If you are getting ready to paint the interior of your home, you must first know how to properly do all
the preparation work so that you can paint the interior of the house the right way: to make it look
amazing and last a long time. After comes the actual interior house painting. Painting a house interior
involves a great deal of work preparing the interior for painting. With no proper set up, the home’s
interior paint work will not look great. With your set up in place is when you can begin the process of
painting the house interior. You should first start with a good quality drywall primer or sealer, then
paint.
Painting a House Interior Summary
- Preparation
- Use a quality primer or sealer
- Paint the home’s interior
Preparing to Paint the House Interior
How to paint a house interior begins with groundwork. Laying the groundwork for painting the interior of a house involves removing obstacles, protecting areas
from paint, cleaning drywall, drywall repair, fixing baseboards, fixing trim, sanding, and one final interior
cleaning. To begin the prep work for painting the entire inside of a house, you need to first remove as
many things as possible:
- remove any decorations from the house interior
- remove the interior furniture from the house
- remove outlet and light switch covers from the house
- and all the other stuff you can think of
Protect Areas From Paint Then Clean and Repair
After the obstacles are out of your way, protect the areas of the home’s interior you do not want to get
any paint on, such as the flooring. Then you can give the interior walls of the home a thorough cleaning.
When your home’s interior walls are clean, you can repair drywall damage:
- Drywall holes
- Raised areas (e.g., old paint lines)
Fix Trim Then Sand and Clean
Furthermore, you want to also fix the home’s interior trim and baseboards along with repairing the
drywall. When all of this is done, you can give the drywall a finial sanding job. With the home’s interior
sanded, give them a final cleaning. When you are done the final cleaning, tape off the fixed baseboards
and trim. Now your entire home’s interior is properly set up in order to get a professional paint job.
Removing Items from the House
Removing everything you can out of your way will be a good first easy step in setting up the house
interior for painting. This begins with living room furniture and decorations along with similar items in the house.
The garage is a good place to keep all the removed items. Before removing the home’s interior electrical
coverings such as covers for light switches and outlets, disconnect the electrical system for the entire
house. Just find out where the electrical fuse panel is. Make sure to consult an expert before tinkering
with the fuse panel. Now that the home’s interior electrical areas are safe, you can cover them with
good quality painter’s tape.
Protect the Floors
To protect the interior floors of the house, tape their edges down along the walls/ baseboards. Then you
can cover all the floors in the house with a protective material. Along with taping the edge of the floor,
you can put tape on the home’s celling on the edge of the wall.
Clean Walls
With everything well protected, you can start cleaning the walls of the house. First, vacuum the edges
and corners throughout the home. The walls of your house are most likely drywall. Drywall is sensitive,
so using a vacuum is a great way to avoid damaging the walls of your house when cleaning them. After
the edges are cleaned, you can use a good quality dry dusting cloth to wipe down all the walls and trim
in the house.
Repair Damage
The next step after cleaning will be repairing damage on the walls of your house. You can get a repair kit
to fix small holes. The kit should include the tools you need with a patching material. For larger damage
on the walls of your house, you will use drywall mud. For fixing raised areas, use a specific scraping tool
to start. After you scrape it down, use a coarse piece of sandpaper to smooth it as much as possible. Get
the raised areas as flush as possible.
Repair Trim
You need to repair the home’s drywall before painting; however, you should also repair the trim and
baseboards that are most likely throughout your house. The most common repair you will probably
need to do is fill gaps between the trim and walls. You can use caulking for doing this repair. Caulk the
gaps and then use a soft 90-degree object to scrap off the excess caulking. You can also use a hard 90-
degree object such as metal and just cover it with a cloth to make it soft.
Sanding
Now that you house has repaired drywall, give the walls a finishing sanding job. A very fine grit
sandpaper works well for this. Sanding creates particles, so be sure to use proper protections:
- Use safety goggles and an n95 mask
To get a nice even sanding, use a circular motion.
Cleaning
After the finishing sanding is complete throughout the house interior, use a damp piece of cloth to clean
the debris off the wall. H2O and drywall don’t mix well, so the less damp your cloth is the better. When
you are done with the damp cloth, finish the job with a new completely dry cloth. Now your home’s
interior walls are fully prepared for paining, after they are dried off of course.
Tape Off Trim
However, before you begin painting the interior of your house, you will need to tape off the baseboards
and trim. This needs to happen after the repairs you did are dried and set. You’ll be painting the home’s
interior trim after you complete painting the walls, this is way they need to be taped off.
Ready For Paint
With all this prep work set up, your house interior is ready to be painted. You will have set up the house
interior for painting by removing obstacles, protecting areas from paint, cleaning walls, drywall repair,
fixing baseboards, fixing trim, sanding, and the one final cleaning. A great home interior paint job can
only happen if the set-up work is done right and there is a lot of set-up work that needs to happen. If the
amount of set-up work overwhelms you or you really want the best paint job possible you should
consult a painting professional.
Painting the House Interior
When you are completed the prep work is when you can begin painting the house. This will involve
using a primer, then paint. A good quality primer will make the paint job look cleaner. Your first painting
step should be using a brush for edges, then a roller for the large areas of the house interior.
Primer
A good quality primer is a great start to your home’s interior paint job. To get an even better paint job
for the house interior, you can use a primer + sealer. A sealer has many properties. Two important
sealer properties are its ability to go over different types of surface areas and make them even:
- Different areas could be non-damaged drywall and the repaired areas.
The second property is that a good sealer will make your paint bond strongly to the wall. To begin the
primer process, use a brush to get the primer on the corners and edges and a roller for the middle of the
room’s walls. Then wait for the primer to dry and set.
Begin Painting the House Interior
Now that the home’s interior has a good coat of primer you can begin painting. Before you get to the
brush work, mix the paint well to get an even color. For painting the edges, use a brush and put a little
paint on the tip. This works for the primer also. After you have painted the edges and corners with a
brush, use a roller for the large surface areas. As with the paint brush, don’t put too much paint on the
roller. Let your interior paint job dry and then give the home’s interior a second coat. Now you know
how to paint the interior of a house. As mentioned before, for the best paint job possible, using a
painting professional is always a great option.