The best way to test if the enamel is oil or water-based is by rubbing the enamel with a cloth dipped in methylated spirits. Water-based enamels will stain the cloth, oil-based enamel won’t. When painting over oil-based enamels with water-based enamels, make sure all surfaces are sanded until matt before applying Dulux 1 Step™Acrylic Primer Sealer & Undercoat. Then finish with a top coat, such as Dulux Aquanamel.

As a rule it will take around six hours to coat a 4m x 5m room and around two days to paint the entire room, including drying time between coats. For house exteriors, it will take around one to two weeks to paint an entire house, including drying time. To save time you can use Dulux Once as it only requires one coat, not two. To make your planning easy Inspirations has included a Paint & Cost Calculator on this site.

To paint cupboard doors made from common kitchen materials such as Laminex® and Formica® you can use a rapid-drying preparation paint like Dulux PrepLock Shellac Base, without the need to sand first. Then apply a top coat of either water or oil-based enamel. Don’t try this with work surfaces such as benchtops though.

Think from the top down when it comes to painting. This way you can paint over any drips and you won’t scuff any finished surfaces with your ladder. As a rule, start with ceilings before moving onto the walls. Then paint the trims and then windows and doors before finally painting the skirting boards.

A roller saves time for larger flat areas but opt for a brush when you are painting trims, corners and edges and anything detailed or fiddly. Always cut-in with a brush, edger or trim & corner pad around edges, skirting boards, power points and light fixtures.

Spraying the outside of a house is a great way to speed up the job, however, remember preparation is the key whether you use a brush or a spray gun. Other top tips to remember when spraying are: make sure you practise on a piece of cardboard first; maintain an even speed when spraying (speeding up or slowing down will affect the spread of paint); keep the spray gun horizontal at all times (use a ladder rather than tilting the gun upwards to reach high spots) and spray tricky areas like corners first. As with all applications that you are unsure of, make sure you drop into your local Inspirations store for advice.

You may choose to use a remover solution such as Polypaper Peel, or hire a steaming machine (available from most Inspirations stores). Newer vinyl wall covering can often be peeled off dry by hand. They may leave a backing paper residue, which can be removed by sponging on warm water and peeling it off or scraping it with a broad-bladed scraper. Older types of wallpaper such as yours, however, are less cooperative and may require scratching with a very coarse sand paper to help the water or solution to penetrate. Paint that peels, or flakes away, from the surface, and is powdery or poorly bound, should then be removed. The surface should then be cleaned thoroughly and when dry, resealed with an oil based sealer such as Dulux Prepcoat Sealer Binder. When repainting allow sufficient time for the Sealer Binder to dry and cure if coating with an acrylic paint (water based) i.e. 2-3 days.

Think of the letter ‘W’ when you roll. Roll a ‘W’ shape first in a space around one square metre and roll over this area until the paint is spread evenly and you have achieved good coverage. Begin the next area of the wall a metre down, overlapping the wet edge of the previously completed area. Continue these steps, working a square metre at a time.

The professionals often make it look easy by painting without tape and using just a steady hand to achieve a good line. For most people though, using a good quality painter’s masking tape is the surest bet. Also, where possible, it is preferable to remove or loosen fixtures to paint around them. However, tape will suffice when this is not feasible. Make sure you remove the tape before the paint has dried to avoid the paint chipping or cracking.

You need to use a water-based enamel such as Dulux Aquanamel to avoid yellowing. It sounds as though your trims are currently painted in an oil-based enamel so you will need to sand them back and prepare them with a primer such as Dulux 1 Step™Acrylic Primer Sealer & Undercoat, before applying a topcoat of water-based enamel.