Preparation

We’ve already talked about taking off wallpaper and polyfilling holes, but if you are painting directly onto old paint, you may well need to clean it first. Sugar soap is the detergent you will need for this. Follow the instructions on the tub or bottle, but you will generally need a sponge and a bucket of cold water. Take off any loose paint as well.

If you are painting onto old gloss, the best finish is achieved by lightly sanding the surface with a fine or medium glass paper.

Painting

Indoors house paint generally comes in two types: oil-based and water-based. Most wall paints are water-based. Paints with a glossy finish will often be oil-based.

If you are painting directly onto new plaster, you will often need to do a few undercoats. For light colours use a cheap bulk emulsion. You can even thin it down with water – many professional decorators do this.

For the colour coat, a couple of layers of paint should be sufficient – unless you are using Dulux Once or a similar one-coat paint. I used Dulux One Coat Gloss on our skirting boards and door frames. It was really thick and saved me a lot of time, since I was painting the edges of the whole house.

It is sensible to do the cutting-in separately using a paintbrush rather than a roller. This will get a clean edge to your walls before you roller the big spaces.

Handy Hint

Carry a rag with you at all times, to mop up mistakes and create clean edges.

Get all the tools mentioned here in one kit, the Draper 10 piece multi-task painting kit. For pesky radiators, there’s a great invention called the “Stanley Mini Radiator Roller“.

Window Frames

Either use masking tape on the glass to get a clean edge, or, if you are impatient like me, paint as neatly as possible and scrape the mistakes off afterwards with a window-scraper.

Cleaning

Cleaning is the most important part of painting the house. Not only will you save time, but you will also prevent wastage of expensive equipment.

Water-based paints, such as emulsion, can be thinned and cleaned off with water. Oil-based paints must be cleaned or thinned with white spirit or similar. Clean rollers, trays and brushes as soon as you finish painting to stop paint from clogging them up.

Clearing Out

After you’ve had a good look round and decided what you want to do with your property, you may well want to remove cupboards, sideboards and other fixtures. It’s a good idea to turn off the electric before you do so and to check where the pipes and wires are. You’ll need screwdrivers of the cross and flathead variety. Try to locate all of the screws before you start to remove the fixtures so that you know when the object is likely to come apart. Sometimes previous owners may have nailed things in, so use the back of a hammer to pull these out. Occasionally, the only option is to hammer things out of place, but before you do this, double check the wires and plumbing to make sure you won’t do any lasting damage.

Stripping Wallpaper

This weekend, we’ve removed an obscene amount of woodchip wallpaper because parts of it were peeling. Pull off what you can and then reach for the scraper. The long handled scrapers have a razor edge and are excellent for really getting through large areas. Whilst scraping the wallpaper off, you may well create a lot of dust, so wear a mask. Most good DIY sets will include some dust masks.

You may not be able to get the wallpaper off in one, in which case a steamer will come in very handy for getting those pesky bits of backing paper off. You can just sponge water onto the paper using a decorator’s sponge, but if, like us, you’re doing an entire house, this would take far too long. Look at a range of different wallpaper strippers here – they’re all different prices and some are only about £27.

Preparing Walls

Once you’ve stripped the wallpaper, you may well find all sorts of arrangements behind it; paint, plaster, artex, more paint and wallpaper, backing paper, wall sealant or wood. Once you’ve ascertained what you have, you will need to see whether you need to do some plastering, damp proofing or rebuilding before you start to paint – especially if it’s an old house.

Most often, DIY-ers just need to fill in the little nicks with polyfilla, then sand down the wall. If you’re sanding an entire house like us, you’ll need a sanding machine. Otherwise, just put some sandpaper onto a handle and put in the elbow grease. There are a range of handy sanding tools available.

Wallpapering / Painting

Master One Coat Washable Matt Emulsion 2.5l Sweet Pea £15.65 from Wickes

Once the walls are prepared, you can do your Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen bit and choose your decoration. For the best wallpaper finish, hang lining paper horizontally around the room and paper your chosen design over it vertically. Depending on your plaster and paint, you may need to do a few undercoats – but it is important to discern between different paints. Wickes are one of the few online retailers to sell paint for delivery – you can browse their selection by clicking on the paint pot on the right. More on painting in future posts.