ceiling / wall painting - first timer !

zackkilmer

Hi There
I'm painting my living room this week . I'm 35 and never lifted a paintbrush in anger in my life ! The shame ! Anyway , basically i'm painting over the magnolia painted wallppaer walls with sunbaked terracotta and painting the ceiling / coving white . However the skirting boards and radiator are Dark green currently . No really ! I've got special paint for radiator , and gloss for skirting . Do I :

1. Need to sand down both or prepare them in any way ?
2. Apply a primer / undercoat ( what's the difference ? ) then paint over in white paint , how long to i leave between
3. Can I just paint 2 coats on each ?

So far I got : matt paint for walls , radiator paint , gloss white , 2 rollers , radiator roller , square box for roller and some brushes. And turps .
Finally I play to do this over 2 days , first day ceiling , coving , skirting board , radiators , day2 will be walls. I'm then planning on getting laminate flooring fitted 3 days later

Thanks for any advice . Its a steep learning curve for me !

maow425

Firstly I would personally have gone for vinyl silk for the walls, and same or satin for ceiling. That way you get more light reflecting off your walls instead of being absorbed and seeming dull. Matt paint is also really difficult to clean. With silk it's so easy - get a mark on the wall, just rub it off.


There. Step one:

Ceiling. Do this first as paint will splatter, and you don't want white splatter on your terracotta wall!

Step two:

Walls. You don't have to use masking tape if you're fairly steady handed, so only have to leave ceiling/coving paint for a couple of hrs before painting walls.

Step 3:

Radiator & woodwork undercoat. This will take overnight to dry. Same masking tape advice.

Step 4:

Radiator & woorwork gloss. Again this will take overnight to dry, and again you don't have to use masking tape if you're fairly steady handed.

The reason I tend to avoid masking tape is because I tend to want to do as much as possible in a short amount of time, and the paint applied previously might be ok to paint over, but put masking tape on it and then try to take it off ... there goes your previous hard work on the back of the masking tape...

Good luck, and feel free to pm me if you have any q's! FIL is painter and decorator by trade...