Tips for Perfect Ceiling and Wall Paint

Hello Friends,

Welcome to Week 3 of the One Room Challenge. This week is all about ceiling and wall paint. We’re talking about how to choose a color and get the finish you want with a minimum of fuss and muss.

Tips for Perfect Ceiling and Wall Paint

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Behr paint, Frog tape, and HomeRight application products, but all projects and opinions are 100% my own. Affiliate links are included for your convenience.

Step 1 ~ Choosing Colors

Maybe I’m over thinking this, but I firmly believe that color choices for walls and ceilings need to be based on more than just “color.” To illustrate, I’ve listed a few things to consider that may change how colors are chosen.

Consider geographic location and natural light sources:

• Consider the geographic direction of the room. For example, my dining room faces South so when the sun is blazing full-on, bright paint can go brighter and pale paint can wash out. The opposite could be true if the room faces another direction. For example, if the room faces North, the colors could go dark or cold.

• Also consider how much natural light is the room receives. A dining room that faces South, but with very little natural light is less likely to cause a brightening or washout in the paint colors. This is in contrast to a room facing South with lots of natural light flooding into the space.

My dining room faces South and has a big bay window that allows full light from sunrise to sunset. So here’s how I chose the colors.

Textiles before paint:

After thinking through geography and lighting, consider what look you really want. Usually textiles can help narrow the scope of color choices, so I highly recommend collecting the textiles first and then work within these color shades to find the right paint colors. Remember, Home Depot can always create a custom color in the Behr paint line if you can’t find the perfect shade for your project.

Here’s how I pulled my paint palette together.

Wall color:

The upholstery fabrics were collected during several trips to the textile mart. For the most part, the backgrounds are bright white, great for brightening the room, but too bright a white for a Southern facing room with so much natural light.  Plus, the bright white wouldn’t co-ordinate with the paint used in the rest of the rooms on this floor.

Add to this textile combo the creamy-white background in the rug. This color wasn’t bright enough, but closer to the wall color used in the Great Room makeover. 

This means that in order to blend the fabrics, rug, and paint in the adjoining Great Room together AND stay on course with the plan for white walls, I had to find a color that looked white, but was actually a soft, creamy white.

Enter Behr’s Arcade White. 

And if you look closely to the photo below, the paint surrounding the grandfather clock looks creamy and warm, while the paint below the oil painting is a brighter white. Yep. Same paint, but very different looks. So, in my world, the key word for wall color is blend. Blend and try A LOT of samples on different walls.

Wall sheen:

Back in the day, using semigloss on walls was considered tedious. This means that the application process had to be perfect. If the paint was rolled on using up and down strokes, then the sheen could be different and yield stripes on the wall. Well, with Behr paint, the days of stripes are long gone. I have used this paint for over 20 years and, I promise, nowadays application is very forgiving, like using flat latex. There are no stripes and touch up is a breeze.

Because of this, and the fact that semigloss is hIghly durable and bounces light, it is the perfect sheen to create an elegant room with a polished look.

Ceiling color:

Because paint tends to look darker on the ceiling, the rule of thumb is to go one or two shades lighter than the color you really want. For the ceiling, I wanted a fresh, airy feeling that lifts the eye and ties the colors in the oil paintings together.

Enter Behr’s Calm.

Because I went two shades lighter than I wanted, I have to admit that I was a little worried about the color washing out. But the color just couldn’t be more perfect. If I place the swatch against the ceiling, the colors are true to comparison, too. This means the color mixing at the store is spot on to the formula. 

Ceiling sheen:

And for the ceiling sheen, I wanted a soft, velvety look that creates dimension and depth against the shinier semigloss.  For these reasons, I used flat latex. 

Step 2 ~ Painting Surfaces

Prep the surfaces:

Perhaps one of the most overlooked steps when painting ceilings and walls is surface prep. Even if the surfaces are already painted a color and you are simply giving them a refresh, wisdom says, “Do not overlook the prep.”

What I mean by prep is:

• Repair all holes/damages and sand the repairs smooth as to make them invisible.

• Run your hand over the drywall without repairs and sand down any rough or gritty surfaces. 

