Bring some colour to dull interiors

Brush up and give your walls a professional touch with our simple guide to painting, writes Kya deLongchamps

FOR value and impact nothing tickles up an interior like a change of paint colour. Once you’ve decided on the colour, heaved out the furniture and ruffled out the drop cloths, decide how you’re going to use this transforming shade. Follow our short guide to brushing and a professional finish.

ROLL UP Rollers are the standard approach to painting walls. Once you’ve cut in with a brush around corners and edges, you can cover a surface three times faster with a roller than you can with a brush. The ‘nap’ of the roller is the depth of the fibres, and for rough walls you’ll need a deeper nap (12-25mm). A short pile (6-9mm) will suit gloss and satin paint, and emulsion going on a nicely velvety smooth wall will roll on best with a medium nap.