Now that we can't paint safely outdoors, it's time to come inside and be comfortable when painting.
It's easy to paint walls, ceilings and woodwork, but there are certain rules to follow to assure a decent job.
1. Ventilate. Put a fan on the floor if necessary to get the air moving.
2. Use latex paint in all cases except when painting steel, iron, or other ferrous (rustable) metals.
3. Buy high quality brushes, and rollers. A good quality brush will allow you to "cut in," neatly and accurately. Cutting in is painting a straight, neat line on a wall against the ceiling without smearing paint on the ceiling.
4. Apply thin coats. Not thinned down paint, but application in thin layers. Don't try to cover in one coat; it never happens.
5. Prepare the surface. Sand and wash with a strong detergent solution. Most detergent solutions do not need rinsing, but you can do it if it makes you feel better. If you use bleach on the surface to clean it or get rid of mold, it must be rinsed before painting.
6. For plastered, plasterboard (drywall), or skimcoated blueboard walls and ceilings, and for previously painted walls and ceilings, no primer is needed. Just two coats of finish paint.
Ceiling paint is good for ceilings because it is lighter in weight than wall paint, and therefore is less likely to pull itself off the ceiling.
You can use a flat wall paint for walls, but an eggshell-finish wall paint is better. It is neither flat nor shiny but is relatively hard, and is easily washed.
7. For wood, unpainted or previously painted, the technique is different. Sanding and washing are still essential.
You need a primer-sealer for wood or painted wood. Latex is OK: names are enamel undercoater, primer-sealer, and latex Kilz. Muralo, makers of the enamel undercoater, claims its undercoater can be applied to shiny surfaces, implying that you need not sand.
The handyman, often the skeptic, recommends sanding.
One more thing you can do for a perfect paint job. If there are any brown stains on walls or ceilings, they are water stains, and they must be sealed before painting.
Paint such stains with a clear shellac. If you don't seal with shellac, the stain will bleed right through the paint.
No primer will seal this stain; only shellac. Another kind of shellac is BIN, a white pigmented shellac, but it is so intensely white that if you cover the stain only, it will be difficult for ceiling or wall paint to cover properly. To avoid this, cover the entire ceiling, but this is wasteful and unnecessary.
One more thing for wood or painted wood. Use an eggshell-finish paint. While such a paint is almost flat on a plaster or plasterboard wall, it is satin on a hard surface such as wood. It looks good, and can be washed many times.
8. Paint in daylight, giving you stronger and more light to work by, avoiding "holidays," areas that you missed.
9. Order of painting: Ceilings first, woodwork second, walls third, and if you do them, floors last.
It is a toss-up whether to paint walls or woodwork first. The handyman feels it is best to do woodwork, then walls, because it is easier to cut in the edges of window and door frames with paint when the walls have yet to be painted. Then, when you come to the walls, it is also easier to cut in the wall next to the window and door frames.
If you do everything right, painting indoors can be fun. If you don't like to paint, there is no hope for you.
And some "bonuses"
Painting indoors brings its own problems, such as painting in awkward places and painting awkward things.
Start with the inside of a cabinet. Not only do you have shelves to paint, both bottom and top, but funny nooks and crannies, and little air circulation.
A fan to circulate air will help, but as for those awkward areas, just stick out your neck and go to work with brush, or spray. Brushing is better here because spraying in a closed area is going to result in a lot of breathing of that spray. Wearing a simple paper or cloth mask will help some.
Radiators, either the big upright ones or baseboard, are another pain to paint. If a radiator is rusting, you have to sand off every bit of the rust. Once done, paint with an oil-based primer and finish with an oil-based indoor paint; flat or semigloss.
Trying to paint those standing sections of radiators or any other part is miserable work, because jabbing paint into nooks and crannies can destroy a good brush in a few jabs.
So, invest in cheap foam brushes that you can toss without guilt.
A reader some years ago suggested painting radiators with one of those floppy foam dishmops, one with several attached sponge ropes. It worked well, and can be thrown away.
Or, spray with a Krylon aerosol spray paint. Aerosol spray painting is expensive, but there is a limit to the number of radiators that you will paint.
Spraying will let you get into all those nooks and crannies. Do not use latex paint; it will darken from the heat, and can show rust spots.
And always paint radiators when they are cold. If you have to shut off the heat for a day or so, that's the way it is.
The same goes with tin ceilings. Use an oil-based primer and oil paint and primers only.
If you cannot get all the rust off (you really should try to), coat the rust spots with Rust Reformer, one brand name for phosphoric acid, which turns the rust black and makes it paintable.
Other tough things to paint are louvered doors or shutters. For doors, it is just a matter painting one slat at a time, on each side. Go easy with the amount of paint you use; excess paint can ooze around the other side of the louver, and if you don't paint that other side soon, the paint will dry and you will have to scrape it smooth before painting.
To paint movable shutters, I suggest hanging them on a clothesline in the basement (or outdoors on a warm day) and spray painting them.
And, since the louvers are movable, or are supposed to be, move them often while painting and as they dry. If you don't move the louvers, the paint will dry and freeze them in position.
The same goes for painting windows — keep opening and closing them as you paint. Regular opening and closing will also spread out the paint that gets between sash and jamb, so it will not dry in big, hard globs.