Wall Painting - Coloured Finish

A decorator starts with preparation, not paint. Furniture is carried out or pushed to the middle of the room, floors and windows are covered, and sockets and switches are masked. Then the actual work follows:

• Cleaning the surface of dust, grease and cobwebs, and scraping off old flaking layers
• Repairing the walls: filling cracks and holes, then sanding the repairs smooth
• Priming or sealing, so the whole wall absorbs paint evenly and the filled patches do not dry differently from the rest
• A white base coat if the wall is dark, patchy or has many repairs
• The first coat of colour with a roller, with corners and edges cut in by brush
• The second coat once the first is dry, which evens out the colour and gives full coverage

Why two coats? A single coat of coloured paint almost always shows the places where the roller carried less paint. Rich and dark shades sometimes need a third coat, or a base coat tinted to a similar shade, if the manufacturer recommends one. On fresh plaster, decorators often apply a diluted first coat (a "mist coat") or a dedicated sealer, depending on what the paint manufacturer advises.

Two decisions matter here: what type of paint and what colour. Most interior wall paints are water-based emulsions. They mainly differ in how well they cope with wiping and wear. Many tins show a wet scrub resistance class under EN 13300, which tells you how much cleaning the finish can take.

• Standard matt emulsions are breathable and suit living rooms, bedrooms or a study, where people rarely touch the walls.
• Washable or durable emulsions (often sold as acrylic, vinyl or "kitchen and bathroom" paints) have a tougher surface that you can wipe with a damp cloth. They belong in hallways, kitchens, children's rooms or next to a dining table.
• Low-VOC, low-odour paints are worth choosing for bedrooms and nurseries, or where someone has allergies. Check the exact properties in the product's technical data sheet.

For the shade, a simple rule helps: light tones make a room feel bigger and brighter, dark tones make it cosier but also smaller. North-facing rooms suit warmer shades, while sunny rooms suit cooler ones that balance the warm daylight. A darker or bolder colour often goes on just one wall, for example behind the bed or the sofa.

A colour on a shop chart looks different at home. Paint a test patch directly on the wall and look at it in the morning, during the day and under artificial light in the evening.

Two rooms of the same size can be very different jobs. The work is easier with:

• An empty room, for example in a new build
• New, dry and flat plastered walls
• A light shade that covers well
• A normal ceiling height, where a stepladder or a roller extension pole is enough

On the other hand, more time and material are needed for:

• Old, peeling or greasy paint that has to be removed
• Lots of cracks and repairs
• Going from dark to light or the other way round, and rich shades that need an extra coat
• Stairwells and tall walls that need scaffolding or a platform
• Many corners, alcoves, sharp lines between two colours and decorative techniques
• A furnished room where everything has to be covered and moved

When you get a quote from a decorator, check what it includes: covering furniture and floors, repairs, priming, the number of coats and cleaning up afterwards.

In practice, problems often start during preparation rather than painting. These mistakes come up again and again:

• Painting over damp plaster or filler: the paint goes blotchy or peels, so wait until the surface is completely dry
• Skipping the primer: filled patches show through as duller or darker spots once the paint dries
• Wrong consistency: paint that is too thick drags and leaves streaks, paint that is too thin covers poorly, so only thin it as the manufacturer says
• Stopping in the middle of a wall: where the paint dried and you carried on later, a visible band remains
• Paint from different batches: tinted paint can vary slightly between tins, so mix the whole amount at once or pour the tins together before use
• Second coat too soon: the first coat must dry as the manufacturer recommends, and this takes longer in cold, damp conditions

You can paint an ordinary room yourself if you have patience and a stable stepladder. Leave tall stairwell walls and anything that needs scaffolding to a decorator.

1. Carry the furniture out or push it to the middle and cover it with plastic sheeting.
2. Cover the floor and mask skirting boards, windows and door frames with decorator's tape.
3. Mask sockets and switches with tape rather than unscrewing them.
4. Clean the wall, scrape off loose bits, fill cracks and sand the repairs once dry.
5. Apply primer or sealer with a roller and let it dry as instructed.
6. If the wall is dark or patchy, paint it white first.
7. Stir the paint thoroughly, and with tinted paint, mix all the tins together.
8. Cut in a strip by brush along corners, the ceiling line and around openings.
9. Roll the whole wall in one go, top to bottom, in criss-cross strokes, always working wet into wet.
10. Let it dry as the manufacturer says, then apply the second coat the same way.
11. Peel off the tape while the paint is still slightly wet, so the edge does not tear away with it.
12. Air the room, but avoid draughts and strong direct sunlight on the fresh wall while it dries.

Look at the wall in daylight, then shine a lamp across it at a low angle. Side lighting shows flaws you cannot see when looking straight on. At handover, check that:

• The colour is even across the whole wall, with no bands and no duller or shinier patches
• The old colour and the repairs do not show through
• Corners, the areas around sockets and the ceiling line are fully painted and clean
• Lines between two colours are straight and crisp
• There are no roller fibres, drips or runs on the wall
• Floors, windows, skirting boards and furniture are clean and free of paint marks
• Leftover paint is kept and labelled with the shade for later touch-ups