If you’re a regular reader of our painting guides, you’ll know we’ve explained how to paint most surfaces in your home by now. But those guides are scattered throughout our blog section, meaning it can be tricky to find the best painting advice. So today we’ve put together a very special (and long!) article in which we go room by room, giving you advice for every aspect of interior painting.
Room One – Hallway Painting Guide
When we open our freshly painted front door, and enter our home, we see a hallway. This is a space that is often neglected by interior decorators, as people prefer to focus on living areas, bedrooms, and the kitchen.
But first impressions matter, so your hallway can’t let the side down.
So what surfaces are paintable in hallways? Here’s a quick list:
- Walls
- Skirting Boards
- Doorframes
- Radiators
Let’s start with the big one.
Painting Interior Walls
When it comes to painting interior walls, you have a lot of important choices to make. Colour, sheen, and texture should all be kept in mind before you order your paint.
But the biggest factor by far is durability. In our hallways and corridors, walls can be scuffed and scratched by bags, zippers, shopping bags, and the general hustle and bustle as you get ready to leave.
Quality wall paint not only creates the best finish but provides maximum protection too. When paired with an undercoat of professional primer, your walls will resist wear and will be easy to clean.
Types of Wall Paint
There are two types of wall paint to choose from.
Water based paints are great for a wide range of interior surfaces. they are easier to work with, making them a better choice for beginners. Don’t think this comes at the expense of quality either, water-based paints look just as good as their counterparts.
Oil based paints are tougher, offering more durability. However, we don’t recommend using oil-based paints for walls, as they have strong fumes and can be toxic to pets and small children. So essentially there is only one choice for your walls.
Best Sheen for Interior Walls
‘Sheen’ refers to the shininess of your paint and how much light it reflects. Matt finish reflects virtually 0 light, creating a flat finish that makes colours bold at any time of day.
On the other hand, gloss paint creates a high-sheen finish. This can reflect a lot of light, making it potentially dazzling in direct sunlight. But it can make your chosen colour really stand out.
Satin wall paint is the best of both worlds, with a mid-sheen that doesn’t have any glare, but isn’t too flat.
Best Colour for Interior Walls
Of course, it doesn’t matter what the sheen is if the colour doesn’t suit your interior walls. Some people choose a subtle colour that frames furnishings well or decide to go all out with bold colours that really have the ‘wow’ factor.
You can also create an accent wall. This is a wall, or part of it, that is painted a bolder colour to create a stylish contrast. If you think the long stretches of wall in your hallways are too samey, it’s a great way to break them up.
Pastel colours look amazing for hallways. They’re not too bright or too dark, just a splash of colour that will look great in any light, or at any time of year. But don’t be afraid to push the boat out if you want to try something bolder. We always recommend testing your paint in an inconspicuous area first so you can see how it’ll look when it has dried.
If you need inspiration, here are some of the most popular colours for hallway walls:
- White
- Cream
- Magnolia
- Light Grey
- Silver
- Steel Grey
- Greige
- Beige
- Sage Green
- Plaster Pink
As you can see, more subtle colours are much more popular. This makes sense, as many people save their bolder colour choices for bedrooms and living rooms.
Thanks to our Colour System, you can create the perfect colour for your hallway. Simply enter any RAL or British Standard code and your paint will be on its way!
Painting Skirting Boards
Back in our imagined house, and still in the hallway, there’s a part of the walls we shouldn’t ignore.
If you paint your walls, but the skirting boards are scuffed and stained, it ruins the look of your hall. Thankfully painting skirting boards is a quick and painless job.
Best Paint for Skirting Boards
Durability is the most important factor for skirting boards. They get bashed by shoes, furniture, and the vacuum cleaner, so are often easily marked or dented. Skirting board paint is tough, with a much thicker compound than other interior paints.
All skirting boards may look the same, but there are few paint options:
Each have their pros and cons. Oil based and gloss paints are the toughest, with a higher sheen level that can help your skirting boards resist wear and tear.
