Start a Painting Business - How Do You Get the Experience You Need?

The best part about starting a decorative painting business is that you can turn something you enjoy doing into a moneymaking business. Being paid to do what you love to do is the greatest job to have.

You don’t have to be a painting expert to start a home-painting business but it helps if you have been practicing your painting skills for some time. That way you will have a lot of pictures in your portfolio to show potential clients. This also will help you develop more self-confidence in your work.

Before you tackle walls it’s a good idea to start by painting smaller objects like ceramic pots, candles, vases. Then, gradually work your way up to larger projects. If you’re feeling uncertain about how to handle the scope of a larger project you could try painting a large piece of cardboard or appliance box.

As you gain experience, try your hand at painting placemats and floor cloths. These surfaces require more planning and placement and are great practice for pre-wall painting. You can use canvas or the back of linoleum flooring as a surface.

You can prepare yourself to paint on walls by painting the floor cloth or placemat as if you were painting a wall (i.e. don’t turn the surface as you paint.) Instead, practice turning your wrist and doing the strokes outside of your comfort zone as wall painting requires you to be skilled at painting vertically.

The best way to perfect your talents is to start transforming rooms in your own home. Start with a small room such as a child’s room. Starting out doing a bathroom is not recommended, as working around all the bathroom fixtures can be very frustrating. Additionally, in bathrooms you must use the correct type of paint or your finished masterpiece may soon start to peel off the walls.

If you’re renting your home, you probably won’t be able to practice painting on your own walls. This is where friends or relatives come in. It’s great to be able to learn your craft on their walls while at the same time practice your client consulting skills for future use.

Paint sample boards and use pictures from magazines to show your friends / relatives the design you envision for their walls. You need to walk them through step by step and get them to see the design in their minds too.

Have fun while you learn and then take everything you’ve learned from practicing to launch your own decorative painting business

“How to Start Your Own Decorative Wall Painting Business”

Interior Painting Tips

By Nicolas Hantge

If you are thinking about painting your interior walls, get ready for a big project! It's not as easy as one might think and it always takes longer than planned! Here are a few tips to save you a headache and some of your valuable time.

1.) Set Aside a Separate Time for Preparation.
When you are planning your interior painting project, make sure to set aside a separate time for preparation. By doing this, it will help you stay focused on your project. The last thing you want to do is rush a painting project. Another reason you want to prepare for your painting project at an earlier time is it will allow your patchwork time to dry. You cannot paint a wall that has recently applied putty. I like to go with a 24 hour rule of thumb on this one. At the bare minimum, make sure you let it dry 8-12 hours.

2.) Remove as Much Furniture as Possible.
If you are going to be painting a room, you do not want to worry about dripping or spraying paint on your furniture. It is much easier to lay your equipment where you want and have a free reign of the room. If it's possible, remove all of the furniture and lay down drop clothes on the floor. Removing furniture might take a little of your time but will be sure to speed up the process of interior painting. PLUS it will ensure you will not ruin it as well! (If you cannot remove your furniture from the room you are painting, push it all together in the middle.

3.) Removal All Fixtures/Hardware.
I know, it may seem easier to just paint around your light fixtures, door knobs and other w but in the end you are bound to drip or smudge some paint at sometime. Also, it is much quicker to paint a complete wall that you do not have to paint around objects. Even if you think you are an excellent painter, removing wall fixtures and hangers will save you time in the long run.

4.) Don't Paint over a Problem
Please do not be the home owner that puts a fresh coat of paint over a crack or holes in the wall. It's not worth all of the time, energy and money to paint a wall without at first fixing the blemishes. If you are tackling your own paint job chances are you have the ability and skills needed to spackle small holes and cracks. The important thing when spackling, be heavy with putty and sand everything very well.

If you would like more painting tips like these, make sure to check out some of my other Ezine articles. If you are looking for Denver painters a good source would be Calco East, Ltd. (303) 594-8295

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