Paint the room yourself vs. hire a professional painter.

Painting is one of not many home improvements that can be done relatively easy as a do it yourself project and without any previous experience whatsoever. Therefore, if you have a wish and some extra time then why not to save a little bit on painting your house cutting labor cost. On the other hand, if you decide to go with the professional painter then you may use your extra time for fun, social life, or just relaxing instead of working all weekends depending on how big the area need to be covered.

What you need to purchase for painting a room?

- Desired brand and color of paint
- Paint roller and brush
- Paint tray
- Tape (optional)

Step-by-step instruction

Step #1 Preparation

Clean ceiling and walls in the rooms you are going to paint. If necessary they should be fixed as well. Minor drywall damages you can do by yourself. For that you need to buy a joint compound, but a drywall fixing kit is not that necessary to purchase. You can be fine even with a kitchen knife if there is just a small hole. First of all you should clear any unsound debris from around the hole that way the joint compound will stick better to the drywall. Then level the wall surface in the area and allow it completely to dry. Sand patched spots slightly to make a surface smooth.

Step #2 Paint ceiling

Once you did all the preparation work, cut in around edges on the ceiling first using any regular paint brush. If your crown molding will have a different color from the color of your ceiling it is better to tape it in order to avoid any imperfect lines.
Pour some desired mixed color of paint, but before applying it roll it back and forth in the shallow side of the paint tray to squeeze out any excess of the mix. Then start rolling the ceiling using a paint roller while the cut in line is still wet. Covering with paint ceiling is one of the hardest areas because you should look up for a long time and holding the arm up is also difficult. Therefore, you should do it in the position you are most comfortable.

Step #3 Paint walls

It is strongly recommended to tape baseboards, windows and door trims if you are not a professional painter. Cut in around edges on the walls you can do using the same paint brush as used for the ceiling. It is easily can be washed just with water if you use water based paint. After it dries completely you can use the same brush for the walls as well. When the cut in line is still wet you may begin to roll the walls. Put masking tape only on completely dry paint if you cannot cut without tape.

Step #4 Paint trims and baseboards

You should do it patiently without any haste. Approach from top to the bottom. Lastly do the base boards.

How many coats of paint should be applied?

For ceiling you should apply one coat of paint if you repainting with the same color ceiling paint, but for walls it will depend on the color you choose. If you have a light color paint then two coats of paint or even one (if you use high quality paint) will be sufficient. On the other hand, if you want to have dark color paint then you should prepare to apply tree or even four coats of paint to get the best result.