Satin is less tough and isn’t as shiny, which is great if you want your skirting boards to blend into the walls. If this is your goal, make sure you match the sheen of your wall paint.
Last but not least, acrylic skirting board paint has the widest range of colours available. If you like bold colours that don’t break the bank, look no further. Speaking of colour…
Best Colour for Skirting Boards
If you picture a skirting board, it’s probably white. It’s true that this is the go-to colour for most people, but there are other options.
Depending on the colour of your walls, white skirting boards may clash. When this is the case, you can either paint them the same colour as your walls, or a complementing shade or colour that brings it all together.
However, keep in mind that you’ll be using different types of paint for different projects, and even the same shade can look different on some surfaces. The wood commonly used for skirting boards is naturally smoother than plaster; pick a colour that works well with it.
Painting Radiators
If you look a little further up your wall, you will often find a radiator. For some interior decorators, radiators are something you ‘just have to deal with’. We disagree.
With the right paint, your radiators can go from purely practical to bright and bold. You can turn them from an eyesore into a focal point of your hallway. Sounds crazy? Read on and see.
Best Paint for Radiators
Regular paint won’t cut it for your radiators. The heat they produce can cause inferior paint to flake away after only a few uses. For radiators, you need a paint that can handle both hot and cold metal surfaces.
Specialised radiator paint is a type of metal paint that can be used on surfaces that change temperature regularly. As always, there is both a water-based and oil-based option, with the latter being tougher but harder to use.
Radiators are fiddly to paint, especially when the goal is even coverage. You don’t need to paint the back of your radiator but be sure to paint around the edges, so it looks like the entire surface is coated.
Best Sheen for Radiators
Because of the metal surface, most people choose a glossy paint for radiators. This looks great, but if they’re against a matt-painted wall, they may stand out more than you’d like.
By matching the finish of your walls and other surfaces, they are less noticeable.
Best Colour for Radiators
Similar to picking the perfect sheen, the best radiator paint colour depends on whether you want them to blend in or stand out.
In hallways with minimal furniture, painting your radiator can be a great way to add a splash of colour against plain walls. Or a complementary colour that doesn’t clash, instead making your walls look brighter.
The colour you choose for your radiator can have an additional bonus. Darker paints can improve the efficiency of your radiators, as it amplifies the heat. A matt finish from your radiator paint also helps with this. It’s unlikely you’ll notice a major change, but when the cold months draw in, anyone who chose a gothic style may be better off.
Painting Doorframes
Before we progress to the next room of our decorator’s dream house, let’s pause in the doorway.
Painting interior doors helps to protect the wood surface, and makes them look great, but the frames around the doors need some attention too. Similar to skirting boards, these are surfaces that just need a touch up on occasion to remove any scuffs and marks.
Best Paint for Doorframes
A tough water or oil-based paint is best for doorframes. If you have any extra paint after finishing your skirting boards, it’ll work just as well for the edging around your doorway. Or you can order extra with the intention of doing both!
We always recommend keeping any spare paint you have. If you store it well, it’ll be ready and waiting for future touch-ups or new painting projects.
Best Finish for Doorframes
Most people choose a gloss or semi-gloss finish for doorframes. Glossier paint is better at repelling dust and grime, so it’s ideal for surfaces that aren’t cleaned as regularly as others, but still gather a lot of dust.
A matt finish can look great too. But we recommend trying to match or complement the texture of your doors.
Best Colour for Doorframes
Once again, it’s a simple colour choice for doorframes. You can either match the colour of your interior doors or frame it with a complementing shade.
If you have a distinct colour theme for your hallway, this decision becomes a lot easier. However, you need to keep in mind that you’ll be using the same shade on both sides of the door frame. So if you have a pink pastel theme for your hallway, but a darker blues in your living room or kitchen, you need to make sure it blends together nicely.
You could paint both sides in different colours. This can work well but can be a little tricky to do. But with some patience and a few strips of masking tape, the results are worth it.
Room Two – Living Room Painting Guide
After our quick stroll through the hallway, we find ourselves in the living room. Let’s take a seat on the sofa and talk about the different surfaces you can paint in a living room.
