You will need:

• Dust sheets
• Small-bladed scraper
• Dust brush (or a cheap paintbrush)
• Bucket
• Water
• PVA glue
• 5 inch wide paste brush
• Filler powder (I recommend you use a quick set filler)
• 2 filling knives (2 inch and 3 inch width blades)
• Sandpaper, Grade 120
• Sanding plate with an extension pole (or a sanding block without a pole, but this will take a LOT more time and effort)
• White paint, watered down
• Large rectangular paint scuttle (or you could use a rolling tray, but you’ll end up spattering paint where you didn’t mean it to go!)
• Paint roller sleeve, frame and extension pole (if you try to do it without the pole it’ll be hard work, and you’ll probably be glad of the pole when you’re decorating).
• A stirrer for mixing paint and water – you could use a wooden spoon, a flattish length of wood, or a store-bought mixing stick if you prefer.
• Old clothes that you don’t mind getting paint and glue on. You might want to wear a hat or headscarf to keep it out of your hair, too!

Image editing: Lizard Creative Chaos, photo: Dalibor Levíček/Flickr.

What to do:

1. Make sure any wallpaper has been removed from the walls (see my article on wallpaper stripping, coming soon).
2. Lay dust sheets to cover the floor below the area of wall you’re going to prep.
3. Use a scraper and a dry brush to clean around any cracks and remove any flaky paint work or dust from the wall.
4. Water down some PVA glue using 3 parts water to 1 part glue and mix it well in a bucket (1 litre of glue plus 3 litres of water will give you enough to cover a large room with severely damaged wall surfaces).
5. Use the paste brush to apply the diluted glue to any cracks and holes. Load the brush as much as possible and spread it out thinly and evenly. Wait for this to dry before applying filler as explained below. Rinse the paste brush in hot running water when you’re finished.
6. Add your filler powder to the remaining glue-and-water mixture a bit at a time, and stir it until you get a consistency that is runny but won’t drip off your filling knife. Mixing glue into the filler like this prevents cracks reappearing as it doesn’t shrink.
7. Use the 2 inch filling knife to load the filler/glue mix onto the 3 inch filling knife. (This may sound unnecessary but trust me, trying to scoop the filler straight onto the knife you’re filling with is a nightmare!)
8. Apply the filler mix to cracks and holes, ensuring that its entire depth is filled. It doesn’t matter if you slightly over-fill them, as you’ll be sanding it back once it’s dried.  When you’re done, scrape any excess filler off the filling knives into the bucket, and rinse the knives under running water to remove any last bits, then dry the blade and handle to prevent rusting.
9. Leave to dry for the time specified by the filler’s manufacturer, then use a Grade 120 sandpaper to sand down the entire wall until the surface is smooth and even all over.
10. Sweep the wall with a broom or dust brush.
11. Use your stick to mix 5 parts cheap white matt emulsion paint to 1 part water in a large paint scuttle (5 litres of paint plus 1 litre of water will give you enough to cover a large room).
12. Dip the paint roller on its extension pole into the scuttle to load it with paint. As you lift it out, roll it several times against the inside of the scuttle until you’re sure that the paint is spread evenly on the roller.
13. Roll the paint onto the wall lightly and thinly, making one stroke from waist height upwards  followed by another stroke from just above the skirting board up to waist height (this catches any drips). Do this as quickly but carefully as possible, and move along the wall in this pattern until it has all been covered except for a small gap along the top, bottom and each corner of the wall. Don’t worry if the paint is streaky or doesn’t cover well – this is just done to highlight any uneven points on the wall’s surface.  It’s called a “mist coat”.
14. While the mist coat is drying, pour what’s left of the diluted paint back into the paint tub. Now fill the scuttle one-quarter full with water, and wipe the inside with a cloth to clean off the paint. Pour the water from the scuttle into the paint tub as well, and stir it into the unused paint – you can use the rest of this for another mist coat in the future, as the paint is not of a high enough quality to use for decorating.
15. Remove the roller sleeve from the frame and hold it under running water, squeezing and wringing out the sleeve until the water you squeeze out is clear. Rinse the frame under running water to clean it as well.
16. When the mist coat is dry, walk around the room about a foot from the wall, looking closely up and down each wall for any areas of highlight of shadow as these indicate where the wall is not perfectly even.
17. Mix filler powder with water as indicated in the manufacturer’s instructions, and repeat steps 8 – 10 to fill any uneven points you noticed as you checked the walls over.
18. Once it’s all dry and swept clean, your wall is ready to decorate!

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After a highly personalised consultation on visual branding and visual marketing psychology, Lizard Creative Chaos supplied me with these modern, eye-catching business cards (as well as matching car magnets, shown further down the page).

MJ Lewis' business card, supplied by Lizard Creative Chaos

I also got advice on creating this website and matching it to my business’ new visual theme, with Lizard Creative Chaos sourcing suitable royalty-free images and editing them for me to use in all my promotional material.  I had some of the website’s main pages copywritten for me, too!

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MJ Lewis' car door poster magnet, supplied by Lizard Creative Chaos

The site’s still under construction at the moment… I’ve never had a blog or a website before so bear with me while I get the hang of things!

Thanks for stopping by,

MJ Lewis