Once you've painted your first room after that it's usually all plain sailing. Yet for a first time painter there are some definite tips, tricks and even rules to learn so that you get it done as quickly as possible, without painting the furniture and carpets too.

Tip one is remove everything from the room that you possibly can. If there are beds, wardrobes, dressers or sofas there then don't worry, you can simply move them all to one side of the room and then pull them back to the other when you paint that side. It's advisable to take the curtains down so they don't get spattered (you'll ideally have the windows open for ventilation and you don't want a gust of wind blowing cream curtains into a blue wall) and if possible, rolling up one side of the carpet while you paint the relevant wall is a great idea. Of course, rolling up the carpet and removing all furniture is often impossible and this is where dust sheets come in handy. Simply an old bed sheet, a piece of tarpaulin or a vast sheet of thin plastic will be perfect to protect furniture or put on the floor underneath where you're painting to avoid splatters.

Secondly you need to prepare the walls by at least running a feather duster over them or (ideally) giving them a wash with a damp cloth. You don't need to properly rinse them down, but just make sure that cobwebs, most of the dust and hairs aren't still on the walls. As they dry, open the window so that there's some ventilation and open your paint pot. If you're just using the classic paintbrush or roller technique then you should give the paint a mix with a chopstick or an old, long wooden spoon. Some paint pots might have been sitting in a warehouse for ages and have separated, and others haven't been mixed properly in the first place. When it looks even, you can get going.

If you're using a roller, make sure it's as clean as possible; flakes of old paint within a newly painted wall look terrible. Simply pour enough into your palate to fill the deeper part and dip the roller in so that you've picked up a little paint (don't dunk it right in so it's three-quarters soaked!). Then, roll the roller across the shallow part and when you get to the end lift it up and roll from the end again. If you just keep rolling back and forth you'll never get even coverage over the whole cylinder. Once it's covered, apply it to the wall in sweeping motions, exerting a little pressure so that the paint lasts for longer. You'll find that the harder you press against the wall, the smoother and more even the paint looks.

One last tip for painting a room is to use masking tape (or a kind of tape that won't pull paint off when you remove it) along edges. This could be on the skirting boards, the coving, on windowsills and windows, or even in the corner of the walls if you're doing them different colors. Paint a little bit on top of the tape and when you remove it you'll be left with a poker straight line.

Stan Tian

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