home Depot replacing unusable paint supplies. We probably could have saved ourselves at least $50 by taking the extra 15-20 minutes per night washing out our supplies.

If you want to learn more about painting or need some tips and tricks, here are some great YouTube links:

Cleaning Brushes/Roller Sleeves

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwMnQ1bwN3M&list=PLuvcew9GYmUnYSpNQzW9BjgVDAM7V5uvP

Painting a Room in 10 Minutes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvJ90XnO2KM&list=PLuvcew9GYmUnYSpNQzW9BjgVDAM7V5uvP&index=2

Painters Tape for Masking Trim and Ceiling:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ6HyFLfXV8&list=PLuvcew9GYmUnYSpNQzW9BjgVDAM7V5uvP&index=4

2 Videos on Cutting-in:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZRBg1tc9_I&index=5&list=PLuvcew9GYmUnYSpNQzW9BjgVDAM7V5uvP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QpdW-l0FRg&index=5&list=PLuvcew9GYmUnYSpNQzW9BjgVDAM7V5uvP

Of course, if you have any other tips, please share below in the comments section. And don’t forget: Take. Your. Time. It’s so important, I had to state it twice. Happy Painting!