Stop 03 · Inside
Interior painting, with the room covered first.
Bedrooms, stairwells, kitchens and ceilings. Drywall repair included, two coats, and everything covered first.
Rooms we’ve painted
Swipe through the house
Before a brush comes out
How we paint a room
Drywall repair is part of it. Cracks get fixed and nail holes caulked before the first coat.
- 1
Cover all furniture with plastic
- 2
Take down blinds and outlet plate covers
- 3
Plastic and tarps over the floors
- 4
Fix cracks, repair drywall, caulk nail holes
Before any paint goes on.
- 5
Two coats
About 15 to 20 minutes for the paint to dry before the second. Some paint needs 3 coats.
Picking a sheen
Flat, washable, or a little shine?
Flat
Covers really well. Doesn’t wash.
Flat paint hides a lot, but it isn’t washable: dirt and stains won’t come off. Home builders normally use it because it’s cheap.
“Our hallways had builder flat paint that showed every fingerprint from two dogs and a toddler. Dale repainted everything in a washable eggshell, and it wipes clean now.”
Washable flat
Flat you can wipe. Costs more.
There are washable flat paints, but they cost more than standard flat.
Low sheen, eggshell, semi-gloss
What most homes are painted with.
Most homes are painted with low sheen, eggshell, or semi-gloss. Tell us how each room gets used and we’ll talk it through on the walk-around.
Tips from the job
Three things we tell every homeowner
- 1
Test the color on the wall.
Colors on paper always look different on the wall. Test it on different walls too: light makes the same color look different from one wall to the next.
- 2
Fast match or exact match.
A big box store scans your chip and mixes it in minutes, which gets you close. A paint store will scan it, then tint and test by eye until it matches exactly. That can take a few hours, and it’s worth it.
- 3
Touching up paint rarely blends.
Paint on a wall fades and collects dust, so a fresh patch stands out even with a perfect color match. Sheen is the other giveaway. Repainting the wall corner to corner hides it.
