The BEST way to Paint New Plaster!
So, you’ve just moved into your new home, or you have built a new wall which has just been freshly plastered, or you just have a brand-new wall that you want to paint, it can be quite difficult to know how to paint your brand-new plaster in an easy and quick way!
After all, you don’t want your walls to look bare and ‘under-construction’, you want your home to be a beautiful and calming safe space for yourself and whoever else lives with you! This means that sometimes, taking the easy route might seem like the easiest way to get your house looking like your home again!
Although it may seem like just painting the wall would be the quickest- and not to mention the easiest- way to make your walls look finally complete, it can actually cause you more trouble in the long run!
Without following the step-by-step guide below and going straight ahead in painting your freshly plastered walls, your brand-new wall could become patchy, have a chalky-textured finish, peel or even crack as a result of the plaster not being able to breathe and dry fully.
However, painting your new plaster doesn’t have to be an all-consuming task, it can be quite easy and even fun to do!
With the help of our handy step-by-step guide below, you can learn how to paint your fresh plaster to not only make it look beautiful with a gorgeously smooth finish, but you can also create a smooth finish which will last too!
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| Decorating Centre Online- Colour Match Paint from £13.99 (DCO equivalent of Craig & Rose Fresh Plaster) |
Step-by-step: How to mist coat freshly plastered walls!
What you will need:
- Cheap matt emulsion- Leyland Trade Super Leytex Brilliant White 5L £17.99
- Paintbrush- Immaculate Finish Synthetic Bristle Brush 1" £2.19
- Roller Set- Rota! Contractor Roller Cage Frame 9" £3.49 & Rota! Professional Microfibre Roller Refill 9"£3.49
- Bucket
- Decorator's tape- Deltec Professional Delicate Low Tack Decorating Masking Tape Purple 2" x 50m £7.99
- Decorating Centre Online- Colour Match Paint from £13.99
This depends on how thick your plaster is, what plaster has been used, the temperature, humidity, etc. of the space that you have fresh plaster drying in.
Step two: Mix up your mist coat
Take your Super Leytex matt paint and a bucket with some water and mix a 1/3 mix of water and paint into the bucket.
Step 3: Tape off the wall
Tape off any areas of the wall which you don’t want your mist coat to get onto. The best tape is a sensitive decorator’s tape as it will not pull off any previous paint or damage your wall in any way.
Step 4: Place dust sheets on the floor
Make sure that all your prep is done so that the wall is fully covered. Make sure you place dust sheets anywhere where you don’t want paint as mist coats are particularly runny and have a tendency to splatter and end up on and in places you don’t want your mist coat to be.
You can even tape your dust sheet to areas which you need to particularly cover and keep safe from any mist coat splatters.
Step 5: Start putting your mist coat on your freshly plastered wall!
You can do this in a very similar way to just painting your walls normally. This includes cutting in the corners with an angled cutting-ion brush (make sure that you clean them afterwards!) and then painting on the rest of the wall with a roller for a smooth and easy finish.
Step 6: Wait for your mist coat to dry
Wait at least 24 hours for your mist coat to dry- the actual time for your mist coat to fully dry will depend on a variety of factors including humidity, the paint used as well as the temperature amongst many other factors too.
Step 7: Apply a second mist coat
If your plaster doesn’t need another mist coat, you can skip this step. If it does, make sure your mist coat is dry before painting on your second mist coat and follow the same steps in step 5 for the best finish.
Step 8: Wait for your second mist coat to dry
Follow the same steps detailed in step 6 above!
Step 9: Paint on your top coat!
Using any finish you like, you can now paint your topcoat into your fresh plaster!
The easiest way to do this is to follow our step-by-step guide in our blog post ‘How do I Paint my Walls? | Decorating Centre Online’ for the easiest and best way to paint your walls.
Step 10: Relax!
Sit back and make yourself a cuppa, you’re done!
Below are some of the frequently asked questions that the team here at Decorating Centre Online receive reading painting plaster!
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| Decorating Centre Online- Leyland Trade Super Leytex Brilliant White 5L £17.99 |
Do I have to wait a very long time before painting my freshly plastered walls?
Well, when a wall or a ceiling has been plastered, it will obviously be wet for quite a considerable amount of time before it will be strong and durable enough to be properly lived in.
During this time, it is important that you do not try to hang any pictures on your freshly plastered walls or do anything which may prevent your plaster from drying, this includes painting the plastered walls.
However, we, unfortunately, can’t give you a definitive answer on how long you have to wait for your freshly plastered walls to fully and completely dry.
This is because the drying time of your plaster is completely relative to different factors in your home, as well as the time of year which your walls are drying in too!
