How I did it: I rented a room with cream-yellowish wall. Like a broken white but stained by water infiltration and with many smudges and smears. It looked dull and frankly unclean. I decided to paint it white.
At first I bought a broken white, but quickly changed my mind and exchanged the pots for a luminous plain white. It was 29€/10L/80 sq. m. We had excatly 80 sq. m to paint so that sounded ideal.
I got a new friend to help me, as she had painted before. I borrowed a roll and a container from Joost, and also bought a new set and some brushes to do the edges with the ceiling and between walls.
First we cleaned the wall with some St Marc soap diluted in water. Use white cloth, not coloured, to avoid any poor quality cloth-dye staining your wall. Let dry for a day.
Prep the room buy covering plinths and window frames with tape. Remove electric sockets, and cover anything you don't want to get paint on. We completely covered 2 black doors with newspapers.
Then paint! Youtube videos explain the technique.
It took 50% more paint then expected (was using thick latex) and a lot of arm muscles. Sooo tiring, especially the ceiling (which looks a bit patchy as it was really hard to apply pressure upwards for so long).
I tried diluting the paint a bit (say 1/3 water 2/3 paint) and then it was muuuch more liquid and therefore much easier to paint the ceiling but it also splatters much more and you find paint dropping everywhere!!

It took maybe 6hours to prep the room and paint 2 walls + half a ceiling.I returned for a couple hours to paint the other half ceiling with diluted paint and a wall with undiluted. Then another hour to finish the last bit of wall.

I had to paint a second coat where the wall was badly stained from infiltration. I think that's due to the fact the wall is maybe a different absorption level there. There were also a few spots (greasier? different wall material?) where paint did not adhere, so they are left broken white. Nothing I could do about it.

The result looks amazingly fresh and clean. Much better than that old-looking broken yellowy white with dirty stains. I'm so happy I took the time and used the money for the paint!

Lessons & tips: Clean the wall first.
I did the job with no floor covering (since carpet installation is the next step) and covered all plinths and window edges with covering tape.
Don't freak out if the paint looks not totally covering, it gets much better when it dries. You can add a coat if you still see stains.

Resources: Youtube, friends' experiences.

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Feb 20, 2011, 12:45PM PST | 0 comments | 1 cheer