A Do-It-Yourself Guide to Prepping Your Room to Paint

At one time or another you'll be faced with painting a room. It could be that you're just tired of the plain white walls in the living room. Maybe the kids have outgrown the Easter-yellow color that looked so cute in the nursery. Whatever the reason, getting a room ready to paint isn't difficult if you remember four things: patience, preparation, patching, and priming.

Patience (some): Why is patience the first thing you'll need before painting a room? That's because a great-looking paint job is the result more of planning than actual work. You've spent months thinking about how the finished room will look. (Didn't it take you two weeks just to decide on a great color, and then another week to realize that it wasn't so great after all?) Painting is a process -- take your time. Most important, work toward making each step of the process easier. You'll make trips to the hardware store for supplies, so get to know the folks in the paint department. Ask questions. The more you know, the more confident you'll be. Are you ready to paint? Great -- tthere are three steps ahead before you pick up the paintbrush. Walk into the room and take a good look around.

Preparation (60 minutes): You'll save a lot of trouble if you prepare the room ahead of time. (1) Move as much of the furniture out of the room as you can. If that isn't practical, move the furniture away from the first wall to be painted at least four feet. This will let you position a ladder next to the surface to be painted. Remember, you're painting one wall at a time so there's no need to move all the furniture at once. (2) Remove any draperies or blinds from windows on this wall, since you'll be painting the woodwork as well.