Toronto painting blog

Trying to find out how to paint a wall? You’ve come to the right place. If you want to paint a good old flat wall – look no further! Here are simple steps that will hold your hand and guide you through your interior painting mission of ‘how to paint a wall’. From what paint supplies to buy, what paint brands, and how to use the paint tools. First I want to congratulate you on taking on your ‘how to paint a wall’ project since most people don’t even get this far. Next, and now we’re getting into it, lets go buy some paint supples!

How to Paint a Wall – Buy These Supplies Now!

Paint supplies for your ‘how to paint a wall’ adventure!

Before you get going with your paint job and learn how to paint a wall you need paint supplies, so go buy this stuff right away.

• 2.5″ Paintbrush (Purdy, Corona, Wooster)
• Painter’s tape (Blue variety)
• Sandpaper (150 grit)
• Painter’s Rags (Lots)
• Drop Cloth (Big enough for area infront of wall)
• Paint Roller (20mm variety made of snuggly plush material)
• Paint Tray
• Garbage Bags
• 5-in-1 Painting Tool
• Painter’s Fixit Plaster (Drydex, Onetime)
• Cheap Primer (~$15 a gallon)
• Disposable Mini ‘touch-up’ Rollers
• Empty Paint Can

How to Paint a Wall – The Fun Part!

Get down and dirty with wall painting

Okay so you just dropped a load of cash on your painting supplies and you haven’t even bought paint for your walls yet! If you are following this guide to learn how to paint a wall don’t mess around with cheap paint, only buy quality paints – head straight to a local Benjamin Moore paint store and buy from one of the best paint brands available to consumers today. Now let’s get back to how to paint a wall, follow these super easy steps to achieve awesome painting success.

1. Protecting your floor

This is the outset of your how to paint a wall adventure, take a breath, feel your lungs, experience the moment. You are now a DIY painter, there is no going back …. Now snap out of it and focus – throw down your drop cloth to protect your floor from all sorts of paint spray, paint drips and whatever else you’re going to spill or get all over the floor.

2. Prep work before painting walls

Clean your wall off using standard household products, vinegar and water works. Use some of your painter rags for this part to start to get into the painterly frame of mind. To increase your learning ability and absorption rate of ‘how to paint a wall’ knowledge nuggets – wear all white painter clothes – this will help you to absorb any free floating painter energy that may be in your locale.

3. Fill in the holes with plaster

Now, it’s the start of the dirty how to paint a wall work – bust out your painter’s plaster and quickly blast some into any small holes, nail holes and any other ugly dings and dents. Use the edge of the 5-in-1 as a scraper to help stuff the plaster into any deep holes. If you’ve got a real stubborn deep hole here is a trick, don’t tell anyone I told you this … roll up a small piece of paper and jam it into the wall so you only have to fill a tiny part, this will save on your dry time and use less product but still delivers a fantastic looking wall. Only do this trick on your own walls. Remember this – I notice that people always flake out on patching holes when they’re just learning how to paint a wall. Don’t be those people.

4. Get sanding with the sand paper

Wait until that plaster stuff is dry (go buy a coffee and think about how awesome learning how to paint a wall is), then get out your sandpaper and sand away to smooth out the surface – we all know you didn’t do a bang up job on the plaster part so here you fix it up, smooth it out nice and make amends. Now pop open a primer can, use a throw away mini-roller and prime these little spots. This is crucial ‘how to paint a wall’ stuff here folks, if you don’t prime this now it’ll be visible after you paint it. Yes it says you can paint over it, yes you can, it’s just that you’ll see it for years to come staring back at you when the light glances off the wall. Prime it.

How to Paint a Wall – Let’s Get Painting!

It’s time for the how to paint a wall painting part

When thinking about how to paint wall you have to think surface protection – Get out your garbage bag and tape it to your floor like to make a big area to setup your paint. Name this your ‘paint station’ and is one of the most important parts of learning how to paint a wall. It will come in handy when you pour paint and – oops you spill it – because it’s only on plastic. I need to put in a cautionary note here. If you want your wall to look the best don’t paint your name or draw on the wall with your brush. Don’t try to paint areas that you can paint with a roller with your brush. Try to be aware of when you need to put more paint on your brush, if you are making a scraping noise on the wall this is one potential indicator.

