Painting my apartment

I like brushes. Personal preference, however.

Apart from rolls & brushes?

Rolls, brushes, pads, what else is there? I suppose you could get into the more arty stuff like dabbing with a paint-filled sponge or rag or stuff like that.

Or you could strip your wife naked, roll her in paint and squish her all over the walls. Be careful you don’t hurt your back when you’re doing the ceiling, though.

Are you painting the ceilings?
Buy some of that over-priced glow-in-the-dark paint and put dots of various sizes (small and smaller) on the ceiling. When you go to bed it will look like the sky at night if you did it right. You can even make constellations. Very cool.

[quote=“sandman”]Rolls, brushes, pads, what else is there? I suppose you could get into the more arty stuff like dabbing with a paint-filled sponge or rag or stuff like that.

Or you could strip your wife naked, roll her in paint and squish her all over the walls. Be careful you don’t hurt your back when you’re doing the ceiling, though.[/quote]

I have tried that. Looks good, but you tire of having those sponge marks all over the wall.

What is your experiences with standard cement paint and paint pads?

And do anyone know what to do about that old flaky paint which comes off the ceiling when I apply a new coat of paint on it?

[quote]What is your experiences with standard cement paint and paint pads?

And do anyone know what to do about that old flaky paint which comes off the ceiling when I apply a new coat of paint on it?
[/quote]

I’ve used paint pads for all the wall-painting jobs I’ve done here. I’m not sure exactly what cement paint is, either – I’ve always just bought either regular emulsion, which works fine for me with a pad, or waterproof latex paint, for which you need a brush or roller.

As for flaky old paint, if its bad, I use one of those wire brushes you can mount on an electric drill, but you have to be pretty careful using it, as it can easily rip into the cement and make nasty gouges.

OK. I try that next time - the ceilings in my place are bad. Regular cement paint as last time.

Just painted my house. I myself prefer rollers. Fast and easy. Don’t tape your windows, just scrape the paint off after you finish. Much faster that way. I would buy your paint at B&Q. It’s imported and they do a fair job mixing for you. Some things to keep in mind. In general, for walls, use satin gloss (eggshell is better, but can’t seem to find it in Taiwan), flat paint for the ceiling and semi gloss for trim, doors and furniture. If you have a huge job, you might want to use a sprayer. If you have low ceilings, be sure to use a light color. Generally speaking, the doors, trim, and bookcases (or cabinets or whatever) should be the same color. One last thing, be careful when you pick your colors. I have rust colored walls and picked a beige trim. I didn’t know that the rust colored walls would turn the trim into pink. I had to get a “cool” color to have contrast from the “warm” rust color.
While I am on the topic or redecorating, if anyone is thinking of buying that pergo wood floor stuff at B&Q, I have a suggestion. I just laid a wood floor in my house made out of plywood. I took 3/4" plywood and laid 4’x4’ squares alternating the grain. I then stained it and and sealed it with polyurethane. It is much better looking than that factory crap and much, much cheaper.
That’s all for this episode of “Chainsmoker’s guide to shack rebuilding” Next week: installing ceiling fans and dimmer switches.

That’s good. I like that. Is egshell white the color, the locals refer to as pearl white? (has a slight yellowish tinge)

Hey, well last time I painted a ceiling, I ended up with more paint on my head than on the ceiling.

So… pay some one, buy a beer and watch it get done!

Kenneth

Eggshell refers to the level of gloss. The paint can be any color.
Usually, it goes (least glossy to most glossy):
Flat
Eggshell (don’t think its available in Taiwan)
Satin
these three are water-based paints
Semigloss
Gloss
These two are oil-based
One more thing about floors. If you don’t like your floor (common problem in Taiwan), you can just paint it or lay down stencils or paper cut-outs or whatever and then put 2-3 coats of polyurethane on top of it. Polyurethane also comes in flat, semigloss and gloss.
If you go to B&Q, make sure you know what you want. They are okay about helping you with calculating quantity, but don’t really know anything about color selection, gloss, polyurethane, or stain.
Oddly enough, I have only found one person in Taiwan who knows what stain is and how it is used. In my experience most Taiwanese people believe that all wood is its natural color or painted. the word for stain is “ran” as in “dye” like you dye your hair, buy most people don’t know what it is.
One last thing. Here is a tip that I find makes using oil-based paint much less of a pain in the ass. If you take a break or finish for the day and are going to continue to use your brush later, don’t clean it. Just put it in a plastic bag and stick it in the freezer. When you take it out later, it is ready to use.