Painting Furniture
The biggest feature of our lounge, living room, sitting room, or whatever else you and your family call it, is your furniture. But did you know you can paint furniture?
Not all furniture, mind you. Anyone who has tried to get paint out of a sofa cushion knows that they don’t mix well!
Here is the furniture you can paint:
- Coffee Tables
- Chairs
- Bookcases
- TV Tables
- And More!
Any wood surfaces can be painted, so if you have wooden furniture, there’s nothing stopping you from picking up a paint brush and giving them a new lease on life. Metal parts can be painted too! However, there are some types of paint that work better than others.
Best Paint for Furniture
Painting furniture is a great way to make it look like new, saving you the cost of buying brand new pieces. Whether you’re attached to your current furniture or want to create something you won’t find in IKEA, a fresh coat of paint is the way to go.
To paint wooden furniture, you can use any of the following:
- Oil-Based Paint
- Acrylic Paint
- Milk Paint
- Chalk Paint
These all have different textures and durability levels. You can also use wood stain or clear varnish for wood furniture. These are popular as they allow the natural woodgrain to show through. However, their colours are limited.
For painting wooden furniture, we recommend acrylic paint. It may not be as tough as emulsion or oil-based paints, but acrylic paint comes in the boldest colours and is the most beginner friendly. When paired with a quality primer, it will look great for a long time.
Best Finish for Furniture
The best finish for your furniture depends on a few factors. First, the furniture itself. A lot of older wooden furniture has a glossy texture, which can be tricky to turn matt. It’s best to work with the natural finish, using a glossy paint to spruce it up.
If you aren’t a fan of the glossy look, you can sand away the varnished layer and then paint onto it. This takes a lot more time, and needs to be done thoroughly, but it’s more than worth the effort. Be sure to add a layer of primer for extra protection, and to give the paint a better surface to cling to.
Best Colour for Furniture
If you’re painting your furniture, why not push the boat out and use a bold colour? Your furniture is a great way to express yourself, so by putting a unique spin on it, you can really show off your style.
It can be hard to find furniture that matches your taste, so picking up some older furniture and painting it to your liking, you save a lot of hunting for the perfect pieces. Plus the methods you use are very simple, so you can paint furniture even with no experience.
Painting Living Room Walls
We’ve already talked about painting the walls in your hallway; now it’s time to talk living rooms. You may choose a universal theme for your interior walls, and we don’t blame you, but have you considered doing something special for your living room?
This is where you spend the most time, and it’s where friends and family will gather when they come to visit. By getting your walls just right, you can maximise how good the whole room looks.
Best Paint for Living Room Walls
Interior emulsion or acrylic paints are always best for interior walls, in any room of your home. They’re tough, but without sacrificing bold colours and sheens.
Best Sheen for Living Room Walls
Living rooms often let in a lot of light, with large windows that rarely have heavy curtains. You can maximise this with bright the right sheen of, making your front room feel summery even when there are snowflakes on the windows.
Glossy paint reflects more light than any other. This can create glare, but if your living toom doesn’t get much direct sunlight, you can compensate with a glossy finish.
The opposite applies for matt emulsion paint. If you get sunlight streaming through the windows at all hours of the day, a matt finish on your walls will remove any glare.
Best Colour for Living Room Walls
Your colour choice makes a big difference for living room walls. Warm colours can make the room feel (surprise, surprise) much warmer, and vice versa for cool colours. If your home is well-insulated or a bit drafty, you can help achieve the ideal temperature with some quality wall paint.
The colour you use can affect how spacious a room feels too. Muted colours can make a small room feel much more open, with greys being the best choice. This shade also complements a wide range of modern furniture, giving you more options when you fancy a change.
Painting Ceilings
Before we move on, take a look above you. Ceilings are often neglected more than walls and floors; they need a fresh coat of paint every now and then.
Best Paint for Ceilings
Ceilings might not suffer the same wear and tear as our walls and floors, but after a few years their colour will still fade, making the room look gloomy.
