Top 7 Living Room Painting Tips and Paint Ideas

Your living room is a reflection of you and your style. The first impression that you make on someone who visits your home is through your living room. Therefore, you need to take utmost care while painting your this high trafficked area. So, if you are looking for tips and ideas for painting your living room, you have come to the right place!

Here are the top 7 living room painting tips followed by some amazing paint ideas:

• Roll the full height of the living room walls

When you paint with your roller over the section that is already partly dry, it may result in some uneven layers of the paint building up resulting in the formation of ‘lap marks.’ These lap marks are an eyesore and, in some cases, unavoidable. So for avoiding any horizontal lap marks, paint the walls in a single stroke. To prevent the formation of any vertical lap marks, maintain a wet edge on your roller. Begin painting from one corner of your living room. Cover the wall from top to bottom in a single, even stroke. Make use of an extension pole, if required. While following this up-down path, also begin moving laterally. Keep moving the roller to avoid an uneven coating. This technique will avoid any ridge formations.

• Cut the Painter’s Tape

The biggest mistake that you can make on completion of your project is pulling off the painter’s tape, especially when it is wet. The paint seeps into the space between the tape and the wall and if you are to peel the tape off, you could take off a chunk of paint off the wall. Instead of yanking off the tape, cut it out for a more polished and refined look. Allow the paint to dry for at least 24 hours and then test the hardness of the paint by trying to trim the tape from a discreetlocation. Hold your cutter at the edge and score the tape while pulling at it to get it off cleanly.

• Trim comes first

The best way to make your painting job look professional is by painting the trim first. You can be messy while painting the trim and it is okay if the paint spills over onto the walls. What is important is getting a smooth, polished finish on the wood. Once the paint is allowed to dry for at least 24 hours and has hardened, mask it using a painter’s tape. You may then begin painting the ceiling and the walls of your living room. This is far easier than having to tape off an entire wall!

• Clean and Prep

The living room is a high traffic area. Therefore, it may not necessarily be the cleanest room in your house. Hence, cleaning the living room becomes extremely essential in such a case. Also, cleaning the walls of your living room gets rid of the oily, dirty surfaces that can cause flaking or chipping of the new layer of paint. Protecting wooden floors is also something you must take extra care of, it is very necessary to keep them moisture-free to avoid woodworms insects. Make use of a heavy-duty cleaner to wash and prepare your walls for painting. Just remember to put on your rubber gloves and safety glasses before making use of such abrasive cleaners. A clean surface offers better adhesion to the paint. Not on cleaning is one of the important factors while painting a living room, it is mandatary when it comes to offices or any other places for that matter. Cleaning is must whether it is commercial cleaning or home cleaning.

• Protect your furniture

Since you entertain your guests in your living room, you may have tastefully decked up the room. Of course, you wouldn’t want it to get ruined during the painting process. Get your hands on some cotton drop cloths to catch and absorb the accidental spills and splatters. Paint remains wet on plastic drop cloths, making the drop cloth slippery and a mishap about to happen. Moreover, plastic drop cloths are not secure and have to be taped to stay in place. However, if any spills or drops do occur accidentally, immediately wipe them off to avoid any seep through. Make use of cloth rags or paper towels to clean up the mess.

• Smooth Finisher

If you wish to absolutely avoid any texture formation on the trims of your living room, consider sanding it off after every coat of paint. When it comes to painting the trims of your living room, one coat is just not enough.However, if you simply keep applying layer after layers of paint, you may end up having a blotchy or grainy texture on your living room trims. So for an ultra-smooth, polished trim, use a fine grit sandpaper or sanding sponge to get a smooth surface before applying your next coat. Remember to wipe off the dust before slathering on the following layer.

Much like the trims, even the walls can have a blotchy and uneven appearance. This could be due to flashing, where the fillers or the drywall compounds absorb paint due to their porous nature. To combat such eyesores, make use of a primer to give your living room walls a shining appearance without any texture or thickness difference.

• Uniform texture

For the entire living room to look tied together, you need to maintain a uniform texture throughout. The direction of the stroke in which you paint is also important to avoid any lap marks and uneven textures. Furthermore, the areas around the trim, corners, and regions around outlets and outlet casings are normally painted using a brush. Therefore, these sections have a observably different texture that portions painted by the roller. To maintain the uniformity of the texture, apply a layer of paint using the brush and follow it up by rolling the roller over the wet paint. Use a small sized roller that has a thickness identical to the one that you have used on the other walls. Be careful to not spill or bump the paint on the trim. Use this technique batch-wise to transition from section to section.

Now that you know some really handy tips on how you should paint your living room, let’s discuss the colour schemes that you could use to give your living room the perfect look. Here are a few suggestions of themes that will complement each other:

Beach Day:

The beach evokes the emotions of calmness and relaxation. Choose any shade of aqua blue against a sandy white and you can have the beach right inside your living room! You can make use of shades of brown and beige as the accent colours to tie up the entire look.

Old is Gold:

Neutral shades have always been popular when it comes to painting living rooms. Make use of the many hues of browns and tans to get a perfect blend for your living room. You can use muted shades for your furniture to fit into the colour scheme or you could use high contrast to make them stand out. Either way, the ultimate effect will be stunning.

Warm Welcome:

Sometimes bright shades like red, yellow, and orange can be overwhelming. So pair them with neutral shades like silver to mellow out their vibrancy. The colours of the summer will keep you refreshed and appear inviting for all those dropping by. You can pick out the furniture in shades of deep, natural brown or light, sandy beige.