Whew! Thanks for all the help. I guess I’ll have to try everything: one room rollers, one using a brush, maybe try the mat thing…
And maybe some experimenting with oil- and water-based paints, too!
But seriously…do gloss walls look horribly shiny, or not? What if you want to try darker colours, like rust or orange…what would be the best kind of paint to use?

I told you. Satin gloss (flat is okay too) for the walls. I would not use semi-gloss. Flat for the ceiling and semi-gloss for the doors, trim and cabinets/shelves.
Dark colors are fine. I think rust looks great. If you do your walls a dark color, use a light color for the trim, doors and ceiling. I used rust for the walls and a light tan/green for the ceiling. The greenish tint in the the tan keeps it from looking pink because green is a cool color.

Well, the quality of workmanship here is a joke. Better do it yourself, better to give it the time and care it needs.

Moreover, painters here are expensive - we asked.

Tshirt? We don’ need no stinkin’ tshirt…just paint naked…especially if you get a friend involved…

But really, I painted my whole apartment by myself. Three rooms: bright golden yellow, a vermillion red, and spring green. And despite all the strange looks I got when I showed people my notebook of proposed colors, it looks damn good.
I just cranked up the media player on my laptop and dragged furniture around the rooms to stand on (look ma, no ladders). Nice how each kind of music changed my speed of painting (hip-hop, classic rock, opera, acid jazz, French jazz…). I only used a drop cloth on my sofas (all three of them!) and repainted a bookshelf. My last step is to tackle my hallway and the kitchen, but it’s decent for the time being.

I used a flat paint with my vermillion red and my yellow. But that was mainly because they were out of stock on the glossy base. It doesn’t look too bad and it makes cleaning it up easier. The former tenant came back to pick up some mail, took one look at the place, and said, “Damn! Is this the same place?”

Don’t get me started on the horrible colors it was before I got started. Ancient Grape-Flavored Bubble Gum Purple- and white- banded walls anyone? Ugh.

ImanIOU, what kind of floors do we have? We tried different colors on the walls and found they just didn’t look good with next to the normal white tiled taiwanese floor. We had to settle for a kind of ivory white called “Quiet Yellow.”

And Chainsmoker, can you elaborate a bit on painting one’s floor? Doesn’t the paint chip off? And won’t your floors end up looking like you’ve painted your floors? :shock:

As far as painting floors goes, first you should find out if it is okay with the landlord. It looks great, but you need a 3 or so coats of paints. Also, you have to seal it with polyurethane. If it is a high traffic area, I would use 3 to 4 coats. Low traffic - 2. I still recommend plywood if you want an awesome wood floor. Mine looks great if I do say so myself. 3/4" plywood is only about NT$500 for a 4x8’ piece. I spend about NT$16,000 to do about 16-18 pings of space for all materials. I think a painted floor would probably have to be redone every 3-5 years. I will see if I can find a good link on the internet.
I am about to paint and seal my bedroom floor so maybe I can put up a picture in a couple of weeks or so.

As for bathroom floors, I’ve got a small bathroom that looked like a janitor’s closet. Very small and dark with a disgusting, decrepit tile floor. At B&Q I noticed these cheap, stick-on, vinyl tiles about 16 in across. I bought a box in light, faux-marble, and it completely transformed the bathroom. They’re easy to cut with scissors, then you peel of the backing and stick 'em down. If I owned the place maybe I’d use something more permanent, but this project cost maybe NT200, took an hour and a half and it looks great. I highly recommend those tiles.

Now I’m thinking of hiring a guy to re-do the larger bath with real tiles. We got an offer from one guy for NT 5,000. Not bad considering the dramatic improvement it would make.

I finally saved enough to do my painting job.
Got the paint, brushes, rollers, etc. but now I have two serious questions.

  1. How do you open the can of paint? I have been trying for about 40 minutes now, and no luck. The lid is soft, so if I try to stick anything in on the side to pop it open, it just bends. I’ve tried pointing the tv remote at it, and I am surrounded by a can opener, forks and screwdrivers which I’ll probably use on myself soon.

  2. If I can’t even open my can of paint, is it time to call a professional?

I just finished painting 2 floors our 3 three floor house in colour!! Try finding your favourite colour swatches and then naively think that your years of design experience will more than prepare you for the ordeal. Oranges and certain shades of blue are seemingly impossible to create and definitely impossible to reproduce. It took me 2 days to just mix the paint.

In small, small batches it is thrilling to have such control but for large projects it seems archaic.

Either stick with an off colour white, no Martha Stewart/Benjamin Moore type paint here, or hire someone to match the colour for you. You’ll enjoy the process much much more and won’t shock your friends with your new found vulgarity.