How to Paint New Plaster

Decorating can be a little messy so let’s take some precautions before we start. It’s unlikely you have any furniture in a room which has been freshly plastered, but just in case, remove any furniture and cover with a dust sheet. Lay a Seriously Good Cotton Rich Dust Sheet on the floor to protect from spilled paint. The cotton rich dust sheet is double lined with polythene so paint will not penetrate through to your floor.

Fresh plaster is like a sponge. If you apply normal emulsion paints, they will be quickly absorbed into the wall. This causes you to use more paint than you need, which can be expensive if you have a whole room, or house to do. Another problem is the finish can be worse, then when you finish with the topcoat all you see is the rubbish paint underneath.

An easy way to solve this problem is the mist coat. Very simply this is a watered down first layer of paint. The added water means the plaster will absorb the paint very well and because such a thin layer has been painted first the finishing topcoat will be perfect (if you’re using a Harris Premier Roller).

To mix the mist coat use an Essentials Paint Kettle or Ultimate Large Handy Hold as your container. There is a lot of conflicting advice on what ratio of water to paint is best and we suspect this will depend on the paint and the wall. Anything from 2 parts water to 8 parts emulsion paint, down to a 50/50 split will work in our experience.

Now with your watered mixture begin to paint the room, for a detailed guide you can watch our guide, How to paint a room. Use a Premier No-Loss Brush to cut in around the edges of the room and around detail areas like light switches. Work in 1m sections with the brush and then switch to a Taskmaster 4-Inch Walls & Ceilings Roller to blend the brushed section into the rolled section.