The best paint for ceilings is a couple of coats of quality emulsion paint. No frescoes needed, just a layer or two paired with a primer for bold colour and excellent longevity.
Best Sheen for Ceilings
You may think that, since there isn’t much sunlight hitting your ceilings, that the sheen doesn’t matter as much. But keep in mind that there are other light sources in the room.
Ceiling-mounted lights will cast a halo on your ceilings, so if it’s a high sheen surface, it will be more pronounced than a matt coat. If you get the sheen just right, you can create a nice warm glow in the evenings.
Best Colour for Ceilings
Very few people choose a bold colour for ceilings. It’s an option, but most prefer a much more subtle shade. This doesn’t draw the eye and helps your walls to stand out.
White is the most common, but pale greys, cream, and beige look great too. When it’s time to test your paint, use your sample at the edge of the ceiling, so you can see how the colour looks next to your walls.
Painting Interior Doors
It’s time to leave the living room and continue our tour. But wait, what’s this blocking our path? Did you really think we’d move without talking about painting interior doors?
Your doors may often be a means to an end. Their main contribution to your decorating journey is dramatically opening them to reveal your latest completed project. We’re here to tell you that your doors deserve better.
Best Paint for Doors
Most interior wood paints work well on interior doors, so you have plenty of options when it’s time to paint your own. These include:
Once again, it’s a choice between the two main types of paint.
Both gloss and satinwood provide excellent protection from scuffs and scratches, and any marks can be wiped away with no scrubbing or new paint necessary.
Best Sheen for Doors
If you have a matt finish for your walls, a glossier oil-based paint will create a nice contrast, even if they’re the same colour. The opposite applies too!
With interior doors, you rarely have to worry about light levels and direct sunlight. If your doors are creating glare, simply wedge them open during that time of day. This will help your home feel more open too.
Best Colour for Doors
When you’re painting different rooms in different colours, you can use your doors to break up the transition between each. If you have a blue kitchen and a yellow dining room, a white door will not only look great from both sides but will stop the two primary themes from clashing. This means you can go wild with your other colour choices without worrying about how your home will look.
Plain colours are a safe choice, but that’s far from the only option. Especially for bedroom doors, bold colours can help differentiate between each room, and give visitors a taste of your chosen theme(s) even when the room can’t be seen.
If you like bright colours for your doors that take a long time to fade, go for our acrylic satinwood paint. It’s easy to use and is part of our colour system!
Room 3 – Kitchen Painting Guide
This is where the magic happens. No matter if you’re a keen cook, or just throw some food together after a long day, our kitchens are the heart of the home. From 3 course meals to late night snacks, from board games to drinks with friends, your kitchen deserves to look its best for every occasion.
Painting Kitchen Tiles
A lot of kitchens have tiled surfaces. This can be a tiled floor, or wall tiles near where you make your meals.
Tiles look great but are expensive to replace when they’re worn out. Keeping them clean helps, but with so much humidity, foot/paw traffic, and unavoidable splashes of food, eventually it becomes a lost cause.
If your kitchen tiles aren’t looking healthy, you can bring them back to 100% with a fresh coat of quality tile paint. It’s a much more affordable option and gives you more opportunity to express yourself.
Best Paint for Floor Tiles
It might not be obvious, but years of walking over the same floor tiles wears them out, making the surface weaker overall. If you use tough paint alongside an even tougher primer, you can extend the lifespan of your tiles and keep them looking better for longer.
The same is true for wall tiles. Even if they aren’t being splashed with food, the hot air and water vapour will ruin cheap paint in no time at all.
Our kitchen emulsion paint can be used on a range of kitchen tiles. Its naturally hardwearing, even without a primer, and is naturally stain and grime resistant, making it easier to clean than other water-based paints.
Best Sheen for Kitchen Tiles
The main thing to consider when choosing your sheen level is the material your tiles are made from.
A matt finish works well for stone tiles but can create a nice contrast with polished countertops. Although there’s nothing wrong with a glossy look for floor tiles, although it can be dazzling after you’ve mopped!
