Home improvement jobs are something that is near and dear to me. I love doing things to fix up my house. More importantly, I love the satisfaction I get when I am able to make the improvement by myself. One of the easiest home improvements that you can do yourself is to paint!
Almost anyone can be successful painting a room. You just need the right tools for the job. If you don’t have the right tools, painting a room can be much more difficult. Carefully select your paintbrushes, your brand of paint, and your paint finish. Make sure the brushes and paints that you have chosen are the right ones for the job at hand.
For example, if you are painting with a very inexpensive latex paint, you may discover that you have to put four coats of paint on the wall instead of two. If you are using a cheap brush and roller, you will probably find little chunks of roller, and individual bristles that have fallen out of your brush stuck to your wall as well.
How do I know this? Well, when I first started painting, I didn’t know that better tools made for an easier job. I picked quite a few bristles out of drying paint, as well as little chunks of fuzz that continually shed off the roller. I don’t know about you, but I don’t particularly like fuzzy, chunky walls.
Paints have several finishes such as flat, eggshell, satin, semi gloss, or gloss. Each of these types of paint has its own purpose. If you are painting a kitchen or a bathroom, you should probably select a semi gloss or gloss style paint. Each of these styles of paint can withstand a higher moisture content in the air.
When I take a shower, the mirrors tend to fog up in the bathroom. The condensation that you see on the mirror is not only on the mirror – it is also on all of the walls in the bathroom as well.
Considering that, a semi gloss or a gloss style paint is a must-have in my bathroom and probably in yours too. Water does not easily penetrate a semi gloss or gloss finish. If you have a flat finish paint in a room that has high humidity, you may find yourself painting again before too long.
Another place that you should consider using a semi gloss or gloss is in a room that is used by children. Children tend to touch the walls much more often than adults do. Semi gloss and gloss painted surfaces are very easy to clean. You can usually remove marks from this type of wall with a simple cloth and your average household cleaner. This can be a real time-saver if you have small children.
Flat paint finishes are often used in living rooms, and formal dining rooms. Flat paint does not have any reflection or shine, hence the name “flat”, and are usually reserved for the more formal areas of your home. Flat paint is not easy to clean and tends to show the slightest mark, touch, or rub. A better, or higher quality brand of paint will clean more easily than a cheaper brand of paint.
Painting is an easy way to really freshen up your home. As I said in the beginning, I love to paint and I get a lot of pleasure from the big change that paint can bring to a room. I also love all of the complements that I seem to get after I make a room over with paint. Try it for yourself – I think painting is the easiest home improvement that anyone can do by themselves!
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Proper Planning is a Must for Any Home Improvement Project
Once you have lived in your home for some period of time, you will realize that you need to go in for some form of home improvement so that your home is that much more comfortable and nicer to live in. Such needs can come from betterment in your own economic situation, the need for better facilities, additions to the family or even health requirements of invalids or the elderly.
Any home improvement project must be undertaken after it has been thoroughly discussed with family members. You then need to completely plan it, budget it and then execute it. Planning will need you to decide on the floor, walls and ceiling of any addition or modification to existing rooms.
Then you need to decide on themes, colors and materials that you want for the improved area. A final step will need you to decide on the furniture and accessories that are needed to make your home improvement area into one that is very usable.
Detailing all the required improvements can help you to arrive at a budget and likely cost. This will help you in case you need to arrange additional finance. Some home improvements can be funded through second mortgages if you have built up sufficient equity on the first one. This will ease financial problems, but will increase your monthly outgoings. Be sure that you can afford this, before you decide on this way of financing your home improvement.
Once you have done the detailed planning and arrived at your means of financing, you need to move the next stage of implementation. Any home improvement can be quite a pain in the neck, if you are continuing to live in the home, while the work is being done.
If you can find temporary accommodation elsewhere this can help things to be done faster. If however, you need to continue to live in the home, see if you can create sufficient space for the work to be carried out. You also need to be sure that sufficient attention is paid to safety, especially if there are children and pets in the home.
Home improvement projects can be carried out by professionals or by avid DIYers who get the additional kick out of improving their home. If you have professionals doing the work, ensure that you have a proper schedule, that is suitable to the family.
If you are doing it yourself, your home improvement will probably be restricted to weekends and other free time and may take a much longer period of time. You may then need to be even more careful when you buy the required material, so that you do not fall short of vital components at awkward times.
A lot of debris and dirt and dust is created by most improvement projects. You must make sure that such debris is never allowed to accumulate and create poor hygienic conditions. This can otherwise turn into health hazards. Materials and fitments can quite often also become concerns for safety and security and this aspect also needs to be sufficiently addressed.