Paint confusion!

User1312

A total paint novice here, is anyone able to help me with a list of steps and advice to redecorating the whole house? Or link me to a dummy's guide to, please?

The current walls are a mix of bright pink, green, purple, black..! We would like to paint everything white in the first instance and then choose our colours as we live in the house.

What do I need to be doing to the current walls to get them ready for this white coat? What type of paint, primer etc do I need to be buying for this, which will allow us to paint over with another colour in the near future?

I'm also confused by all the different finishes - matte / gloss / silk etc?

The ceilings have just been re-plastered, what do I need to be looking for for white ceiling paint? And do I need a prep/primer for the ceilings too?

Thank you!

Cats_are_great

It depends what sort of paint is already on the walls. Hopefully it's water based, if it is ensure the walls are smooth. Fill any holes with a fine surface filler, allow to dry and give it a fine sand with 00 grade sandpaper.

The bare plaster ceiling should be painted with a leytex based paint which allows the surface to breath. Leyland super leytex, Johnstones jonmatt are excellent for this. You want to give it a mist coat with the paint diluted with 10 to 15% water. When that is dry give it a coat undiluted. As this type of paint is high coverage you can also use it to get rid of your rainbow walls. So 2 full coats on the walls should get rid of it.

I use Leyland super leytex on all my cielings as it covers so well, it is suitable for walls but it doesn't wipe down as well as a vinyl paint so at some point you will want to paint it with either:
Vinyl silk - medium sheen
Vinyl soft sheen - less of a sheen
Vinyl Matt - Matt finish
Vinyl flat Matt - very Matt.

The paint with a sheen allows you to clean the walls with a soft brush as it is more washable. I prefer Matt finish as I don't like sheen, you can wash Matt paint but not as well. There is a Johnstones durable Matt that can be scrubbed and dulux diamond finish. I don't like the finish on these as it can look grainy.

Use a medium pile 9inch roller for your walls and ceilings and try to paint in a capital D shape, also use a small brush to cut in around doors Windows etc. The beauty about painting walls and ceilings White is you don't have to worry about cutting in around the ceilings which is a pain.

Good luck!

User1312

Thank you! We used the leyland diluted for the ceiling and will be going over with it undiluted once it's dry. We're now looking for colours for the walls so I will look for a vinyl matt one. thanks