So having decorated a few rooms now, and especially after actually doing the painting all ourselves, we think we’ve got a much better idea about how to make things a hell of a lot easier on ourselves, and hopefully we can pass on some tips that you can use too.

Firstly, when it comes to painting a surface that’s free to move (like a door or shelf or sill before it’s installed), I’d recommend buying some pyramids.

We found these whilst wondering around Homebase, and I immediately recognised how useful they would be. Annoyingly I had already treated our window sills, but a pack was only a few quid, so I got some because I knew it would come in useful. I could certainly have used these when I was painting the doors to the cupboards in the bedroom because it would have meant that I could have painted both sides at the same time and got the coats done a lot quicker. Especially when you have to do 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of the final paint.

I did find a use for them in the front room, as we have a little cupbaord underneath where we store the logs for the woodburner, and I was able to do the second coat on both sides at the same time (as we only found them after I’d done the first coat).

I was expecting there to be a couple of marks where the pyramids touched the surface, that I might need to lieghlty go over, but there was nothing. I couldn’t even tell where they had touched.

So for a tiny item that costs a few pounds, these are definitely worth it!

Secondly, I’ve mentioned it before, but I also bought a multi-tool for the latest rooms. It was originally just to cut through some nails that we couldn’t remove from the walls, but we ended up using it for sanding and for removing bits of plaster that were in the way.

They aren’t cheap, but they are very versatile.

On to paint. This time we went for a relatively expensive type of paint, Farrow & Ball, and used our standard paint brushes and rollers. But after a while, I think I would choose to do it the other way around.

Despite the cost for the paint, we still had the issues with it. And when it came to our tools, we had some Harris brushes and some standard rollers, which worked fine. But it became quite difficult when it came to the alcoves and the small areas, because we had to use those mini rollers you normally get. You know the ones, tiny little one with big spongey sleeves.

The problem with these is that they soak up lots of paint but don’t really get the paint on the walls. The foam rollers are floppy and they often don’t even roll. And I hate using them. I kept thinking that I really needed a small version of the standard rollers you get with a proper frame.

Despite my original search for something, nothing was coming up, but then I stumbled across some rollers by a company called Monarch, which were exactly what we needed. They came in a  few size, including a tiny one, with a nice thin sleeve.

As soon as I started using it, it was so much better. I was able to get right up the the edges, and get a good even coverage. I will never use of those normal mini rollers ever agian! they cost a little bit, but agian, it’s only a few quid, and you will save yourself so much time and effort using these.
I think spending more money on the tools, and less money on the paint is the way to go.

I found a load of Monarch products in Homebase, including a special set made for applying tester pots. Speaking of which…

One thing we did in the front and dining room, was to paint a third colour around the inside of the archway between the two rooms. It was to break up the two main colours we chose, and because it was a small area, we could be quite bold with the colour. It was a dark grey we went with, and because the smallest sized tin you could buy would have been way more than we’d ever need, we thought we’d buy a few tester pots instead.

As soon as I started applying it though, I found that the paint was really thick and didn’t really spread, and I wasn’t getting a good finish on the archway. I don’t know if this is something that paint companies do, to stop people from buying the cheap tester pots, but I found that simply watering the testers down meant that I was able to paint properly and get a good finish on the walls. Something worth remembering if you have to do the same.

Also, when doing awkward little corners and edges, one of these brushes turned out to be really helpful.

I just found I was able to hold it more comfortably and therefore able to get up really close to corners and edges without going over. I used to use a tiny little artist brush to do those bits, and this was just much better. Again, a couple of quid from B&Q means it’s worth it.

Last bit about paint. Water based vs. oil based. I would recommned using water based paints at all times, just because of the amount of effort required to clean oil base paints is ridiculous. WIth water based stuff, it can be a quick minute or two under the tap. But if you have to use spirits, then it takes ages and makes a complete mess.

When we have to use oil based paints, we have tried using ‘clean spirit’, which is supposed to be a bit more enviromentally friendly. Although we find that it doesn’t clean as well. What we tend to do is get the worse of the paint off with a smalll amount of normal white spirit, and then move on to clean spirit, which then washes off with soap and water.

One last bit of advice that we can give is around wood filler. We found out that there is a type of epoxy filler, that you mix together and it hardens in about 20 minutes. Whilst that sounds like a great idea, it actually means that you have an extrememly short amount of time to get it in the gaps, and after about 10 minutes, the filler starts becoming grittier and elastic, and difficult to work with, so defintely stick to the normal stuff.