1. Setup that painter’s tape

Use the painter’s tape to frame the wall off, so you can paint it in easily. When first learning how to paint a wall painter’s tape can be a difficult thing to master and you are often left with a slight ripple edge or seepage that goes under. Do exactly what I say and you’ll find a better success rate with it:

• Do not stretch the tape when applying it
• Clean the surface before you apply it
• Use a rag and rub the tape once you’ve applied to to help with the adhesion
• Use the edge of your 5-in-1 and GENTLY run it along the edge of your tape to help with the adhesion
• Apply the tape is sections as large as you can handle (lets try to start with 3 feet)

There you have it, by learning how to paint a wall you’ve unwittingly become a tape master … If you are still having big painter’s tape seepage the last resort you can try is to mix some transparent caulking with water (50/50) then apply this to the tape. This will seep under the tape in any area the paint would but it creates a seal and since it’s transparent you shouldn’t notice it much. Let it dry before you paint it.

2. Start swinging that paint brush or how to paint a wall with a brush

Fill your empty can with 2″ of paint. Get your paint brush out. Take a second to admire the craftsmanship of a quality paint brush – if you followed these how to paint a wall instructions to the letter so far you have purchased a quality brush and are about to experience what that means.

• Dip the brush in the paint, pretend you are stabbing the paint with the brush
• Don’t ’stab’ the bottom of the can
• Once your brush feels heavy and looks bloated with paint gently ’scrape’ (think rub) off any outer paint on the inner rim of the paint can

Now blast this paint onto the wall near the taped edges. Do not apply the first stroke on top of the painter’s tape, do it an inch or so out from the tape, then paint parallel to the tape, now brush over to the tape. Work in 2 foot sections. This will help to reduce the likelihood of seepage under the tape. Rinse, repeat, until you’ve painted the whole cut-in. Follow these easy paint brush steps and you’ll soon stop wondering about how to paint a wall.

3. Paint tray, paint roller, roller cage – How to paint a wall with a roller?

Break out your roller and paint tray. Pour in a decent amount of paint. Get situated near the end of your wall, which ever feels more comfortable. I always prefer to work left to right so try this if you’re totally lost. Take a breath, you’re almost completed your ‘how to paint a wall’ adventure. It’s all down hill from here. Rolling paint onto a wall is deceptively simple, there are skills involved and I see people take this for granted. First load up your roller, you want to dip it in the paint a bit, lift it up and to the back of the tray (the part closest to you), roll it down slowly until it slightly dips back into the paint. Do this a few times to make sure your roller is good and saturated with paint. Now start painting, remember these tricks.

• Apply the paint to the wall in large motions, from the bottom of the wall to the very top – don’t stop midway on the wall, roller motions should always be bottom to top, top to bottom
• Work with the U shaped part of the roller facing toward the direction of you are painting
• Start you roll going from the middle rolling upwards, this reduces some of the splatter effect
• Roll up then down until you get to the bottom, on the roll back up ‘pilot’ your roller slightly over a roller-width to start to spread the paint out
• Roll back into the area you just previously painted to ensure maximum coverage
• Always make sure your roller is loaded up with paint
• Keep a keen eye out for any ‘roller lines’ or marks made by the roller. This will happen I almost gaurantee if you are a novice painter. Lightly roll the roller over the lines to help to make them disappear

How to paint a wall with a roller? Basically this is it – if you can get a good control over the roller then you will be off to a good start

Now what? How to paint a wall? What’s next?

Next steps and continuing the journey

Is there more to learn about how to paint a wall? Well of course there is, this is just the tip of the iceberg. If you need a second coat, redo some of the above steps. If you don’t then wash up all your tools using soapy water, wash them really well. Really really well. And you can use them next time you have to face the ‘how to paint a wall’ question again, this time you can face it with confidence. To learn even more follow these great steps: check your local library, talk to painters, hang out in your paint store. This guide should have taught you a lot about how to paint a wall, so I hope you learned something and remember to stay safe!

This info about how to paint a wall has been provided by Toronto Painters Painter for Hire.

A warm summer day in the east Toronto Beach’s Community as we get ready for some exterior house painting. We were there to complement the Contracting team called Prolific Contractors. They resurfaced two sides of the house with a product called Hardie Board. This is a siding that is made primarily out of concrete, Very durable. When the Contractors put up the siding they painted it on the ground then put it in place. However two sides of the house was still the old siding and needed some cleaning up.

This task involved some very high ladder work. Some areas were at least 25 feet. We have experienced ladder technicians with years of experience in all type of ladder settings. There is a saying called “ladder legs”. What this means is that you don’t get all shaky when you are on the ladder. Ladder work is more psychological than anything else and of course the know how is very important too. To apply the paint to the siding we used brush’s and mini rollers. Spraying here was to risky for the job task. This is a bustling community with house’s very close to each other. Coincidentally around the time to do this project it was quite windy, we also have to take the weather in consideration, of course.

However when it came time to do the back porch area we chose to spray the privacy lattice. This lattice can become very time consuming and often in order to achieve a good finish you need two people one on either side of the fence so you can catch all the dripping paint. Our team then sanded the deck area in order to receive a nice healthy coat of semi transparent stain.

