A lasting finish is ninety percent preparation. Skip it and the best paint on the shelf will still let you down.
Ask any experienced decorator where a job is won and lost and they will point at the prep, not the paint. Fresh colour over a poorly prepared surface flashes, peels and shows every flaw underneath. Do this properly and even a mid-range paint looks the part.
1. Clear and protect
Move furniture out or into the middle and cover it. Get dust sheets down — cotton twill for floors you want protected properly, cheaper polythene over furniture and fittings. Take down fittings and switch plates where you can rather than cutting around them.
2. Clean the surface
Paint will not key to grease, nicotine or dust. Wash walls and woodwork with sugar soap, paying attention to kitchens and around light switches, then rinse and let it dry. This one step prevents a surprising number of finish problems.
3. Fill and caulk
- Fill holes and cracks, letting deep ones dry and building up in layers rather than one thick pass.
- Run a neat bead of flexible caulk along gaps where skirting, architrave and coving meet the wall — it is the difference between a job that looks finished and one that does not.
- Spot-prime bare filler and any stains so they do not flash or bleed through.
4. Sand and dust off
Sand back proud filler and glossy surfaces to give the new paint something to grip, working coarse to fine. Then wipe everything down — a tack cloth or a slightly damp cloth — so you are not painting dust into your finish.
5. Prime where needed
New plaster, bare wood, metal and patchy repairs all want the right primer or a mist coat first. Painting straight onto a porous or unsealed surface is the classic cause of a flat, patchy finish.
Prep is the part nobody photographs and the part that decides everything.
We stock the fillers, caulks, abrasives and sugar soap for every stage — and honest advice on what your particular surface needs.
