With changing seasons come changing priorities —and the same goes for your home. From tips on how to make sure your home is clean and safe for your family to relax in to easy paint jobs you can do in a weekend, Canadian Tire and Yahoo Canada are bringing you everything you need for the season.

Photo via Canadian Tire
Photo via Canadian Tire

While home renovations and repairs can seem daunting and costly — if you’re stretched for time (or money) this Fall, that doesn’t mean you can’t refresh and transform your space to create a cozy, inviting place to spend the season.

A coat of paint done right is the perfect way to brighten up a space or allow your creativity to shine. And with more time spent at home, home improvement projects are naturally on the rise.

Before tearing down walls or buying new furniture, consider how an inexpensive coat of paint may do the trick and at a fraction of the cost. A drab white wall with lots of scuffs can be turned into a work of art with an accent wall and some decor.

With just a little bit of gusto and the right tools, you can turn your home into an oasis with these easy DIY paint projects for every room.

Set yourself up for success

Photo via Getty Images
Photo via Getty Images

Before you lay even one spec of paint down, prep the area. Doing the proper prep work for painting is not something you want to take lightly or it could negate all the hard work you put into the actual painting.

Regardless of what project or surface you’re working on, you’ll always need to protect your floors with dropsheets and you’ll almost always need to sand and prime. If you’re going from a dark to light colour, talk to your paint specialist about purchasing a tinted primer. It goes without saying that no one has a perfectly steady hand so painter’s tape will save your walls from looking like a funhouse.

Before you start painting, you’ll also want to make sure you take the time to patch up any imperfections with a patch kit.

Add a splash of colour with an accent wall

Photo via Getty Images
Photo via Getty Images

An accent wall can be a welcome change and an opportunity to get really creative. Start by identifying the natural focal point of a room and that should become your accent wall.

Your accent wall will generally feature a bolder colour so laying down a quality multi-surface painter’s tape like ScotchBlue Original Painter’s Tape on the adjacent wall is important. You want crisp, clean lines. In terms of paint, Premier’s Ready To Roll paint in a bag is an easy-to-use alternative to canned paint. It comes in 11 pre-mixed colours, has an innovative bag design for mess-free pouring, and reduces emissions by more than half compared to a standard paint container. Even better, unlike many paints, it can be delivered right to your front door.

Using a brush, paint about two to three inches from the tape. We always recommend having a variety of brushes on hand. The Premier Paint Brush 3-pack includes two flat brushes and an angular sash brush, which is ideal for cutting and trim.

Saturate a roller with your accent colour and start rolling a “W” shape until you’ve painted the entire wall to your desired saturation. Always try and avoid taking the roller off the wall to prevent streaky lines. Any pro painter will also recommend maintaining a “wet edge” (when you make sure you’re not letting lines of paint dry before you paint the next line) to avoid lap marks, where the wet and dry paint overlap creating a streaky appearance.

Create a polished look by painting mouldings and trim

Photo via Getty Images
Photo via Getty Images

They may be small and unassuming but mouldings and trim play a big role in how polished a room looks. If you’re planning on refreshing the paint job on your mouldings and trim, pick up the Premier Ready To Roll Accessories Kit, 14-pc, which includes all the essential tools for this particular job.

As with any good paint job, sand, patch up and prime the area. Caulking may be necessary if there’s a gap between the wall and your trim. Start painting with short brush strokes and follow that up before the paint dries with a coat using the microfibre rollers to give your paint job a smooth even finish.

Rework kitchen cabinets for a whole new look

Photo via Getty Images
Photo via Getty Images

You may have mastered painting walls but cabinets are a whole different beast. Cabinets take more of a beating than walls so they require a durable paint. Premier Active Interior in a satin finish may be preferable if you’re worried about old imperfections showing through. Paints with a satin finish are also very durable and great for high traffic areas in your home.

For best results, remove drawers, doors and hardware. Your kitchen cabinets come into contact with oil and grease so you want to do a deep clean to remove any traces of residue. Scuff up the surfaces with a sander and of course, vacuum up the remnants of dust before you start painting.

Cabinets are so prominent that you absolutely don’t want them looking streaky or showing visible brush strokes. For the smoothest finish, use a spray gun like the Mastercraft Air Powered Suction Spray Gun. Painter’s pyramids are especially helpful for painting individual cabinet doors and drawers so you don’t have to wait for each side to dry.

Two coats of paint plus your primer should leave your kitchen looking like it underwent a massive renovation without the corresponding cost.

Spruce up your patio furniture with spray paint

Photo via Getty Images
Photo via Getty Images

What would Fall in Canada be without some truly hot, humid days? Whether you’re soaking up the last of the Summer-like weather or spending a night bundled up enjoying dinner with your family, we wouldn’t be Canadians if we didn’t take advantage of patio season until it’s literally too cold.

But patio furniture is exposed to the elements and can show wear and tear, especially if you haven’t updated in a few years. However, a coat of paint and some love can do wonders.

Aerosol spray paints are a quick and easy option for painting patio furniture. However, a conventional spray paint won’t stick to plastic. In this case, you’ll need a specially formulated paint like Rust-oleum Painter’s Touch 2X that will bond to the plastic. A quality oil-based spray paint will work well for wood, metal and wicker pieces.

To get even and streak-free results, spray on in light coats and allow it to dry before going on to the next coat. Paint the vertical surfaces of your furniture before moving on to the horizontal areas. Allow it to dry and move on to the second coat doing things in the same order.

Canadian Tire and Yahoo Canada are helping Canadians seize the everyday this Fall, with tips, tricks and everything you need for the season. Click here for more!