House painting:how to protect a room before painting

Painting is one of the most common ways you can renew and beautify a room in your house. Paint comes in many colors and sheens, and it can cover up old plaster and wood and make it look like new again. It's also a pretty affordable covering because you can purchase a gallon of paint for under ten dollars.

However, one of the biggest problems with painting is that it can easily spatter, drip, and run, and get on objects in the room that you don't want to be painted. Using a paint roller, for example, can substantially cut down the time it takes to paint a room. But, it's notorious for creating spatters from the rolling movement. Unless, of course, you take proper precautions to protect the room before you paint it.

To prepare a room for painting, you should first remove all of the furniture. If you don't have enough extra space in your house to make that possible, then you should move the furniture to the center of the room. Cover it completely with plastic sheeting so it will be protected.

Remove throw rugs, lamps, wall hangings, and anything else that you can get out of the room. Then, use a flat head screw driver to unscrew and remove light switch covers from the walls. Also, remove any outlet covers, and place all of the covers and their screws in a plastic bag so they won't get misplaced.

Next, use painter's masking tape to mask off the baseboard if you are not going to paint them the same color as the walls. Painter's masking tape is recommended over ordinary masking tape because it is easier to remove once the job is done. Make sure that you position the tape between the baseboard and the floor so that no part of the floor is exposed. Use additional masking tape around any window and frames to protect them from getting paint on them too. Again, make sure that you position the tape as close to the edges as you can get.

If there is wainscot on the bottom of the room walls, you can protect it from paint spatters, drips, and runs by covering it with pieces of plastic sheeting. Measure, cut and position pieces of plastic over the wainscot, then secure it to the wall by using painter's masking tape. Also, you will need to mask off any other items that can't be removed from the room. These items might include light fixtures, wall - mounted thermostats, air registers, pipes, et cetera. To cover up and protect large objects such as pipes or air registers, you should measure and cut pieces of thick plastic sheeting. Cover the objects, then use painter's masking tape to secure the pieces of plastic to the object.

Finally, you should lay plenty of drop cloths down on the floor to protect it from paint spatters, drips, and runs. If you don't have any drop cloths, newspaper can be used in a pinch, but it's thin, easily - tearable paper can't really protect your room floor. And, this is one place you shouldn't use pieces of plastic sheeting either. Because the plastic is slippery to walk on it can easily cause falling accidents. Plastic sheeting won't stay in place very well either, because the plastic is smooth and light.