Tips for Painting the Bathroom in Your Columbus Home

Painting your home is one of the easiest ways to give a room a quick makeover it makes it feel brand new and fresh. This is one of the reasons that it is suggested Columbus homesellers consider a fresh coat of paint when they are getting their home ready to sell. One of the most focused areas in a home is the bathroom and painting a bathroom can help it to look its best. But since there is a high moisture environment in bathroom air the painting technique is a bit different from other rooms in your home.

Here are some helpful tips for painting the bathroom in your Columbus home

Choosing the right paint

The color you choose to paint your bathroom is important and probably the funnest part of the process. It is especially important if you are painting your Columbus bathroom to get your home ready to sell. But beyond the color is the actual formulation of the paint itself.

Because there are high moisture levels in a bathroom and the walls come in direct contact with things like steam from a hot shower it is important to choose a paint that is made for this environment. The best type of paint to choose for a bathroom is satin or a semi-gloss these help to resist moisture as compared to other paints like a flat finish paint.

There are some considerations to take when choosing a color due to the high moisture levels as well. What many homeowners are unaware of is that choosing darker colors can make the paint susceptible to what is called pigmentation runs in the paint where the steam breaks down the color and leaves streaks on the walls. These streaks are easily visible the darker the paint color is.

Prepping the walls

To get the best finish result possible you want to prepare your walls for the paint instead of just taking everything off of them and putting the paint up. Make sure to inspect walls for any imperfections like holes or cracks or even minor dents. You want to fill these in and repair them before painting especially with a satin or semi-gloss finish. These finishes will easily highlight the flaws in the wall finish that were not taken care of.

Additionally, you want to make sure that the walls are clean and ready to receive paint for the best adhesion to the wall. A wall that is dusty can keep the paint from properly adhering and drying on the wall surface. In a bathroom, it is a good idea to wipe the walls down with a trisodium phosphate cleaner that will also help to decrease your walls. This is a technique used by professional painters. If you are not wanting to use this chemical you can also make do with a warm wash rag and mild soap to remove anything from basic dirt to mold and mildew.

If you do have mold and mildew you want to make sure that you clean and then also apply something that is going to kill the mold and mildew to prevent further growth. Some painters choose to use a primer that has bacteria-killing properties added in like the primer brand Killz.

When you are ready to paint start from the top down

After you have pulled everything from the walls including switch plates and light covers, and have covered everything you do not want paint on, and have cleaned the surfaces, it is time to get the color on the walls. When you're painting you want to start from the top of the wall and move toward the floor. This helps to prevent any pesky and unwanted paint drips from drying on the wall as you move down you can smooth out the drips and any splatters.

The best tool to use in the bathroom for painting is a roller in the major areas and a paint tray. To get into the corners of the walls you can cut in with a simple paintbrush. As you are painting you want to make sure that the area is well ventilated. If your bathroom does not have any windows make sure to keep the door open and run the exhaust fan.

Make sure the paint is dried and cured

The paint will be dry to the touch after just a few hours. At this point, it is a good time to apply a second coat. The second coat will then be dry to the touch in another couple of hours. But before returning everything to your bathroom you want to give the paint time to completely cure. This means that the paint is not only dry on the surface to the touch but dry all the way through to the wall so that should anything briskly rub against the surface the paint will stay in place.

Painting is always a great low-cost way to give your home a new lock and make it feel fresh and brand new. It is one of the more budget-friendly ways to prepare your home to look best when you list it for sale.

If you are looking for help selling your Columbus area home contact us anytime. We are highly knowledgeable in all Columbus area real estate and make it our main priority to find every client we serve the best Columbus home for them.