5 Tips for Keeping New Interior Paint Looking Fresh
So, you’ve just completed that interior painting project. Now what? If you or your residential painters did a good job, then your interior space(s) will look crisp and beautiful for some time to come. Unfortunately, nothing lasts, and your perfect paint job will lose its luster if you don’t actively take steps to uphold its allure. With that in mind, here are five tips for keeping your new interior paint looking fresh.
How to Keep Your Interior Paint Looking Fresh
1. Clean Routinely
If you’ve ever gone too long without cleaning any surface or area of your home, you know how difficult it can be to restore its appearance. The same goes for your interior paint. Dust, dirt, and other particles will gradually build up in your home and cling to your walls if you don’t clean on a regular basis. This doesn’t mean you need to break out the gloves, duster, and bucket each and every day, of course. Dusting and/or vacuum your walls with less glossy finishes (i.e. matte, eggshell, satin) once a month (or every two months) should keep them looking fresh. Likewise, wash your glossier walls (i.e. those with semi-gloss or gloss finishes, like bathrooms and kitchens) via soap, water, and a sponge at similar intervals.
2. Address Scuffs and Stains Immediately
While dirt and dust can hinder the overall appearance of your interior paint, scratches, scuffs, stains, and other isolated incidents can make specific parts of your interior stick out like sore thumbs. And the sooner you clean up, repair, or touch up these anomalies, the easier it will be to bring your paint job back to life. Basic cleaning methods (i.e. soap, water, sponge) will suffice for most of these marks, though you may need to use some stronger solutions (i.e. grease-cutting dish soap) to oust more stubborn stains.
3. Shield Your Surfaces from Sunlight
Just about every interior space can benefit from natural light. However, any Raleigh painting pro can tell you that a regular onslaught of ultraviolet (UV) radiation will cause even the highest quality paint to fade over time. You can always restore this color by introducing a new coat of paint that matches the previous one’s original shade. Still, the idea here is to retain the interior paint that’s currently coating your surfaces. So, try to keep the influx of sunlight to a minimum by closing your blinds or shades whenever you’re not using a given room -- if your interior paint is UV-resistant, all the better.
4. Control Your Interior Climate
Your home’s internal climate conditions can have a major impact on your interior paint’s appearance and longevity as well. In particular, high temperatures and high humidity levels can loosen the bonds between paint and substrate and even make way for mold and mildew (fungi tend to thrive in warm, damp settings). The more you can mitigate moisture and maintain consistent temperatures, the better. Certain areas of your home will be harder to control in this way -- kitchens and bathrooms, for instance, often experience large fluctuations in heat and humidity (which is in part why more durable, higher-gloss paints are best for these areas). To overcome these challenges, ensure that your home is well-ventilated and that its heating and cooling systems function properly. The best Raleigh house painters can give you further advice on these matters.
5. Properly Store Any Leftover Paint
Despite your best efforts, your once-new interior paint will decline over time in one way or another. When this happens, it might simply be time to invest in a brand new coat. If you want to keep your surfaces the same colors as before, you can make your life (and the lives of your interior painters) a whole lot easier by holding onto leftover paint from the previous project. Properly storing this excess paint makes it easy to color match and allows you to perform perfect touch-ups when necessary. Read our previous entry, “How to Store Paint like a Professional,” for more details on this important process.
If you want your interior paint to retain its beauty and integrity for many years to come, follow the advice given above. We at Anderson Painting are happy to provide you with even more insights into everything interior painting. To learn more about us and all we do, call today at 919-610-1855 or email us at info@andersonpaintingnc.com!
