How to Make Sure Your Paint Job Doesn’t Peel, Bubble, or Discolour

It’s often said that painting is the home project that gives you the most bang for the buck. A fresh coat of paint can make a room feel brighter, bigger (or more intimate) or give your exterior an entirely different character, and you don’t need a tonne of skills or special equipment to accomplish it.

But just because painting is a project just about anyone can do doesn’t mean you should just crack open a gallon and start splashing it onto your walls. Rushing through a paint job is actually a great way to wake up a few weeks later to discover your paint peeling, bubbling, or showing mysterious stains—which will mean doing the whole thing over again, making an easy and affordable project decidedly less easy and affordable. To make sure that doesn’t happen, here’s what you need to do.

The number one way to guarantee that your paint job fails pretty spectacularly is to skip the prep work. Taking the time to properly prepare the substrate you’ll be painting is key. Here’s what you’ll need to do:

With any job, using the right products and tools is always better than cheaping out. High-quality paint can be pricey, but it looks better, lasts longer, and requires fewer coats. If you go with the cheapest paint you can find, your chances of blistering, peeling, and discolouration are always going to be higher. This goes for your other tools too—from painter’s tape to brushes, don’t buy the absolute cheapest stuff you can find. You don’t have to buy the most expensive or professional-grade tools; just avoiding the bottom of the barrel will result in a superior paint finish.

You should also invest in the right roller for your walls. This will be determined by the sheen of the paint you’re using (woven roller covers work best with high-gloss paints, for example) and the surface you’re painting—rougher surfaces will need a deeper “nap” or pile height, and a more shallow nap requires loading the roller with paint more often, which can result in a smoother finish but a higher chance of leaving roller marks on the walls. Asking someone at the paint or hardware store for advice can help reduce the chance you’ll see problems once the paint has dried.

Finally, a simple way to ensure your paint isn’t discoloured or mismatched is to mix all your paint cans together before you start painting. If you’re just using a single gallon of paint on a small room or single accent wall, you can skip this part; just make sure your paint is well-mixed, especially if it’s been sitting for even a few days after purchase.

But if you’ve got several cans of the same colour for a large room, pour them all into a bucket and mix them together. There are often slight variations in pigment in cans of paint, even if they were purchased and mixed at the same time. Mixing them will eliminate any chance of having one section appear just a shade off-colour.

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