To paint or not to paint?

As days become warmer, the time for touching up paintwork, indoors and outside, also arises. Many DIYers start with an interior wall or two, keen to get to grips with rollers and masking tape, so for all of you, here are a few tips from Metropol:

Clean the surface before you start. Use a tack cloth (a beeswax-impregnated cheesecloth), otherwise a damp (not dripping) cloth will suffice.

Buy good quality brushes and rollers. Cheap, low-quality rollers may leave fuzz and lint embedded in the paint, leaving you with bumpy walls. Cheap brushes leave streaks.

Purchase good quality paint. Go to a reputable company and talk to the team. They’ll help get the right paint (and the right amount) for the job.

Wear latex gloves, especially if using an enamel or oil-based paint.

Apply painter’s tape (blue tape) to protect surfaces not being painted, such as the junction between walls and ceilings.

Wrap brushes and rollers tightly in cling film at the end of your painting session, if you have more to do, or you can wrap them in a plastic bag and freeze them.