Are you finding it difficult to decide whether to paint walls or ceiling first? When you decide to paint a room or to cover the walls with upholstery, you must always start by painting the ceiling. Make sure you carefully prepare the surface to paint in order to ensure perfect success of your work. Let us find out how to prepare!
Paint Walls or Ceiling First
The Preparation
First, proceed with the preparation of the room, where you want to paint the ceiling without dirtying. For example, remove the curtains, bring the furniture to the center, and cover the furniture and floor with nylon sheets.
Make sure you pay particular attention to protecting the chandelier and its support. That is because it is close to the surface to paint. The best way to protect it is to wrap it with a cloth, covering all parts, and fix it with adhesive tape.
Then observe carefully the surface to paint, identifying even the smallest cracks. Remember it is absolutely necessary to repair the damage to the ceiling. Once you complete the repairs, brush the entire surface you are going to paint with a stiff brush. It will enable you to remove dust and any old shaky paint.
If you have made big repairs on the ceiling with cement mortar, it will be necessary to pass 2 coats of the old color. Make sure you respect the drying time of the paint on the parts you treat. That is before painting it with the new paint, otherwise the ceiling will result in patches.
In order to have a homogeneous final painting, it is necessary to pass a primer coat of paint on all the points retouched with the stucco and then sanded. That is before whitening it or applying the paint.
Paint Walls or Ceiling First – Other Considerations
You may want to color the ceiling, and there are some stuccoes that you want to remain white when you complete your work. If that is the case, it is essential to cover them carefully with paper, fixing it with adhesive tape in painter’s paper. You can get them from hardware stores and paint shops.
If you have to cover the rosettes with double newspaper paper, cut a little smaller than the element you want to protect. Fix the paper around with adhesive tape to protect the shielding; making sure that the tape does not overflow on the ceiling.
Only the adhesive tape will be sufficient to protect the frames. Fix the tape to the frame, along its edges. Then, trim it all around with the help of a cutter, eliminating any cutouts.
You may, on the other hand, want to obtain rosettes or frames of a different color from that of the ceiling. If so, you will paint the ceiling, and then protect it around the stuccoes.
The Choice of Color
When choosing the color to apply to the ceiling of a room, it is important to think, first, of the contrast or the combination with that of the walls.
In the past ceilings usually had a uniform color, often white or, in any case, very light. However, nowadays tastes have changed, and there are many products available on the market. Moreover, you can even use very bright colors with ease.
Some Fundamental Principles to Keep In Mind:
- A dark ceiling requires a lot of light to illuminate the room
- To cover a dark color, you need more light-colored coats
- The colors in the green-blue-violet range raise the ceiling
- Red-yellow range colors “lower” it
The Tools
In the painting of ceilings at home, the fastest and most successful system is the one using the roller.
With this tool, which features an extension stick, you can paint the ceiling while standing on the floor. This way, you will not have to go up and down the stairs all the time.
The Dyeing Technique
Once the tools and materials are in place, you can start painting the corners that the ceiling makes with the walls, using a brush.
If the painting of the walls were lighter than that of the ceiling, cover all around the top of the walls with paper tape (about 4-5 centimeters wide). Remember it would be very difficult to make the “shadow” of dark color overhanging the walls disappear.
In the opposite case, on the contrary, you will have to intentionally overflow on the masonry in order to make a clean break with the ceiling.
You must always carefully drain your two brushes. Moreover, use one of them for the corners to ensure that the irregularities of the edge also absorb the paint thoroughly. On the other hand, use the second one to apply the paint in the immediate vicinity of the corners and to paint the narrow parts.
Drain the paintbrush very well. That is because if you will paint from the bottom upwards, the color will tend to drip down.
You must “pull” the paint, so as not to cause dripping, and without leaving traces of bristles.
Once you have finished this work, you can start using the roller. The first thing to do is to control the pressure you will exert to get the best results, since you will use it with the extension stick.
Paint Walls or Ceiling First – How to Use a Roller
You will have to squeeze the roller on the special grid. Furthermore, you will have to roll it on the ceiling slowly, to prevent the color from being sprayed off.
Moreover, you have to handle the extension with both hands, keeping it oblique and not vertical. Doing this will enable you to better control the pressure, and be able to follow in the right track the work you are doing.
Do not apply the rolls next to the other. Alternate them by unpainted spaces, then go back to uniform the painted parts.
Adopting this technique is important, especially using modern fast drying paints.
A ceiling, especially if it has not been painted for a long time, requires at least 2 coats of paint.
Furthermore, grazing light will illuminate the surface, (which highlights its imperfections and defects). That means it is very important that the last coat has the roll in the same sense of the light.
Conclusion
In the case of two coats, therefore, you must apply the first coat transversely to the direction of light origin. Furthermore, you must apply the second coat on the ceiling in the longitudinal direction.
