The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California

Interior Decorating

Preparing Walls And Ceilings

THE work of preparing the surfaces for the decoration of a room may be broadly divided according to two groups of surfaces, one being the walls and ceilings, the other being the woodwork and floors The preliminary work of preparing walls and ceilings is dealt with here.

Having decided on the decorative scheme and chosen the style and colours while the room is still fully furnished arrangements should be made before commencing decoration to completely clear the room of furniture, if that is possible. If it is not possible to completely clear the room, the main pieces of furniture should be placed in the middle of the room and suitably covered to protect them against splashes of distemper paint and water in most cases the amateur decorator's working time is mainly restricted to weekends and sometimes evenings If the furniture has to be moved every time, the total amount of time can add up to a considerable wastage in time of the complete job. Carpets should of course be taken right up and this necessity provides a good opportunity to have carpets and rugs cleaned Linoleum may be left in position but usually it would be found best to remove it if possible to avoid the danger of splashing the surface of the lino with paint and distemper. Curtains should be taken down and it is the usual practice to smear the m-sides of window glass with whitening, which provides the worker with a feeling of privacy.

During the very first stages of the work when a mess is being made it will be found a good plan to have chimneys swept, and before commencing the preparation, any alterations or repairs to the fire-place surrounds, lighting fixtures, sashcords, draft prevention and all similar odd jobs should be tackled. This stage of the progress presents an admirable opportunity to carry out all the odd jobs.

Usually ceilings and walls are cleaned off, prepared and made ready for re-decorating before the woodwork, the doors, windows, skirting boards etc, are cleaned down For cleaning the upper parts of walls and ceilings a scaffolding such as the one described earlier should be rigged up, using,two pairs of steps and a plank across the tread of the steps and one pair of steps and a kitchen table to support the other end of the plank.