Best Colour for Kitchen Tiles
For kitchen tiles, you have more colour options than you may think. White is the obvious choice, but we always encourage you to try something bold for your tiles.
Bright colours look great in kitchens and look better for years longer than white tiles if you clean them regularly. Darker colours with a glossy finish look bold too, even without direct sunlight. Be sure to test a few options before you commit!
If there is grout between your tiles, you can either paint it alongside the tiles, or cover it up. The latter is fiddly, but can create a great look if you leave the grout its natural colour, or paint it a different shade.
Painting Kitchen Countertops
You read that right, it’s possible to paint kitchen countertops. Laminate, wood, and stone countertops can all be painted, and the process is surprisingly simple!
Best Paint for Kitchen Countertops
The trick to getting the best out of your counter is using a quality primer and sealer. A range of paints are available; your options vary depending on the material the countertop is made of, but the primer and sealer needs to be the best available.
As with any surface, you should thoroughly clean the surface before you start painting. Any imperfections, including dents and scratches, will show through even multiple layers of paint; it’s important to address them first.
For countertops, you should also sand the surface down to give the primer a better surface to cling to. This will also help to remove any really stubborn marks and reveal areas that could require repairs.
Best Sheen for Kitchen Countertops
So far on our house tour, every surface has had multiple sheen options. This is true for kitchen countertops too, but there’s one in particular that’s best.
Brightness is key for kitchens. There’s a mix of natural and artificial light that you need to make the most of. This means that a glossy finish is the way to go, which will shine at all times of day. Matt can work but looks very flat in most colours.
The sealer you use for your counter will make the surface naturally glossy, so you can choose from a range of paints that will have the same result.
Best Colour for Kitchen Countertops
No matter what finish you choose, there are a wide range of colours available for kitchen countertops. Muted colours are popular, and complement wooden countertops a lot, but bold colours look fantastic if done right.
Remember, a glossy finish makes colours look a lot brighter when they catch the light, so test the paint and see how it looks at different times of the day.
Painting Kitchen Cupboards
Adjacent to our countertops, we have our kitchen cupboards. Like with interior doors, many people see these are purely practical, and are mainly there so we don’t have to stare at our pots and pans while we make dinner.
But like any other surface in our kitchen, our cupboards can be painted too. Don’t have the budget for your dream kitchen? You can get halfway there with some quality paint, and for half the budget too!
You can paint both the outside and inside of your cupboards, although the latter isn’t strictly necessary.
Best Paint for Kitchen Cupboards
The material your cupboards are made of is the main factor to consider when choosing the best paint for cupboards. Wood cupboards are the easiest to paint, with any interior wood or furniture paint working well.
Wood surfaces in humid areas are at risk of rot and fungal attack, even if you keep them clean. A quality paint and primer combo will protect the surface from the humid area, and massively extend their lifespan.
Best Sheen for Kitchen Cupboards
If you have laminate or plastic cupboards, they will be naturally glossy already. This means that turning them matt can be tricky, and it might be best to commit to the shinier surface. But if you really like the matt look, it’s possible with a bit of extra time and effort.
Wooden cupboards can be painted with any sheen you like, and as we mentioned earlier, you have a lot of different paint options to choose from.
Best Colour for Kitchen Cupboards
With so many similar surfaces to work with, you can have a wide colour scheme, or keep the colour universal for most or all of your cupboards.
Whatever colour scheme you’ve chosen for your kitchen can be matched or complemented with your cupboards. They’re a mainstay of your kitchen, so they’re a great way to express your style.
Room Four – Dining Room Painting Guide
Now our kitchen is freshly painted, let’s make the journey from where the food is made to where it’s eaten. Not every home has a dining room, but if yours does, don’t skip it when you’re decorating.
Painting Dining Room Walls
No matter whether you’re having dinner alone, with family, or with guests, you want to create a cozy atmosphere. The right paint on your walls is the best way to do that.
Best Paint for Dining Room Walls
Your dining room should be one of the most comfortable rooms in the house. It’s not just for meals either, you may work here, play games here, or share important moments with the people you care about.
