As the new year begins, you’re probably planning out your year of home improvements. From planting new grass in your front yard to replacing the old wood from your porch, most of these projects are summer jobs that you’ll try to squeeze into those three precious warm months.
Winter may seem like an unlikely time to start anything around your house. It’s cold outside, the sun sets too early, and you usually have holidays to plan around.
While most projects benefit from the spring and summer seasons, interior painting is not one of them.
In this blog post, we’ll go over why winter is the best time to paint the rooms inside your home. We’ll also go over some tips and tricks to make sure your interior painting project goes as smoothly as the paint on your walls! For more information on Pleasants’ best tips to interior painting, check out our YouTube video here!
It makes sense that most people would want to paint their homes during the summer. The weather is nicer and the sun stays out for longer, making it easier to ventilate your home.
While the winter may not be ideal for painting outside, it does offer some advantages for interior painting projects, like painting your living room or bedrooms.
Just because the sun goes down doesn’t mean you have to stop working. Since you're indoors, you can easily light up your room while you work. Plus, there’s indoor heating! No matter what’s going on outside, you can safely paint your walls in peace while inside your home.
One of the downsides of summer, especially in Virginia, is the humidity. The moisture in the air makes it difficult for the paint to fully dry, which means longer wait times, which means more chances for someone or something to smudge the paint. Luckily, the air is dry during the winter, meaning your paint will dry much more quickly. This speeds up your painting and leaves less time for smudging mistakes.
When scheduling your home improvements throughout the year, your summer is probably going to be crowded. When you take advantage of the winter months for interior painting, you can take that task off your list early. That way, you can spend less time stressing out about schedules and more time actually working on your dream home projects.
While you’re planning your cold day to begin painting inside your house, it’s important not to get ahead of yourself just yet.
As with any home improvement project, you need to plan out exactly what aesthetic you’re going for and how you want to achieve that specific aesthetic.
The best place to start is by choosing a color for your room. This can be the most stressful and difficult decision in the whole process. Luckily, you have plenty of options to help you find the perfect color to create your dream room.
The best part about finding the perfect color is that you’re not alone in this search. That’s why hundreds of articles are written and Pinterest boards are created to share the latest and greatest in interior paint trends. We recommend looking through Benjamin Moore’s own color trends to help get you started.
This is the old fashioned, tried, and true method. Hardware stores like Pleasant’s Hardware offer color samples for every paint sold in stores. Take as many as you like and see how they look on your wall. Once you find the one for you, return to the store and make your choice.
If you are looking for a more convenient option, many paint suppliers have moved into the technology age to make this process easier.
Both Benjamin Moore and Do it Best Quality offer online tools to see how paint colors will look in your rooms. These tools are easy to use, letting you choose from every color offered with the ability to see how they look in a variety of rooms and styles.
Best of all, they let you save your choices so you can go to your local hardware store and pick out that perfect color.
With so many options readily available, it’s never been easier to pick the right paint color for your home.
Now that you have the perfect color and a solid week of work planned out, there are a few more steps you need to take.
These are small but important steps anytime you’re starting your own painting project.
If you want to do a job right, you need to have the right tools for the job.
Every item on this list will make sure your paint looks nice on your walls while keeping it on your walls and not on anything else:
This might seem like a no-brainer, but it’s an easy step to overlook. The last thing you want is to run out of paint.
The rule of thumb is 1 gallon per 400 square feet.
If you want to be even more precise, make sure to consult Benjamin Moore's online paint calculator.
These assume you’re applying two coats, which is a good practice to make sure the paint color is rich and the texture is smooth.
Now it’s time to put some of those tools to use. You must prepare your room not only to be painted but to make sure no paint drips on anything that’s not a wall.
With all these tips and tricks at hand, you’ll be able to color your home’s interior like a champ. By starting in winter and doing all the necessary prep work, you’ll be able to rest easy (and in style) before your other home improvement projects start in the spring and summer.
For any other interior painting or home improvement questions, visit us at one of our eight neighborhood locations in Richmond. Our friendly and knowledgeable staff are more than eager to help!