painting advice..

[Cherie762]

Ok..real estate lady said we need to paint two of the boys bedrooms and make the place a  bit brighter and cleaner looking, been here 10 years and those boys were hard on house...I can paint doors just fine.

about the bedrooms.1,.is it necessary to use primer?    2. I have sponge painting as a border in middle sons GI joe room It is thick..could not sand off...dont wish to buy electric sander..do you think if I paint room a border of wallpaper would cover the bumpy sponge paint...or ideas please!

3. how do you use the tape..that is dry on both sides,,I dont want to get paint on ceilings..do you wet it down?
heardyou are suposed to start on big walls with a m shape true?

any hints will help..going to wait for advice before I paint the bedrooms ty

[April2]

Margy, lol, you reminded me of a houe we looked at once that our real estate lady dubbed the "Crayola House", lol. It was very bright with lots of bright colors in all the rooms and even the banisters were painted bright crayola colors. The owners were very nice, though, and said they realized that not everyone is a fan of such bright colors as they were and that they were willing to paint over it all. It was such a funny little house! I think they must have just been showing what a happy family they were, lol.

[penswriter]

i don't mind colors. we're doing the boys room a forest/sage green and blue  (to match the decor) with beige or sandlewood brown. i like the bright cherry colors and some of the soothing ones. (our room will be one of those soothing colors) but to have the ENTIRE house painted the same color is just ridiculous. i think they got the paint on special.

[margypops]

I know what you mean my old house was apinted inside Pink and electric Blue ...the new one I am moving to has a living room a Kakhi/green color and upstairs a purple ...yuck.... story of my life and here we go again .I am going to do all beige/neutral. cream   white woodwork

[penswriter]

we're actually getting ready to start painting the house we're renting. it's AWFUL!!!! the people who own it (if we had more time to look we would NOT have moved here) were lazy!!! the ENTIRE house is painted the SAME color. It's driving me nuts. I know it's not our house so why should we care but...good lord it's giving me a daily migraine.

if it was a nice color i wouldn't mind but it's this god awful custard color. and not even a good painting job. blah. lazy people drive me insane.

[Cherie762]

well I agree w you all on the color, its a white shade called Linen..did not prime..yes its lots of work ! now I know what the blue tape is for ..ty all

[margypops]

oh yes I go for Neutral colors every time, pale beige, cream, soft coffee or silky light milk choc ..just on one wall .Especially if you have a large room ,just one wall  a darker shade , the rest light ., doors a nice white ...when we moved into the house we just sold the bedrooms were bright Pink and electric blue we had to use 2 coats of undercoat ....lol

[April2]

We've painted all the bedrooms except the Master. It's a lot of work! All 3 bedrooms were rather dark so I recently repainted all of them and yes, I had to use a primer first, gave it a day to dry and then painted the color I wanted over that. This time I used a creamy pale yellow color because it's nuetrual and brightens the rooms up a lot. They look good now but it was a pain in the butt and a lot of work! I tend to be a bit sloppy with pain, lol, so I did cover the carpet real well with tarp and taped it down, taped the borders and outlets (after removing the cover plates). I didn't put a border along the ceiling because we have the bubble cealing (which I hate!) but I was just real careful along the cealing. The way I did it was painted all along the borders first and then got out the roller and painted the large portions of the walls, blending it in. It did turn out nice but I did still get a few paint spots on the carpet (even with trying to be careful) but we're going to have to replace our carpet before we sell our place anyway, probably.

It's a good idea to pick bright, nuetrual colors to open up and brighten the rooms. It does wonders! I love the way our bedrooms look now. I will never paint a dark color again.

I do think if you have bumpy spots you're going to need to sand those down first if you want it to look nice. I'd hate to have you paint over it and then have to go back and do it again if it doesn't turn out nice.
Make sure you wear clothes you don't mind getting paint on. :) I also went to Home Depot and got some gloves and disposable shoe covers for my feet so I wouldn't track into the rest of the house. Like I said, I'm rather sloppy when I paint, lol.

Good luck! Hope it doesn't turn out into too much of an ordeal for you.

[specialmom]

Ahhh . . . we are admist painting projects ourself.  For the walls, we don't use primer as the colors aren't too dark.  If they were, then I think a primer helps.  We are sure to wash the walls really well first.  You buy that blue tape and we put it one the floor (we have carpet in our bedrooms)--  strip along the baseboard and then paint the woodwork with a semigloss white.  Then after that dries we put the tape along the baseboard over it and to make a smooth line where the wall starts. For the ceilings you just put the tape along the edge ceiling side up and that blue tape keeps all paint off and peels off no problem.  Can't say enough about that blue painters tape.

We removed a bourder.  Did you spray it before you tore the border off?  They make a product to do so and then you just use a scraper and it pulls off.  I've heard fabric softener works as well.  Ours came off with just water-----  I sprayed it and I just scraped it gently after it soaked in and it came off easily.  There is also a tool that scores it to make it come off easier.  I do kind of think you have to get it down to make it look right.  I know you are just getting your place ready to sell (if our houses could all look as good as they do when they are for sale!)---  but I'm afraid that would be kind of noticable.  Well lots of luck to you with selling your home!

[margypops]

What are the colors now you want to cover and what colors are you going for? I always do cream or any neutral tones as they do look good .If we do it ourselves we use rollers and yes we use an undercoat, but a lot depends on the color you are covering .