Interior House Paint

Interior House Paint Choices

Some thought should go into selecting the proper finish for the different rooms in your home's interior. House paint is more durable in a glossy finish than in a flat finish. A glossy finish has a better "scrubability" rating than flatter finishes, but they also tend to reveal imperfections in the surface.

High use areas should be painted with higher gloss paint. Lower use areas can use eggshell or flat finishes.

Interior house paint is available in several finishes...

Flat
Eggshell
Semigloss
Gloss

How Much Paint Do You Need?

You'll need to measure the area to be painted in order to know how much interior house paint you'll need.

Here's how to figure out the area of your walls...measure how wide each wall is and add these. The area is the total width multiplied by the height of your walls.

Next, measure the areas covered by trim, windows, fireplaces, wallpaper, etc. If these areas end up being more than 10 percent of your painting area, subtract their total square footage.

Now, check the spread rate of your paint. This will be listed on the paint can. Take your square footage and divide by the spread rate listed on the paint can.

Find The Right Brush

Latex interior house paint requires a brush with synthetic bristles. Nylon brushes are fine, but they can lose their stiffness in hot conditions. Brushes with polyester bristles keep their stiffness in the heat and also stand up to water.

If you're painting with oil based paint, you'll need a natural bristle brush. Only use an appropriate solvent to clean the paint from these brushes, however. If you try to clean oil based paint from a natural bristle brush with water, for one thing, it just won't work...but you'll ruin the brush.

As with everything else, follow the clean up instructions on your paint can label.

Before you buy a brush, pick it up and hold it. See how it feels. Test the bristles with your hand. If it feels cheap, try the next highest priced brush.

Safety Tips

Here are a few pointers for painting your home's interior. House paint can be safe to work with, as long as you respect it and follow the safety rules on the paint can.

Paint in a well-ventilated area. Use an exhaust fan and open as many doors and windows as possible.

Wear a respirator mask if you're unable to ventilate the room well enough.

Plan to use solvents, strippers, and cleaning solutions? Wear your respirator, gloves and goggles.

When sanding, always wear safety goggles and a dust mask.

Instead of flimsy plastic sheets, use canvas drop cloths. They stay in place better than the plastic sheets.

Keep your pets out of all freshly painted rooms.

This is NOT a complete list...be sure to read the safety labels on your paint cans. Avoid open flames. Don't smoke around combustibles. Keep away from children and pets.