DIY Home Painting by PAINTFORME®

So, having completed the paint list, now it’s time to add all the necessary protective items to the basket.

We use two types of protection, room protection and personal, like PPE, and both are equally important. The first protects your belongings, and the second your health.

PPE stands for personal protective equipment and you want to protect your hands, eyes and lungs.

These days we’ve been washing our hands too often, so a pair of gloves will be helpful. Although painting gloves can give you more flexibility, a pair of trendy latex gloves will do the job just as well.   

Buy a good dust mask and put it on from the moment you start clearing the room and moving furniture. Although we all care for our rooms, not many of us move heavy furniture on a weekly or monthly basis and they can often be left in the same spot for years, if not decades, with the spaces below and behind them becoming full of old dust. Curtains and blinds could also be dusty, as well as the tops of wardrobes. All this dust can give you an allergic reaction and dust is also known to trigger asthma, so could be dangerous for your health. Remember to wear the mask.

We recommend wearing googles to protect your eyes from old dust, sanding dust, and paint. A small droplet of paint in the eye can be quite dangerous and can cause inflammation of the eyes, as can dust. This will be especially appreciated while you paint ceilings.

Other than that, don’t forget head cover too. An old hat will do the job, with an old long-sleeve shirt, trousers and trainers. If you want you could also use your old suit, for a professional looking startJ

Now, let’s talk about how to best protect your room.

Before you start any preparation and painting work, make sure your belongings are protected. Obviously, clear the room as much as possible and declutter for easy movement and reach, and remember to hoover the floor and the top of the skirting for easy tape adhesion. It pays off to dust down walls and woodwork too, especially if you’re painting Eggshell over walls. If any furniture has to stay inside the room, and that includes the floor, it should be fully covered. There is no paint system that is free from drips or splatters.

We use poly-backed dust sheets to cover floors and furniture, but you can just as easily use an old sheet. I recommend that any of your expensive and easy to stain surfaces are removed from the room, or if necessary, covered in plastic or a couple of layers of old sheets before starting any painting.

Some paint might be accidently splashed or splattered while brushing or rolling, and it is best to act immediately and wipe off any paint before it gets through the material.

Once the job’s done and the covers have been removed, check for any paint marks right away. A wet cloth will remove all recent paint marks. And don’t forget to recycle the sheets afterwards – Save the Earth!

So, whether it’s a carpet or a wooden floor, or sockets and switches, or other such features, make sure they are protected.

For an easier and higher quality finish around sockets, switches and light fittings, masking tape should be applied, and I really recommend you do the same. We only unscrew them for certain wallpapering, or if agreed with clients.

It pays to spend a little more on quality tape, which is around £5-£8 per roll. A good tip is to remove masking tape from surfaces within an hour of painting with Eggshell paint, and to do it slowly.

Good quality masking tape can also be used to help with feature wall. A skilled decorator will cut into the ceiling and corners by hand, but for high quality and sharp edges – it’s tape, even for us.

Finally, if you’re not painting the woodwork, make sure it is also protected. You don’t want to have done an amazing job painting your living room to then realise that you have to clean and paint the woodwork.

Now you have all the protective equipment, have cleaned and prepped the room and covered and protected any remaining furniture, it’s time to start Preparing for Painting.

I will run you through all the ins and outs of this in the next Chapter.

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