In the front of the house there is some decorative lattice architecture. Here we painted it with one painter on one side and the other painter on the other side. Paint can accumulate in the corners and if not brushed within seconds can leave a unruly finish.

In this video, the Toronto painters from Painter for Hire are painting an interior commercial ceiling. The task is to paint all the metal on the ceiling. Some of the metal was metal pipe for water and metal truss for structural support. The metal was rusting and rust is a sign for maintenance. In order to rectify this problem there was some very needy prep involved. A SkyJack scissor lift was needed to have easy access to the ceiling. Our team used the Wagner Paint eater this is a handy tool for any use when it comes to sanding grinder and or abrading the surface. This tool runs off of a regular 120v household outlet. The rpm are clocked at 2600 and the disk sander is 4.5 inch’s. The Sander disc is made out of very tough plastic. You can also fit grinder bit’s on it. The bit is the same as a grinders.

The main use for agitating the surface is to remove matter that will deter the paint from adhering. This can be anything from rust to peeling paint. On this matter it was rust. Here we needed to remove the large majority of rust. We used our paint eater. When we did this we also wore protective gear such as a full 3m face respirator and gloves. Also made an extra effort to cover our skin, If we cover our skin then any particles that are being expelled from the surface due to the high agitation will not have a greater effect on us if we are hit with them. After a large area is done then we will have to go into that particular area and vacuum all the debris that is still around the metal. This process will show us if the area is fully prepped and ready for a coat of paint.

Throughout this whole process we will be using the assistance of the sky jack. This is a machine that operates as a lift and allows you to reach area’s that even a ladder wouldn’t be able to go. Not only because it is to high many times it is due to the fact a ladder is just cumbersome.

After the prep is done we then paint it with marine grade paint. This paint is made to stand up to years of wear in the most extreme of elements. We applied the paint with a brush and a foam roller. Foam rollers allow you to apply paint to areas a lot faster then more traditional methods. There are drawbacks and like with any craft patience is applied then growth is bound to come.

On this particular job, we were hired to paint the common areas of this Riverdale area house. We painted the living room and hallways in the entire house. The customer beforehand had picked out paint sample jars. These are small amounts of paint that sell very cheap and allow you to see what the colour looks like on the wall. You paint small areas of your wall with these jars and you have the chance to see how your colour feels in day to day life. Of course you will never fully know how the colour is until the walls are completely painted. Colours on your wall also will look different from different light that is cast upon it. For instance in the Morning if it’s a dreary day then there might not be that much light, plus the light will be dark . This will give a grey wash on the colour. Then when it clears up and the golden yellow sun comes out in the afternoon it will have a yellowish wash to it. Even light bulbs and the light they omit can affect your wall colour, CFL light bulbs often cast a blue light and incandescent a yellow light. Light and colour go hand and hand. Colour has its hue from the way it absorbs certain light rays and/or reflects them. Without light there would be no paint colours!

When painting it is best to lay down drop cloths as you can see in the video we have drops cloth on the floor. When using drop cloths you will not want to skimp. Some people use sheets and theses often times will not stand up to the penetrating paint. There is also plastic drop cloth but at this type of job we don’t need the plastic drop. They can be used for more commercial and industrial type setting. Drop cloths should be used for the majority of painting task. However there are times were there need is more than others. For instance; ceilings are where paint can drip the most especially when rolling. You will want to have the floors covered and have other area’s covered with plastic. Also, the same goes when rolling walls, it is more risky when rolling as opposed to using a paint brush. This is because when you are rolling you are moving the paint faster than when you are using a brush. So the paint will tend to splatter around.

You’re not in the clear just because you are using a brush. When using a brush one of the important points is to know how much paint to put on your brush. Obviously, you want enough paint to get paint on the wall but not too much to where it is dripping all over the wall. There are mainly to methods of achieving the right amount of paint to be on your brush. The first method is the shaking method and tapping method. This is where after you have dipped your brush you then will tap the brush from side to side and/or shake it. The second is a scrapping method again after you have dipped your brush you scrap the brush on the side of the container. Both of these methods work for different painters. I personally use the scraping method.

Here we are painting an accent wall. The wall had been spray primed and we are putting on the first coat. The paint that is being used is Aura from Benjamin Moore. This is one of there most cutting edge paint lines. It is unsurpassed in colour richness. That is why we chose this brand here. It also has low VOC. After cutting the wall to the ceiling around the door we roll the remaining area. The roller would be to cumbersome in smaller areas. When using the roller it is important to roll in a ‘v pattern’ or even a line. The goal is to limit the roller edge marks and roller path mark. It is important to finish your roller path at the end of it natural roll. If you take it off in the middle of the wall it will leave a mark, and compromise the consistency of the finish when the paint is dry.