Browse Forums Finishing Touch 1 Jul 25, 2009 11:27 am Hi all, I've just joined this God-send of a website which I found while looking for advice on renovating my newly purchased apartment. At the moment I am in desperate need of painting advice since I have never really painted. Apologise in advance if I have created this new thread in the wrong section. Currently I am painting a 3 bedroom apartment with an open kitchen, dining and lounge area. The current colour of the walls are similar to this but in a dull version. The colour of the cornices are slightly darker in that shade of blue. My intention is to do the following: 1. Repaint the ceilings with a single coat of flat white (Taubmans One Coat which has some anti-mould stuff in it) since the ceilings are in pretty good shape and really only want to paint it for the sake of brightening and freshening it up. 2. Repaint the cornices all white from their current blue colour. This is where Im stuck. What type of paint should I use (flat ceiling white to match the ceiling, or a low sheen white to match the walls)? And because the cornices are currently blue, how many coats of paint will be required? 3. Repaint the walls in low sheen. The three bedrooms are going to be a shade of soft milky brown. The rest of the apartment will be a soft yellow. Again, same problem. How many coats of each colour do I need? I went to my local hardware store and the paint expert said to me that I should first use one undercoat of white paint, followed by two coats of the colour that I want. Im thinking jeez that's a lot of paint, and alot of work for one person. Another hardware store told me I should do two coats of the new colour I want, where the first coat of that new colour would act as the undercoat, followed by the final coat. And all this time I was thinking that perhaps I would need to only do one undercoat of white, followed by one coat of the new colour. HELP! This is really confusing the life out of me! Any advice will be greatly appreciated Cheers! Re: Painting over different colours 2Jul 25, 2009 5:15 pm Hi Ash, I'm not a painter, but have done my fair share of painting our old house! My advice (and purely from my experience), would be to paint the cornices in the same ceiling white used for your ceilings. I would also encourage you to do 2 coats on the cornice, especially as they have been a dark colour. The one coat ceiling paint is fairly thick, and I have used this before, but we did 2 coats to get a nice even result. You may find you 'might' need to on your ceilings as well. For your wall colour, it will depend on whether the new colour is lighter or darker than the exsisting colour. If it is darker, then you may not need to worry about an undercoat, just 2 coats of colour. But if the exsisting colour is darker than what you are replacing it with, you should do an undercoat followed by 2 coats of colour. This will ensure a nice even coverage of your new colour. One coat of your desired colour is never enough. To be on the 'safe' side, I would suggest you do an undercoat regardless. Yes, that's 3 coats of paint! Remember to start with the cornices first (with a brush) then roller the ceiling. Then do all the walls. If you do the ceilings last you may end up with tiny white paint splatters all over your beautiful new wall colour! Then finish with all the woodwork (skirts and archs) as they will most likely end up with paint splatters on them too! The most important part of having fabulous paint work is all in the preparation! Lots of Sugar Soap, filling and sanding. Often the prep work can take longer than the actual painting! I hope that helps a little! This is just based on my experiences with renovating, others may have different suggestions! Henley - Wilshire Mk 3 ... I love my house!! Site start: 4th Feb 09 Handover: 10th Sep 09 Blog: http://stormygirlscastle.blogspot.com/ Build Thread: viewtopic.php?t=7166 Re: Painting over different colours 3Jul 25, 2009 11:39 pm Stormy Remember to start with the cornices first (with a brush) then roller the ceiling. Hi Stormy, Many thanks for your response and advice, it was very helpful and clearly you know your stuff! Just a question though - you mentioned that I should start with the cornices first followed by the ceiling. I was thinking of doing it the other way around, by doing the ceiling first then the cornices. Any particular reason for your suggestion? I am keen to understand your method as I don't know the reason behind it. Cheers! Re: Painting over different colours 4Jul 26, 2009 10:00 am Hi Ash, Before you do any roller work with the painting, you need to 'cut in' all the corners and all the edges first with a brush. This is because the roller does not get neatly into the corners of the ceiling/walls or around the edges, and you definitely can't use a roller on the cornices! The cutting in involves covering the cornices and onto the wall and the ceiling of about 2-5cm all the way around. This ensures all the corners are covered and also creates a slight 'overlap' where the roller cannot get into the corners/edges. This is done first, then the rollering of the ceiling. You'd need to do 2 coats of this following the same proceedure (cornice and overlap with a brush, then ceiling with a roller) twice for an even coverage. You will also need to go around the edges of any light fittings in the ceiling with a brush too, otherwise you will end up with paint all over your light and not close enough to it instead if you just rely on the roller! You also need to make sure that all your cutting in work doesn't have any paint runs on it, otherwise you will see these through at the end result. Either on the edges of the ceiling, or down the walls. Best to complete all the painting on the ceiling BEFORE you get to the walls. You also need to cut in with a brush (with your wall colour) all along the edges of where the wall meets the cornice. This is probably the trickiest part, as the line needs to be neat because this is where you see the 2 different colours meet. You cannot get the roller right up next to the cornice on the wall, otherwise you will most likely slip and cover your lovely newly painted cornice in wall colour! Cutting in with a brush for your walls also involves going neatly around every window frame (you could use special masking tape), every door frame, every power point and on both sides of the walls where they meet at right angle in the corners. You definitely won't get a roller neatly in there! For doing the wall colour along the wall up next to the cornice, there is a special 'cutting in' tool, which is square and has little wheels on it. I have used this in the past, but much prefer to use a brush as I have better control over it! Once you have cut in all the edges, corners and around everything else, then you can roller the walls! You will need to use this method everytime of cutting in first then rollering at every coat to ensure an even coverage. If you are going to paint all the woodwork as well, then you don't have to be too neat around the skirtings and architraves as what gets wall colour on it will be painted over last. This information is purely the way I have always done it, and it has always worked. Others may have different ideas! As for 'roller techniques', that was always my Husbands job! I rarely did any rollering, but always did all the cutting in work as I was neater with the brush! ...and another couple of important tips. * After all your prep work of washing and filling and sanding, ALWAYS wash the walls (and ceiling) again with water before painting to get rid of all the sanding dust!! * Pour the paint you use for cutting in into another container and use from there, otherwise having the lid off your paint can for that long will dry it out. It also saves any accidental spillages! Paint is expensive! You wont feel as bad if you accidently knock over the smaller container rather than the whole 10 litre can. (and that is NOT speaking from experience, just common sense!) Good luck, and I hope this helps! Henley - Wilshire Mk 3 ... I love my house!! Site start: 4th Feb 09 Handover: 10th Sep 09 Blog: http://stormygirlscastle.blogspot.com/ Build Thread: viewtopic.php?t=7166 Re: Painting over different colours 5Aug 08, 2009 10:52 pm Hi Stormy, Apologise for my belated response. Many thanks to you for your detailed feedback. It was very useful and assisted me greatly in the last few days getting my prep work completed so now im ready to roll on. However being the picky person that I am, I am having a really hard time finding the light cream/milky chocolate colour that I want for my walls. I have so far tried 6 different sample pots with no luck. Tomorrow I'll be trying my luck again. Once again, thanks so much! Cheers, Ash yep you need a joint, foam is easiest, will look fine once rendered with a joint. 2 5236 Hi, have purchased a house with 2 single garage doors. The Centre pillar one side sits proud to the other. Can I change 2 doors into one. Please see picture. 0 6350 Hi All, This is our second home build and first time with a custom builder. They are small builder and have built some houses with good quality. They tender and color… 0 336 |