A Fresh Coat of Paint

I've been doing a lot of painting recently.  I am certainly not an expert house painter  or even very domestically-inclined, but apparently my experience (I painted my room in college and my room when I moved back to Stephens City) make me a valuable commodity to someone who has never painted before.  I have such a friend, and she suggested that I post a how-to article to help others who find themselves unprepared for the treacherous journey that is home beautification.  So here it is:

Jamie's Foolish-Proof Guide to Painting Your Room

The other three walls were Spring Green

Step 1.  Pick out a super-pretty color!  My personal favorite is Key Lime Pie Green, but I realize people have different tastes.  You can, however, choose multiple colors.  I have painted a single room with as many as five different colors.  It was awesome!  

Step 2.  Get supplies.  You need paint (of course), drop cloths, rollers, brushes, paint trays, tape, a paint edger (recommended), and a step-stool or ladder unless your a million feet tall.  Oh, and those wooden sticks they give you when you buy your paint are used to stir the paint. 

Step 3.  Move all the furniture either out of the room or well away from the walls.  This isn't like when you're dusting and you just kinda swish the duster around all the little knick-knacks on your dresser without moving them.  It's way more obvious and you'll probably get paint on your furniture.

Step 4.  Take the pretty blue painter's tape and tape the edges of all baseboards, doors, windows, and ceilings.  I know not everyone tapes the ceiling, but if you have the klutzy factor (like me) it's super helpful.

Step 5.  Lay down the drop cloths to cover every single inch of the floor.  For serious, if you leave a tiny little space exposed, it will get paint on it.  I think it's a law of physics or something.

Step 6.  Find some awesome tunes and rock out!  This is a really important step, so don't skip it.  It's way more fun to paint when you're dancing around and singing into a paint brush.  

Step 7.  Open the paint, stir it with those fancy wooden sticks, and pour it into the paint tray.  Really complicated, right?

Step 8.  Get a nice coat of paint on your roller and start throwin' that stuff up on the wall!!!

Step 9.  Keep singing and dancing.  I told you it was important!

Step 10.  Use smaller paint brushes to get the hard-to-reach areas like corners and around doors and windows.

Step 11.  Use the paint edger to get the top of the wall by the ceiling and the bottom by the baseboards.

Step 12.  Add a second coat if necessary.

Step 13.  Remove the painters tape.  Hopefully, you'll see nice crisp lines!  If not, proceed to step 14.

Step 14.  Touch-ups.  If the paint bled through the painter's tape or peeled off with tape removal, use a small brush to touch up these problem areas.  Of course, the amount of touching up you do depends on what you can live with.  Personally, I see the imperfections as proof that I didn't hire someone, and I can live with a LOT of imperfections.

Step 15.  Finish up.  Clean your equipments, remove the drop cloths, and move the furniture back.

That's it!  All that's left now is to completely pamper yourself as a reward for a job well done.

This may not be the most helpful or accurate guide to painting, but it works(ish) for me.  If you actually are good at painting and think I'm an idiot, please keep it to yourself.  I prefer people to blindly agree with me.