Painting a bedroom wall!

iregk

Question for the painters in here. A new house 1 year old so now I'm starting to paint one or two walls. The first one I did was the box room (its the smallest!!!). I used a roller and painted it burgundy. The question I have is how on earth do you get rid of those roller tracks?

If you looked at the walls you can see and make out every track of the roller that I did and where it went. How do you get it perfect so it just looks like the paint was put onto the wall is one big go?

karltimber

paint it twice :rolleyes:

I normally paint all walls twice.
remember to run your roller over areas that look finished -ie this will get rid of excess paint that may have come from the side of the roller.

put masking tape on the skirting boards also.

I also found a sponge brush -small one- and it's perfect for doing corners (different paints) or close to coving.

mad m

Your pressing to hard on the roller which is why you are getting tracks,once finished a wall go over it lightly or when starting let the roller do the work and not your arms.

If you have let the paint dry and you can see roller tracks then Im afraid you will have to sand them out of it with a P120-180 sandpaper.

Lex Luthor

Too much paint on the roller and pressing too hard. Make sure you go over the lines with the roller until the roller is emptied before you refill.

Wertz

Define "roller tracks".
I'm going to assume you mean the track from both sides of the sleeve where there are two lines of thicker paint.
Or else that you've overloaded the roller and haven't spread the coat sufficiently and that you'rve left a texture (paint put on too thickly).

Okay as others have suggested, 2 coats (possibly 3 with certain colours/finishes) applied thinly and evenly, cut in with a brush first,....assuming your walls are smooth and flat you want a short nap roller (3/8-1/2 inch) dipped in your rolling tray and the paint laid off, then starting in the middle of the wall (height wise) roll a "W" shape and lay the paint off evenly with up and down strokes...one dip of the roller should cover about 5-6 sq ft, keep going back over it (while it's wet!) with the roller to get rid of any roller lines.
Allow to dry and repeat for each wall.

At the stage you're at, you may be able to sand back the roller marks (again depends on finish type and how long it's been on) with some fine grade paper, and then re-do the wall (touching up will show up with deep colours)

One last thing; burgundy in a box room? It's your house and all, but dark colours in small rooms is a big design no-no. You close in the room making it appear smaller even if it get's a lot of light You really need large rooms and high ceilings for deep colours to work properly....in the likes of a 3 bed semi, walls "picked out" with a deep colour contrasting or complimenting a lighter shade on the remaining walls is a much more effective use of space. Again, your house, but just some friendly advice...

Nimina

Use the roller horizontally not vertically IYKWIM

Wishbone Ash

'Cheap' paint is a false economy and tends to leave a less than satisfactory finish IMO. (I not saying that you have used cheap paint but if you have...)

Wertz wrote:

One last thing; burgundy in a box room? It's your house and all, but dark colours in small rooms is a big design no-no

100% agree.

iregk

Thanks lads for the advice. The paint I got said one coat but I did it again and its perfect now.

Thanks for the advice wertz. It is a box room, all be it a large enough box room that Ive turned into an office so I wanted a colour that looked rich but still kind of classy. I haven't painted the entire room in it basically because as you way it would look very small. I've painted little less that half way up and left the top a light colour with a wooden rail seperating. So the burgundy gives it a nice contrast while the light colour keeps it looking bringht and spacious.

Wertz

Ah a lot like my hall stairs and landing then...rich reds and creams work well together.

No such thing as one coat cover, even the dulux and crown systems that claim one coat coverage are gimmicks really or require you to apply a thick coat which isn't the right way to go on smooth walls.