5 Common Paint Mistakes That Can Make Your Walls Look Dirty
Using the wrong paint products and techniques might give your walls an unappealing appearance. For a pristine finish, avoid these typical blunders.
Keeping walls clean of grime, dust, scuffs, and splatters is a daily challenge, especially in high-traffic areas. Washing your walls on a regular basis might help keep stains and marks at bay, but the key to pristine walls is the paint. Certain paint colours, types of paint, and application techniques can result in walls that appear dirtier and are more difficult to clean. To keep your walls looking immaculate and clean for longer, avoid these typical paint blunders.
The hue of your paint is too light.
Bright white is likely the least forgiving paint colour in Sydney when it comes to filthy walls. On light-colored walls, any scratches or stains will stand out. Instead, look for a mid-tone neutral paint colour that can help hide dirt and imperfections, senior colour manager for the PPG paint brand. A cooler neutral like, for instance, will provide good coverage while keeping a room bright, she says.
You went out and bought the cheapest paint you could.
Using high-quality paint for the cleanest-looking finish is a must — and this can come at a premium cost. There’s a big difference between a can of paint that costs and one that costs, “The quality of the product used will affect the outcome and make a dramatic difference in the product’s performance, concealment, and longevity”. Consider investing in premium paint in areas where durability is most crucial, such as the kitchen or bathroom, to get superior coverage and a longer-lasting finish.
You chose a difficult-to-clean shine.
The sheen or gloss of a paint, which describes how reflective the finish appears on the wall, has a significant impact on how clean your walls appear. Because of their endurance, shinier coatings, such as semi-gloss and high-gloss, are generally easier to clean. These sheens work well on trim and kitchen cabinetry because a glossier surface will hold up better to repeated cleaning. Cleaning flat or matte-finish walls, on the other hand, would necessitate a light touch, as certain cleaning solutions and rigorous scouring can harm the finish. Non-reflective paint finishes are best used in low-traffic areas where scuffs and splatters are unlikely.
However, when it comes to flaws such as nail holes, dents, cracks, or patches, glossy paint is less forgiving than flatter finishes. “Because gloss finishes reflect light and might highlight flaws,” I have advised, “avoid using them on areas that aren’t perfectly smooth.” If your walls have flaws you’d like to disguise, For a cleaner look, choose a flatter finish..
Before painting, you didn’t properly prepare the walls.
The first stage in getting a crisp finish is to do some prep work, which includes cleaning the walls. Wipe down walls and remove dust or grime with a trisodium phosphate (TSP) solution ($4, The Home Depot). Consider using primer to aid in appropriate paint adhesion. If you’re covering up surface stains like water marks or smoke stains, primer comes in handy. A primer base coat helps to establish a blank slate so the paint colour doesn’t clash with stains underlying.
You used the incorrect painting equipment.
All paint jobs do not require the use of the same brush. “Often, the tools used make the difference between a simple work that looks beautiful and a difficult task that doesn’t look as nice when it’s finished”. Pay particular attention to the brush or roller that the paint manufacturer recommends for the job. The appropriate instrument for your Residential painting endeavour is also determined by the sort of surface you’ll be painting on. For example, using a 3/4-inch-thick roller on smooth plaster walls can result in an orange peel-like texture that is more difficult to clean. Smooth surfaces require thin nap rollers, whereas coarser textures, such as brick walls, demand densely woven rollers that can hold more paint and get into tight spaces.
