Painting Techniques

You’ve decided on the colours and brought the right amount of Bermuda Paint. All that’s left is lickin’ it on. A few precautions and hints will help speed the job and get the best result. Take a few moments to plan your work. Doing things in the three stages: the must-do preparing the surfaces for the paint, the painting itself and clean-up,

Don’t try to do it all in one go. Be realistic about your physical about your physical capacity. Work sensibly, allow for coffee breaks and lunch, so that you finish in good shape and enjoy the results.

Prepare the walls and ceiling thoroughly, scraping, sanding, patching, and sealing as needed (see the first article in this series).

Remove all electric plug and switch plates (so you don’t have have to paint around them). Exercise caution: there may be live, unprotected wires exposed. Turn off power if necessary.

Cover hanging fixtures and chandeliers with plastic garbage bags (drawstring style bags work great) and loosen the attaching screws of mounting plates of hanging fixtures so you can safely and easily paint around them.

Protect air conditioners, heaters, or thermostats from paint spills with masking tape and newspaper use masking tape on window panes to keep trim work from getting on glass.
Use a quality roller wherever you can. But first you’ll need an angled trim brush to “cut in” the corners, ceiling line and baseboards before rolling on paint.

Get best results by using a roller with a substantial nap and by inserting a wire mesh grating into the slope sided roller pan. This facilitates loading the roller generously and evenly with the paint. (Hint: A liner of tin foil in the pan will help with clean up.)
“W”’s and “M”’s. when applying paint to the ceiling make a “W” beginning about three feet from the corner and rolling towards the center without lifting the roller. Now crisscross back over the same area even out the paint. On walls make a big “M” moving towards the corner and fill-in. begin each section with the initial pattern and then follow up by filling in. applying in an up and down motion will inevitably leave lap marks.

Use even pressure to avoid bubbles, but don’t press so hard that the roller leaves a pattern on the wall.
Wrap your roller and brush with plastic wrap overnight. It should still be supple and ready to use in the morning. Empty the roller pan into the paint can and clean.

Painting can be an immensely satisfying weekend project. The satisfying can be even longer lasting by using beautiful, made in Bermuda, Bermuda Paint.