The very first thing we did was figure out which rooms needed to be painted and what colors we wanted to use. This part can be done before you move in for the most part. Alex and I collaborated on pretty much every room, so that took a little more time than if I had just picked them out myself.
When picking paint colors, make sure you look at them both in "inside" and "outside" light. It is crazy how colors could look so different inside and outside. If you room has a lot of natural light, you will want to make sure you like how it looks in the sunlight. If you aren't going to get a lot of natural light, it will be more important that it looks good in artificial light.
Another tip we followed when it came to a couple of colors is to buy the little samples before picking a final color. Some people will paint the samples directly on the wall but I chose to paint them onto poster board so I could have the samples painted before we moved and so that we could move them around the room. It really helped us finalize a couple of colors. This is especially important if you are choosing a bold color. I let Alex pick the color for the guest room without getting samples first and I ended up hating the color.
Now after you pick your colors, you have to pick your finish.
That is a pretty quick and basic primer. I am not going to pretend to be an expert on paint, so if you have any questions, you will have to ask Google or my Dad. Speaking of my dad, we went with Valspar brand paint because my Dad likes Valspar. While I think it is important to use a high quality paint, I am not sure it really matters which high quality paint you use (if it is cheap, its not high quality).
Hopefully it won't be so long before my next post, but we will just have to see what life throws my way.
