Most of us opt to paint the walls in our houses a solid color. Picking a color is probably the most challenging part. The rest is just prep work.

Do your old plaster walls have cracks? 1916 Bungalow shows how to repair those cracks so that they won'tshow.

Fixer upper also shows what they found when they removed a drop ceiling and repaired it with sheetrock, blending the old into the new seamlessly. Also, I am more than a little jealous of the stilts they found at a yard sale. Don't know what stilts have to do with hanging sheetrock? Lucky you. Click on the link to see them in action.

And sometimes, like at 1870 house, it just all has to come down. Been there, done that, still living it. Shoot me.

If the walls are very dirty or grimy wash them with a weak TSP (tri-sodium phosphate) solution. So now you have prepped your walls. They are ready for paint.

First thing is to paint all the trim work, unless it is stained, then you can skip this step. I usually don't tape off around the trim since our trim is all white. I don't purposefully paint on the wall surface, but neither am I all that careful. It is much easier to paint that outer trim edge of doorways and window trim first, than it is to go back and try to paint that small edge after the wall color is up.

Let the paint cure. I usually wait until the following weekend before putting painter's tape up on the trim. It may seem like a huge pain when you are doing it, but it is worth it not to have paint on your trim and then have to go back and touch it up, and then the walls, and then the trim...

For walls that are newly sheetrocked, or if you are going to going from a darker color to a lighter color, pick up a can of primer. I can't stress this enough. This is much less expensive than paint and will give you a clean even surface to begin your painting.

If painting your room is going to last more than a couple days, remove the tape. If you leave it up too long, it will remove your paint. Ask me how I know this. View this as motivation for getting the job done quickly.

Provided that you primed first, two coats of paint is usually enough for most colors.

I like to cut in around all the edges first with a brush, usually doing two coats while I have the ladders out. Make sure that you cut far enough down the wall that when you switch to a roller you are not in danger of hitting the ceiling by mistake.

Next in the series I will be discussing faux finishing your walls.

When she isn't blogging at www.notesfromthetrenches.com, Chris is busy rescuing her old house from a century of neglect and bad taste. She may have to have the paint brush surgically removed from her hand.