Doing Some Interior Decorating? Here's Some Red Hot Tips from Australia's Longest Running Painting Company

When contemplating an interior decorating project, deciding on your look may seem as simple as choosing the colours and aesthetic you want to create. Often, it is much more complicated if you consider the preparation, the paint type, and the life expectancy of the finished product.

Gloss Shows Off the Smallest Imperfections, Choose with Care

Gloss paint is a popular choice for skirting boards, door frames and highlighting features like wainscoting in hallways and high-traffic areas. One of the main reasons for this is that gloss paint is highly durable, easy to clean and protects surfaces better than matt paint. However, due to its highly reflective surface, it also shows every imperfection, scratch, and fingerprint.

Preparation is the first and most crucial step when considering gloss paint, and if you want the perfect glassy finish, finding and fixing every small dent or scratch can be frustrating and lengthy. The filling and sanding of surface can feel never-ending, but once perfection is achieved, it is equally important to use high quality rollers and brushes and use the correct techniques to apply the paint. Nothing ruins a good finish on a doorframe or wall features like big obvious paint strokes left by cheap nylon paint brushes. A pocked or bubbled look is equally frustrating due to using the wrong surface roller or a roller from the nearest cheap store.

Applying gloss paint correctly requires precision and can be tricky, but done with patience and professionalism, it will lift and complement any room.

Painting Will Take Longer Than You Think, So Do One Room at a Time and Be Committed and Methodical

If you are not an experienced renovator or professional painter, the temptation may be strong to tackle the whole house at once. Unless the house is entirely empty and not your current residence, as a veteran professional painter, I advise against this.

Preparing and painting a house room by room is much better. Painting an entire house can take weeks and attempting to do it all at once can be aa frustrating and exhausting way to approach it.

Completing the painting room by room not only allows you to take your time to get it right, but it also allows you to continue using the other rooms as normal. This can eliminate feelings of frustration and create a sense of achievement as you complete each room, and your vision begins to take shape.

The Glossier It Is, the More Different it Will Look Once on the Wall

Gloss paints can be deceiving, and depending on the colour you are painting over, they can change from the sample sheet you have to a colour you were not expecting. For example, light greys can take on a blue or green tinge, depending on the lighting or the colour underneath. Get sample pots and do several patch tests or be prepared to live with the regret!

The Darker You Go, The Harder It Is to Undo

2024 is a year of deep and expressive colours that make bold statements. Terracotta orange, purple and even black are stepping up.

Bold colours go out of season, so if you are painting to sell, consider skipping dark colours or keeping them to small, highlighted areas.

The darker the colours, the harder it is to paint over and undo at a later date. Returning to a lighter palette may require hours of sanding and several coats of paint. Special undercoats may be needed for covering dark colours too, which, while worth every penny, can be expensive.

"There's nothing worse than renovating the mistakes of a former owner or tenant. The biggest mistakes I've seen made in DIY interior decorating are people going WILD with paint colours and designs. It takes no time at all to get sick of them and painting over a hot pink wall is layer upon layer of potential trouble. Literally. If you're not adept at interior painting, it'll cost you more to undo your mistakes than it would to get a professional painter in," explains Stephen Cochrane of A J Cochrane & Sons, Veteran Painter Perth.

As the saying goes, ‘if a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing well.’ If you aren’t confident in your ability to do the job to a standard that you can bear to look at every day, call in the professional help of someone who can.

This contribution is by Stephen Cochrane.

Stephen Cochrane is a family man and an expert painter, bringing a lifetime of experience and passion to the property and home improvement sectors. Known for his quality, professionalism, and expertise, Stephen Cochrane is today the principal at one of Australia’s longest-running painting firms, in business since 1933. He is proud to share his insights and understandings as an awarded painter and successful businessman.