You also need quality paint that will last a long time. Water based emulsion or acrylic paints give you the most options, with excellent durability that gives you great value for money. Often buying a more expensive tin of paint is more affordable in the long run, as you’ll need to replace a cheaper paint years earlier.
Best Sheen for Dining Room Walls
The light levels in your dining room can vary a lot. If you have large windows, that’s a lot of natural light to work with, that can make a glossy finish too bright and distracting. However, if you mostly use your dining room in the evenings, as the sun is setting, the artificial light you use may look better when paired with a glossy finish.
Best Colour for Dining Room Walls
Professional restaurants swear by warm, rich colours for their dining rooms. Some use lighter colours, but these can feel too clinical, so are a risky choice for a restauranteur.
The same colour theory can be used for your dining room. Warm colours to consider include:
- Red
- Brown
- Orange
- Yellow
- Dark Pink
Warm isn’t necessarily the best option either. Depending on the colour scheme you’ve chosen for the rest of your home, cooler colours may work better. A deep blue or purple can be even better than a warm shade for creating coziness.
Painting Dining Tables
The centrepiece of our dining room, is of course, the dining table. If, like most, it’s made of wood, it can be repainted. Our tables go through a lot, so scuffs and scratches are inevitable. With a fresh coat of paint, you can pay it back for its hard work, and make it look as good as new.
Best Paint for Dining Tables
The paint we recommended for painting furniture also works well for your tables. However, you may want to consider a tougher paint, clear varnish, or stain that will add extra durability to the surface.
You can also use a sealer, similar to what we suggested for your kitchen countertops. This is guaranteed to extend the lifespan of your table, as well as making it easier to clean.
Best Finish for Dining Tables
If you have an older, solid table, ideally made from hardwood, a glossy finish looks great. Newer wooden tables suit a matt finish but can also look great with a higher sheen level. Remember, if you do use a sealer, it will make the surface naturally glossy.
Best Colour for Dining Tables
Most people don’t choose to paint their dining tables. Instead they use a stain or a clear varnish. This adds protection to the wooden surface without covering up the natural texture; it instead makes the woodgrain show through.
If you’re choosing to use bold colours throughout your home, your dining table should be no different. Muted shades look good on large surfaces, with darker colours suiting best.
Room Five – Landing Painting Guide
It’s finally time to head upstairs for part two of our paint-themed house tour. We’ve had some bold ideas so far; we hope you’re inspired to break out the paint brushes! Don’t go just yet, we still have a couple more rooms to explore.
As we reach the top of the stairs, we find ourselves on the landing.
Painting Landing Walls
You may think that we can approach landing walls in the same way as the entrance hall we started in; this is not the case.
Best Paint for Landing Walls
You can use interior emulsion or acrylic paint for walls upstairs too. If you plan carefully, you could even paint your hallway and landing at the same time. It’s a big job, but worth it to keep the colour and finish consistent throughout.
Best Sheen for Landing Walls
If you have a relatively small home, you may not have any windows on your landing, just a line of doors leading to bedrooms and/or the bathroom. When this is the case, you need to maximise your paint for artificial light only.
A glossier sheen will reflect the light, making the area look brighter even at night. But if you aren’t a fan of sheen, choose a matt or satin finish in a pastel colour. More about that in a moment.
If there are windows, see how the light hits your walls and decide which sheen suits best. Be sure to test your paint in an area that is inconspicuous but gets plenty of light.
Best Colour for Landing Walls
We like to paint our bedrooms in bold colours, especially if you have kids. This can mean that bold colours on our landings eliminates the ‘wow’ factor when you enter a bedroom.
Pale or pastel colours are great for landings. Even in a glossy finish, these are subtle and easy on the eyes. Use your landing as a palate cleanser between your bold rooms. Subtle doesn’t have to mean greys, whites, or beige either. Pinks, blues, yellows, and even greens can be eye catching without taking the impact out of your bolder style choices.
Painting Window Frames
Our eyes may be the window to the soul, but our actual windows are the windows to our style. After a few years of exposure, their natural whiteness can fade, meaning it’s time to freshen them up so they don’t let the side down.
