Top tips to get painting and decorating

Get the right tools

Painting a room may feel daunting, especially if you’re not very experienced in decorating, but it needn’t be. Armed with a few simple tools and our top tips, you’ll create a more professional finish for your home in no time...

• Always get good quality brushes for a better finish
• Small brushes help you get to those hard-to-reach places and corners
• Mask all those light switches and plug sockets quickly and easily with a socket paint shield – it'll help you paint neatly around them
• Get a quality roller and tray kit – it's a painting essential!
• Preparation is key to a successful job – we’ll tell you more about it below

Have a read of our wallpaper blog for hints and tips to hanging wallpaper. There’s info on there about removing wallpaper too.

It’s all in the prep

No matter how many tools you have or what skills you have hidden up your sleeve, preparation is key to getting successful results.

Make sure you prepare your surfaces, mask up your walls, cover your carpets and protect your furniture before you open the paint tin. Nobody wants paint splatter on the cream carpet or wonky lines on the walls. Here’s how to master the prep:

• Give your walls a wash down with some sugar soap. This will help clean up your walls and give you the perfect surface for your paint
• Protect your surfaces with dust sheets, giving you peace of mind while you get on with decorating
• Make sure you cover sofas and furniture to protect them from drips and dust
• Use masking tape to mark out edges and help give you the professional-looking sharp lines

If that all sounds like a lot of work, it doesn’t have to be! Get friends and family stuck in, even if it’s just covering up the furniture with dust sheets or helping you pick out the perfect paint - it all helps when we do it together!

It takes a bit of effort to get all the prep work done, but the more you put in at the start, the more you’ll get out of it in the end.

Be ready for the clean-up

After all the preparation and decorating’s done, you'll be left with the big clean up! Just like with the prep and the decorating, we think this should be a group exercise – get everyone involved to help!

Make sure you look after your new tools by washing them down and letting them dry thoroughly in open air so they can be used again and again. Here’s some tips to get your tools back to their best:

• Time is of the essence when cleaning up after painting – you may be tired but try and get it done as soon as possible
• As soon as you have finished painting, clear up any drips before they have the chance to dry
• Clean your tools as soon as you’re finished to prevent paint from setting in - think brushes, rollers, trays and your paint pail
• For latex-based paints you can simply use soap and water
• For oil paints, wipe them with a cloth dampened with paint thinner, then wash with soap and water

With all that done, your tools will be ready to use again for your next project!