Paint Your Walls Post Four - Create Your Design

If you are just starting to read, this is the last in a series of posts on ideas for painting your nursery walls:

At this point, you've selected your paint design and its time to paint. There is no shame in hiring someone to do this for you (and you can get some pretty good rates right now) but if you are going to do it yourself there are things you should know:

• First, be sure to choose a low VOC paint. VOC stands for volatile organic compounds and the EPA suggests using low VOC paint results in a better air quality. Most major paint stores now carry selections that are better for baby and the earth, but they are sometimes not available in all colors, so be sure to select a color that is available in this type of paint.

• Next, TEST IT OUT. There is nothing worse than walking into a room and flinching because the color is all wrong. You are going to put time and money into painting the nursery so you want to make sure it is the right color. It is definitely worth the $15 for 3 paint samples and an extra trip to the paint store to make sure the shade is right. Paint a sample square on the wall and test it in natural day light and night time light. Make sure the shade compliments furniture and the flooring.

• Preparation is the key to success. You need the right tools and you need to tape off everything. Taping baseboards, windows and doors takes almost longer than painting but it is so worth it!

• For more tips, check out this article from HowStuffWorks.com. I am not going to pretend to be an expert! I personally painted about 1/2 the rooms in my house, but I had a pro do large areas and the kitchen. It was so worth it!
  

If you have highly textured walls (like I do) and are trying a technique with painters tape, you make have some issues. Even if you press that tape as hard as you can, you are going to have paint seep under the tape and ruin your perfectly straight line. Professionals suggest you put down the tap, then paint a clear coat over the top. Let that dry, then put your colored paint over it. The idea behind it being that something is going to seep, so it might as well be clear coat that will fill in those little gaps before your paint does. I haven't tried it but if you do have heavy texture, you might have to choose a paint technique that doesn't rely so heavily on painters tape for the design.

Hopefully this series of posts inspires you to step it up and try something different on your nursery walls! I would love to see pictures of what you've done!