DIY Network

Finishes: How the Pros Paint From "Blueprint for Home Building" episode DBHB-208

Figure A

In the previous segment you found out about preparing your walls for painting, and in this final segment host Jeff Wilson lets you in on how the professionals tackle painting your new home.

Painting Tips

Painting may be easy enough to do yourself, but here are some tips from professionals:

• Start with the brush. Is the type of brush you get all that important? The biggest mistake you can make when it comes to painting your new home is the choice of brushes for the job.

  A china bristle or natural hairbrush absorb the water in a water-based paint, swells up and doesn't produce a good surface. If you're painting an oil base or enamel work, you should use a natural bristle.

• For a quick and textured paint application, you may opt to use a roller (figure A). But when choosing a roller for your paint job, take into consideration two things:

advertisement

	Figure B
	Figure C
	Figure D
	Figure E

1. The type of paint that you're using -- oil base or water base. If you're rolling with a water-based paint, you want to use a synthetic roller. If you're rolling on an oil base, you'll want to use a natural roller, such as lamb's wool or natural fiber.

2. The type of surface the paint is going on.

Constructive Advice: Be aware that rollers with loose fibers could ruin your paint finish. If you can pluck the bristles out, then you know many of those bristles will end up on the wall.

• To cover large areas, you can use a pressurized airless paint sprayer (figure B). This is the most popular form of painting in home construction. There's no air added to the paint. It's pumped directly to the spray head and forced, under pressure, onto the surface. This method is frequently used for stucco, block work and fences.

• Paint can be applied to the primed drywall, but there's the option of putting texture on the walls before you paint. One popular wall finish is done with a textured paint called orange peel (figure C). The advantage of the orange peel is that it hides some of the minor irregularities that are left even by the best mudding and taping on drywall. It's a lot less expensive to do a light orange peel texture, which can be primed, sealed and painted than it is to get drywall absolutely perfect for a smooth slick finish.

• A plaster finish also hides imperfections in the wall. A light plaster coat can be applied over the existing plaster or finished drywall.

• If you like a textured look, another option is to do a faux finish (figure D) on your wall. A faux finish gives the illusion of texture, when in fact it's only subtle shading on a flat surface. Paints and glazes are layered using ordinary tools, brushes and cloth to create artistic finishes that can look like anything from Italian frescoes to lacquered furniture.

• Another easy application is a lime wash, which is a paint that contains limes and leaves a classic looking finish by utilizing a crisscross pattern with wet edges.

• One special accent a homeowner might want to consider when painting and finishing a room is to paint a mural. You could hire a painter to make your mural look like a work of art.

• If you can't afford a muralist, another simple technique is to use stencils to apply patterns and accents to your walls (figure E).

It's during the finished stage of building your new house that paints, wall covers and trims all bring the personal style that makes your house a home.

For more information on finishing touches for your new home, check out our Home IQ online package.

In the next episode of Blueprint for Home Building, landscaping will be the focus. How to cut your summer and winter energy cost, protect your home from winter wind and summer sun, reduce consumption of water and help control noise and air pollution -- via a good landscaping design -- will be discussed.

GUESTS :

John Holton
Senior Architect
Ibacos
Website: www.ibacos.com

Al Sain
Homeowner
7117 Fairway Dr.
Butler, PA 16001
Phone: 724-865-3056
E-mail: alsain@zbzoom.net

John Harmon
Licensed Contractor
Specialized Services
PO Box 1377
Sunset Beach, CA 90742-1377
Phone: 562-592-3831
E-mail: SpecEmail@aol.com

Pierre Abboud
Designer/Sales
We apologize no further information is available.

Skip Weahunt
Homeowner
E-mail: skip@ownerbuildercenter.com

Regina Zernay
CMTS, Inc.
Phone: 310-390-9558

Bob Miller
CMTS
E-mail: robertmillerpe@comcast.net

John Owens
Consultant
1265 South Camino Santiago Drive
Pueblo West, CO 81007

Monroe Makowsky
5357 Lemon Grove
#4
Lox Angeles, CA 90038
Phone: 323-469-2551

Tony Ramos
L.A.R. Services
Phone: 818-762-4025
E-mail: larservices-tony@yahoo.com