This naturally applies too all windows throughout your home, but we thought some painting window frame advice would fit well here.
Best Paint for Window Frames
If your house was built after the 1980s, the window frames will be made of UPVC instead of wood. It’s a material that is both better to work with and easier to maintain. It can also be repainted, to extend its lifespan even further.
Specialised UPVC paint lasts a long time, meaning you won’t need to repaint your window frames very often. We recommend every 5 years or so. For the interior UPVC, you can leave it for a few years longer as the surface isn’t exposed to the elements.
Best Sheen for Window Frames
UPVC has a naturally plasticky sheen, and the paint designed for it is similar. This gives you very limited sheen options for your window frames.
Best Colour for Window Frames
The same cannot be said for colour options. It may surprise you to hear that you can paint your window frames in thousands of different colours. Just because white is the most common, doesn’t mean it’s the only option.
Keep in mind that your window frame isn’t a centrepiece of your home, so a more subtle shade that complements your interior walls is best. Or you can create a stark contrast for a bold look.
Room Six – Office Painting Guide
The first room we’re stepping into from our landing is not a bedroom, or bathroom. Nope, it’s the office. Our fictional home contains a dedicated work-from-home professional, who needs an office to complete their daily shifts. If they spend 6-8 hours a day in the same room, it needs to look just as good as any other.
Painting Office Walls
There are two types of workers who use a home office. They either bring the office to them, or make their office feel more like home.
Painting the walls of your office is the main way to pick a side. You either keep them plain, like you’d see in an average office building, or use a colour scheme that matches the rest of your rooms. The latter is more important if you don’t always work from home and want to keep your office universal.
Best Paint for Office Walls
A quality emulsion paint or acrylic paint is best for office walls. It’s less likely that your walls will be scratched or marked in here, but they’ll still fade or wear out after a few years.
Best Sheen for Office Walls
Since your office will be mostly used during the day, you should have natural light coming through the windows that can reflect off glossy surfaces.
Traditionally office walls have a low sheen, often being matt or satin. If you want an office-y office, you may want to replicate it.
Best Colour for Office Walls
A few decades ago, all office walls were pretty much universal when it comes to colour scheme. White, cream, or grey were the order of the day. In more recent years, businesses are using bolder colour schemes for their offices, which make them less bland overall.
You don’t need to match your company’s colour scheme, but if they have a shade you like, don’t be afraid to copy it. Or show off your style with bold colours, that will make your workday feel brighter.
Research suggests that blue is the best colour for offices, proven to increase productivity and reduce stress. Another thing to keep in mind before you buy your paint.
Painting Office Furniture
Just like with any other furniture pieces, your office furniture can be painted to give them a new lease on life. Whether your desk is marked with coffee rings and pen ink, or it’s just looking worn out, give it a fresh coat of paint between your shifts. Or you may have an old filing cabinet that’s becoming a bit of an eyesore. Don’t worry, we have the paint you need to liven up your office.
Best Paint for Office Furniture
Let’s start with the desk. Any wooden desk can be painted with a range of interior wood paints, with our personal favourite being acrylic satinwood because of its flexibility and infinite colour options. This also works for any bookcases or other wooden surfaces.
Next, the filing cabinet. Metal surfaces can be painted with our specialist metal paint. It will hide any imperfections and give it a bold new colour.
Best Sheen for Office Furniture
All sheen levels look good for office furniture, but matt is the most popular. When you’re working throughout the day, you don’t want to have to adjust blinds and curtains because of glare from your furniture.
The same suggestions we had for the dining room table applies to your desk. Older hardwood suits shinier, with matt being best for newer wood.
The filing cabinet’s rough finish suits matt too.
Best Colour for Office Furniture
Subtle colours are the least distracting for busy workers. Darker colours can make the room cozier, with lighter colours making the room feel airier and more open. The size of your office space can make a difference too.
You can paint your desk any shade that suits you or keep the natural wood look with a clear varnish or stain. If it’s made of metal or plastic, there’s an acrylic paint option that will give you a wide range of colours to choose from.
