DIY Do it Yourself or Not®

When money is tight and a room needs a facelift, there's no easier, cheaper or faster fix-up than a coat of paint. Paint brightens dull walls and creates a fresh, new feeling in a room and a uniform backdrop for furnishings. For a beginning DIYer, painting is goof-proof because the paint and equipment are relatively inexpensive and you learn the skills on the job. It's no surprise, then, that painting is the most popular DIY project.

A contractor will charge $764 to prepare and paint one coat of latex paint on the ceiling, walls and woodwork of a 15-by-20-foot room (900 square feet) with two windows and two doors. A handy homeowner can buy the paint and equipment for $150 and do the job himself, saving 80 percent.

To get the most professional-looking results, plan to spend more time preparing the surfaces than actually applying the paint. Fill any nail holes or nicks in the walls with a wallboard repair compound and sand them smooth. Do the same to any damaged woodwork or trim using a wood repair compound. Apply a stain block primer like Kilz to any stains to prevent them from re-emerging through the new coat of paint.

Unsure about what colors you like for a room? Go to www.dutchboy.com and take their color quiz to reveal your color personality.

To accurately estimate the amount of interior paint you need to cover your walls and trim use either of these calculators from retailers.
Home Depot's Paint calculator
Lowe's Paint calculator