Removing Unwanted Paint

When you paint your own home, paint smudges and splashes can sometimes be inevitable. Splattered paint is not something you want – whether it be a paint drip on your carpet or an accidental spill on your floor.

The good thing is, there are some techniques you can possibly try so you can remove unwanted paint inside your home.

Before we go on exploring useful methods we can use to try and remove dried paint, keep in mind that what would work on a granite surface would not necessarily work on a carpeted floor. Since different surfaces are made from different materials, they would have a different reaction to dried paint and hence, would call for different paint removal techniques.

Spilled paint on the carpeted floor – If you have seen paint drip on your carpets, don’t wait ‘til it’s dry – act fast! Grab paper towels or white cleaning cloth and blot as much dripped paint as you can. It’s important to prevent yourself from scrubbing the carpet surface. Don’t be so quick to grab the strongest cleaning product to get rid of the paint – harsh chemicals can further damage your carpet. Instead, mix a mild detergent with warm water and blot the paint stain – repeat the process until you have removed all paint residue on the carpet fibers.

Paint drips on concrete floors – It could be quite tempting to scrape off dried paint drips on concrete floors; however, doing this could result in unsightly scratches on your once polished-looking flooring. Instead, grab your trusty rubbing alcohol and splash deliberately on the affected area. Leave for a minute and wipe clean with a cloth.

Paint splashes on plastic materials – Just as with concrete floors, scraping the dried paint from plastic surfaces can leave marks. Get a nail polish remover or acetone and cotton swabs. Apply your nail polish remover or acetone on the cotton swabs and swab down the dried paint.

How to Prepare Your Home for House Painting

When you hire professional house painters to paint your home, you don’t really need to worry about the preparation steps. However, if you want to paint your house yourself, you have to do some prepping work before you proceed to the actual task of painting your walls.

First, you have to remove any wall decorations and even light fixtures on your ceiling (if you are painting your ceiling). Keep any wall paintings or chandeliers in a safe place, away from the room being painted.

You also have to remove any light switch plates and outlets on the wall. Even the smallest smudge of paint on your outlet or light switch could be unpleasant to look at; and no matter how careful you are at painting, accidents happen sometimes.

Remove all furniture from the room to be painted. Or, if you can’t remove them, cover them completely to prevent any paint splashing on to them. Make sure that they are not near the walls to give yourself sufficient space to paint your walls.

Put drop sheets on your flooring. In painting a room, there are some circumstances when paint splashes couldn’t be avoided, and the last thing you want is to paint splashed somewhere it shouldn’t be, like your floors. If you don’t have drop sheets, you can settle for newspapers laid down on the floors.

Cover window sills or window frames with tape. A painter’s tape is necessary to make sure that your windows will be completely safe from accidental painting.

Above all, wash your walls before painting. Mix water with a detergent washes your walls using a sponge. Allow the wall to dry completely before painting. A clean wall will ensure that each stroke of the paint roller or paint brush would be smooth, and the overall result would definitely be better than when you paint on a dirty surface.

Reasons to Hire a Professional House Painter

The idea of painting your own home sounds simple – if not easy – enough. I seem that all you really need to do is pick the paint color of your choice, then get a painting brush and voila – you’re good to go!

Sure, the task of actual painting might sound and look easy – just spread the paint on the wall; but in reality, house painting can have its risks that it would be best to leave the job to the pros.

There are several reasons you should hire an experienced house painter instead of doing the job yourself:

First and foremost, the work of professional house painters is covered by insurance. This means that if they commit mistakes while painting your home, such as they painted the wrong color on your wall, they can fix it right away with no additional payment. If you do the job yourself and painted the wrong color on the wall, you have to redo the job AND spend more money to buy another bucket of paint.

Professional house painters work faster. When you hire a professional to paint your house, you would have a written agreement on the exact date when the job should be completed. Admit it, if you paint the house yourself, there could be days when you’re too tired from painting the day before that you work slowly (or don’t work at all) the following day – especially that you don’t really have to meet a deadline. With the pros to do the job, you can be sure that the job will be completed on the agreed date.

House painting can be risky. You need to climb ladders and even inhale possibly dangerous paint fumes. With professionals to do the job, you don’t have to worry anymore as they are experienced in this area and would know how to safely paint elevated parts of your home. They also have the necessary protective gear so they would not directly inhale paint fumes.

Tips in Choosing the Right Paint Color for your Rooms

Deciding on the perfect paint color for each room could be confusing and even overwhelming, at times; but it doesn’t really have to. All you need is careful thinking, imagination, and a little bit of testing to figure out which color would be best for each room.

Here are some tips you may find useful in picking a paint color for each room in your house:

Check magazines or the internet for interesting designs. – Most of the do-it-yourselfers or bloggers on the web flaunt their designs to inspire – use it to your advantage. And the same goes for interior designers who are featured on magazines. You can get an idea on which colors work well together and can even copy some of their ideas.

If you have already narrowed down your selection, test some samples. – Even when you have already seen color samples in photos, over the internet, or even inside the paint bucket itself, you don’t know how the color would register on your wall. Get samples and paint a portion of the wall so you can easily visualize the end result. Observe how the color will change under different types of lighting, too.

Buy the décor and furniture items for the room first. – Having the details of the room your are trying to build can help a lot in deciding the best background to bind all these details together.

Think about maintenance. – If you are painting a room that is most likely to be exposed to dirt or dust, you have to go for a finish that is easy to clean and maintain. For example, matte finish is not really good for dust prone areas since particles can stick to the matte painted walls and wouldn’t be easy to remove. For rooms that are most likely to be busy, glossy paint finishes are more suitable since they could be maintained by simply wiping away the dirt.