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| Decorating Centre Online- Colour Match Paint from £13.99 |
Some of these various factors include humidity, temperature, the property itself, the plaster, how many coats of plaster have been used, as well as using central heating and various other things too!
Approximately, the drying time in summer is usually 2 weeks or so, however, this is very dependent on all of the conditions detailed above!
It is probably best to err on the side of caution and leave your plastered walls to dry for 3-4 weeks or even up to 6 weeks depending on how thick your plaster is. Sometimes it can even be months if it is a fully plastered wall!
Ask a professional in the business to take a look at your walls and give you an approximate time on how long it will take for your plastered walls to dry.
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| Decorating Centre Online- Fresh Plaster (Wet- see how dark the plaster looks) |
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| Decorating Centre Online- Partially dry fresh Plaster (see how patchy the plaster looks- like a combination of the first picture and the third) |
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| Decorating Centre Online- Fully Dried Fresh Plaster (See the light pink colour of the plaster with little to know darker patches across its surface) |
One of the best ways to gauge how far along the drying process your plastered walls are is by checking the colour of them.
A wet plastered wall will look quite dark in its colour, a little bit patchy in areas, but overall a darker brown/pink colour.
A semi-dried plaster wall will be much lighter than its original state and will have a few darker patches over the top of it. This indicates that the wall still has a fair amount of drying to do.
When your plastered wall is dry, it will be a light colour, slightly pink in its tone. This will be an indication that it is now safe to paint.
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| Decorating Centre Online- Colour Match Paint from £13.99 |
What would happen if I didn’t wait that long to paint my plaster?
Waiting for your plaster to dry is the most important step on painting your freshly plastered walls.
This is because most paints will peel, flake and chip off the plaster as a result of it not being fully dry. This is because most types of paint will create an air-tight seal over the plaster, making it incredibly difficult for the plaster to dry which will result in the paint falling off of the plaster when it sucks in the water from the paint rather than from the air.
This means that the moisture from the new plaster wall does not evaporate off the plaster, rather it will get completely stuck between the paint and the plaster, The damp then can retract back into the wall and create mould growth or even salts to develop on the wall and create efflorescence- basically the salty deposits over the top of the wall.
So, do the right thing and just have some patience and wait for your plaster to fully dry!
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| Decorating Centre Online- Colour Match Paint from £13.99 |
Okay, so I’ve waited for my plaster to dry, what’s the first step in painting my fresh plaster?
Painting plaster doesn’t have to be a long and laborious task- well at least the actual painting, waiting for it to dry may seem a little different!
The easiest way to start painting your plaster is to apply a mist coat!
A mist coat is a 1-part water to 3-parts paint all mixed together; it’s basically watering down your paint!
The best paint to use for the mist coat is a cheaper emulsion (as it won’t be seen under your topcoat). Make sure that you don’t use silk as these paints form a ‘skin’ layer which will trap the moisture in the plaster, make sure that you use a matt emulsion, preferably something that is Super Leytex.
Although this may seem like the opposite of what you want or your walls, a mist coat is essential for your final topcoat to not peel, crack and flake off of the wall.
This is because a mist coat ensures that the plaster absorbs the excess water in the paint, and not the water which the paint needs.
This means that a mist coat ensures that your top layer of paint is smooth and left undamaged even by plaster which is porous and absorbs quite a significant amount of water even after it’s dry.
This mist coat will not look 100% complete and smooth, but it’s not meant to be! The mist coat is just a precautionary layer to stop your topcoat from chipping, flaking and peeling off the freshly plastered walls.
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| Decorating Centre Online- Colour Match Paint from £13.99 |
How many mist coats do I need to apply to my freshly plastered wall?
Just like the drying stages of your plaster, this really does depend on your plaster! However, you should gauge how must of a mist coat you will need depending on your plaster.
1-3 mist coats on your freshly plastered wall should be enough for most plastered walls, however, it is always best to ask a professional if you are unsure.
Remember, it can be an issue if you don’t mist coat enough, but it’s perfectly fine to mist coat too much as it will not harm the walls in any way.
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| Decorating Centre Online- Colour Match Paint from £13.99 & Menali Glitter Peacock Wallpaper Pink £12.99 per roll |
To paint on your mist coat, cut in with a brush and then apply the coat with a roller. The finish won’t be as smooth as you want it to be, but that’s okay because it’s just a primer layer before you apply your top coat!
You must ensure that you leave your mist coats at least a full 24 hours to fully dry- again this depends on the temperature, as well as many other environmental factors to determine how long it will take for your mist coat to dry.
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