Protect your carpet when painting a room.
If you're painting the walls, but not replacing the wall-to-wall carpet, special consideration must be taken to protect the floor. Before prepping the room, remove the entire contents to another room if possible, or move furniture to the middle of the room and cover completely with another tarp. Rolls of plastic tarp sheeting can be found at any home and garden center and are an important material to use if you'll be painting a carpeted room.
Instructions
1. Unroll the tarp sheeting on the floor in the empty room. If any furniture is left in the room, lift it and move it to the center of the room after the tarp has been put down.
2. Cut the tarp as close to the edges of the walls as possible with a utility knife. If more than a couple of inches of carpet are exposed along an edge, cut a strip wide and long enough to cover it and tape down the strip with painter's tape.
3. Fold the end of the painter's tape so that it makes a straight edge. Lay the edge in a corner of the room and unroll the tape gradually, pressing the edge of the tape so that one end is completely flush with the bottom of the wall or molding and the other attaches to the edge of the tarp.
4. Cut the end of the tape when you get to the next corner. Continue laying the tape along each edge until the tarp is completely taped down and the carpet is covered all the way to the wall.
5. Apply primer to the walls with a roller. When it's dry, paint two to three coats of paint on the walls with a roller, allowing the paint to dry for an hour between coats. Prime and paint molding with a brush, and dry.
6. Remove the painter's tape slowly, folding the tape on top of itself as you pull it off sideways. Move the furniture, if applicable, and remove the tarp.
