Repainting Your Plaster Walls

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Before you can repaint your plaster walls you need to patch any areas that need it with new plaster. Once this is done the new plaster needs to be shellacked and painted with two coats of either flat paint or white lead that has been thinned with turpentine. This will ensure the new plaster patches are not shining through. If time allows, you can skip the shellac and continue to paint the new patches until it is not absorbing any more paint. This method is more labor and time intensive. Any cracks in your old plaster can simply be filled with a combination of linseed oil, turpentine, and a drier.

The old plaster will need two coats of new paint, while the new plaster will require three coats. Prior to painting, protect the flooring with an old sheet or tarp. Then install any scaffolding as required. Now you are ready to begin painting.

Dip a 5" wall brush into the paint until only about 1 ¾" is in the paint. Lightly tap any excess paint on the side of the can or paint tray. Softly brush the paint onto the ceiling. If you apply too much pressure the paint will leak back towards the handle and you, causing dripping.

Be sure to clean the brush frequently by squeezing the excess on the rim of the paint can or tray. This will keep your brush from harboring too much paint. You want to ensure a consistent coat of paint without creating brush strokes. Your final coat of paint will not have linseed oil as that may tinge the plaster a yellowish hue. To counteract this, you may add a few drops of blue paint into white paint. Regardless if you are using yellow tones to paint with, the yellowish tinge should be avoided.

If the ceiling will be a flat finish, it will be necessary to circumvent lapping. Flat paint dries pretty quickly, so it cannot be thinned out as easily. When painting this final coat, keep the width to a maximum of 1". Blend and brush the paint quickly in a semi-circular pattern. Start your next patch beside the first part that was painted and continue.

The quicker you can complete this, the better the final finish will be. Edges will dry quickly and if you repaint over a dried edge it may flake off or create a shiny patch. For this reason, if your ceiling is a pretty large area, you may want to enlist another’s help. You can begin painting at one ceiling edge and your partner can begin at the middle of the scaffold. This will keep the scaffold’s integrity in tact without you overlapping each other.

When you paint the plaster walls, switch to a 4 ¾" brush. Begin painting at the upper left hand corner of the room below any moldings. Again, only dip the brush until 1 ¾" is covered in paint, lightly tap the side of the brush to remove excess paint and use swift up and down strokes.

You can then blend the paint using lighter strokes. Paint down the wall until the baseboard is reach, then continue upwards. In this fashion, you will move around the room. Once complete repeat with a second coat of paint.

As with the ceiling, if your final coat is to be flat paint, keep the width to more than 1" because of the fast drying process. Use the same up and down strokes, moving up and down the walls.

by Jennifer Weldon