• Remove the drywall dust from the surface by wiping it with a tack cloth. For this room, I actually got away with using my vacuum over the surfaces and wiping with a clean, soft cloth. But thankfully, the walls were already in really good shape.

• If using a paint without primer, apply primer to the surfaces, especially to the surfaces with new repairs. Because I used Behr’s Paint & Primer In One, the primer step could be skipped.

Choose good tools:

EZ-Twist Paintstick

Once color choices are made and the prep work is out-of-the-way, rolling on the paint is a breeze. This is my first time trying out HomeRight’s EZ-Twist Paintstick and I gotta say, it made the painting process move along in record time.  Basically, all you do is fill the handle with paint. Then, gently twist the handle towards the roller to feed paint as you roll along the surface.

A little gadget attached to the paint can. This allows the paint to be sucked up into the handle as the center of the handle is pulled back.

Then the roller cover prevents drips and/or splatters as the paint is being rolled onto the surface. And clean up, although not shown here, is also a breeze. The paintstick is easily disassembled and washes out with the hose.

Frog Tape

To protect the edges of the crown moulding and get a super-crisp line, I ran Frog Tape along the moulding all around the room. The green color is a multipurpose tape, but I have also used the yellow tape (for delicate surfaces) for many, many years. With each project, the tape is burnished to the surface with my fingertip and this creates a perfect seal.

However, if you are not sure that a seal is created by burnishing the tape, then follow the burnishing with a very light coat of the paint you are protecting. In this case, the color on the crown moulding is being protected, so I would apply a very light coat to the crevice between the tape and the ceiling. When this paint is dry, apply the ceiling paint.

Baseboard and floor protector

In the photo below, notice the roll of plastic to the right. It has masking tape at one end and plastic attached that pulls out to protect baseboards and floors from drips. I haven’t ever used this before and now I am totally hooked. Thanks HomeRight! You made this painting project so much easier by controlling any potential mess.

Two other good options

In the photo below (right) is HomeRight’s Original PaintStick. It works just like the EZ Twist PaintStick except that the paint is pushed to the roller by pushing rather than twisting the stick. Once we started painting with the EZ Twist PaintStick, we just rinsed it out and moved to the next color. Yea, it dried quickly and was ready to go. But I plan to try this one out in the up coming living room makeover.

And if you look photo left, this amazing little gizmo is the QuickPainter Pad Edge Painter. It’s a real problem solver when trying to cut in paint and I’ll show you a few options for this little guy in some upcoming posts, too.

And that’s all there is to it. Perfect ceiling and wall paint made easy.

If you appreciate this information and would like to refer back to it, please…

DON’T FORGET TO PIN IT FOR LATER using the photo below.

Hosts

And as always, many thanks to our wonderful hosts.  

Linda from the blog, Calling It Home and House Beautiful magazine. 

Please click here to see Featured Designers and here for Guest Participants

We appreciate you so much!

Sponsors

Behr Paint website – http://www.behr.com/con

Frog Tape website – http://www.frogtape.com

HomeRight website – https://www.homeright.com

Special Thanks

A special thanks to my local Home Depot store, particularly Burt at the paint counter. As I lamented over paint colors and dealt with wrong choices and problems, he went the extra mile with customer service. It was very much noted and appreciated.

Snaps for Burt!

MORE PROJECTS FOR THE DINING ROOM MAKEOVER

The Dining Room Makeover Plan – Week 1

How to Design Picture Frame Moulding – Week 2

Tips for Perfect Ceiling and Wall Paint – Week 3 (You are Here)

How to Paint Dining Room Furniture – Week 4

How to Paint Faux Antique Brass Hardware – Week 5

How to Easily Paint Super Slick Surfaces – Week 6

Dining Room Reveal – Week 7

Outdated Bench Refresh – How to Paint the Fabric and Frame

Stationary Bar Cart Refresh – Using a Combo of Paint and Wax

Traditional Meets Trendy – Mahogany Console Table Makeover in Metallic Paint

Easily Add Gold Touches to Furniture and Accessories with Liquid Leaf

Spring 2017 ORC – Great Room Refresh