Room Seven – Bedroom Painting Guide
Last but certainly not least, we have our bedrooms. The final stop on our house tour, and our favourite rooms to paint!
Painting Bedroom Walls
Your bedrooms can be any style you and your family desire, from chic and contemporary for mum and dad, to fun and fabulous for the kids. You may spend most of your time here asleep, but that’s no reason to make your walls boring.
Best Paint for Bedroom Walls
Once more we’re recommending acrylic paint or emulsion paint for your bedroom walls. These are both available in the widest range of colours and sheens and are designed to look great for up to or over 5 years, depending on whether you use a primer or not.
Most importantly, our interior wall paint is non-toxic, making it completely safe for babies and young children.
Best Sheen for Bedroom Walls
You have a choice of multiple sheen levels for your bedroom walls. Here are the main factors to consider:
- Natural Light
- Artificial Light
- Colour
For the reasons we talked about earlier, you don’t want your paint to be too glossy in naturally bright rooms as this creates glare. Matt has the opposite effect, looking a little dull even in a bright colour. We personally recommend a satin or eggshell finish, as this is the best of both worlds.
Best Colour for Bedroom Walls
The best colour for your bedroom walls depends on who uses it. Bright colours are best for kids, not only are they more fun, but can also help with their studies and creativity too.
Mum and Dad may prefer something a little more subtle or pastel, such as a warm cream or cool blue. But this doesn’t mean bold colours are out of the question. Your bedroom is a peaceful and private place, meaning it should be very ‘you’, or represent the style of you and your partner.
Whatever colour you prefer, we can create as much paint as you need via our revolutionary colour system. Simply enter a RAL or British Standard code at checkout and the perfect paint, in the perfect shade, will soon be on its way.
Painting Bedroom Furniture
Like any furniture in your home, you can make it unique with a coat of high-quality furniture paint. Wood surfaces are the easiest to paint, giving you a wide range of paint, varnish, and stains. The bedroom furnishings you can paint include:
- Bedposts & Headboards
- Chests of Drawers
- Vanity Tables & Desks
- Wardrobes
Even if you have a fitted wardrobe, you can still paint the door. This can either be a colour/sheen that matches your walls, helping it to blend in, or a vibrant contrast that makes the doors stand out. If you have a bright or flamboyant fashion sense, why shouldn’t your wardrobe match?
Best Paint for Bedroom Furniture
For the majority of people, bedroom furniture is made of wood. This means that a specialist interior wood paint, varnish, or stain, is the way to go.
There is also chalk and emulsion paint. These are great for revitalising old furniture but can be tricky to use for beginners. If you’re unsure about which is best, acrylic paint comes in all sheens and colours, and is beginner friendly.
Best Sheen for Bedroom Furniture
Older or dark wood often has a glossy finish already, because of how the surfaces are often treated. To get the most out of your paint, we recommend sanding away this top layer, so your paint and, more importantly, primer has a better surface to cling to. This gives you a reset so you can apply any sheen you prefer and aren’t forced to work with the existing surface.
Best Colour for Bedroom Furniture
If you’ve chosen bright colours for your walls, you should match them with your furniture, either following the same colour scheme or choosing complementary colours. So many people choose brown, white, grey, or black for their bedroom furniture, and while we can’t deny they look great, it’s always more fun to push the boat out and do something unique.
If you prefer the natural look for your wood surfaces, choose a stain or clear varnish that will add the desired protection to your bedroom furniture, but allows the natural woodgrain to show through.
The Best Paint for Your Home
And so concludes our fictional house tour. Phew, that was a long one! Sadly we weren’t able to go into too much detail, but thankfully we have dozens of in-depth painting guides on our blog, which will help you get the most out of your paint, both inside and outside your home.
We’re the no.1 choice for tradespeople and domestic painters. With so much choice available, and all the painting accessories you need, trust Paintmaster to help you with your next painting project.
If you have any questions about us or any of our products, please get in touch.
We hope you enjoyed the tour and look forward to hearing from you soon!
