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A great way to decorate a kid's room is with "clouds" - painted on the ceiling.  You don't need to be an artist to do a good job with this, just follow the procedure carefully.

Start with a base coat of a flat latex paint tinted to a powder blue.  Roll the paint on the ceiling in the normal ceiling painting way. Allow this paint to dry then proceed on to painting your clouds.

Clouds are painted on the ceiling with a flat white latex paint.  The cloud shapes are painted onto the ceiling with a sea sponge and / or a rag.  The key to doing a good job is to get wispy edges by thinly applying the paint out into the blue background.  Use a latex glaze with your white latex paint to give your clouds translucency. It is useful to have a picture or two of clouds on hand to kind of use for inspiration when painting your clouds.

The clouds will have denser middle sections and more translucent edges with light, floating pieces of cloud that fade out into the blue background.  Make your clouds of different sizes and shapes and avoid repetition.  Above all, have fun - it's only paint.

See Painting Faux Clouds for more details and see the Painting and Decorating Concourse for more information on faux painting techniques.

Painting new drywall is fairly simple, particularly if you will be using flat latex paint (as do most new construction painters).  You don't have to use the cheap flat paints that new house painters use.  They do so because they need a paint that can be touched up invisibly. If you are painting after the remodeling is complete - even after the carpet is down, if you'd prefer (which is best if you don't want to touch up), you should not have any touching up to do.  Hence, you may use a high grade flat paint, or a low sheen satin or eggshell finish with good results.

Priming
You should always prime new drywall.  Don't skip this step. Don't use the finish paint as a primer either.  New drywall PVA primers work very well to wet the substrate and seal it. You can run into paint problems if you decide to use the finish paint as a "primer".  Don't do it. See PVA Drywall Primer.

Remove the drywall sanding dust prior to priming. 
There are a couple of ways to do this: the first way is to use a shop vacuum with a good fine particle HEPA cartridge filter. If using a Shop vacuum, you would want to "bag" the dust upstream with a collection bag, then use a final cartridge filter down steam.  The second way to remove the dust is to use a rag (like a micro fiber tack cloth) attached to a pole sander head, or better yet, use the Dust Eater mop head made by Wooster designed for this very purpose.

Painting
Once you have primed the drywall and it has fully dried, you can finish paint with either flat or low sheen latex paint. If you are painting with a sheen paint, you will have to apply two coats for good sheen uniformity.  Flat paint will usually work fine with only one coat if you are using a high quality flat paint.  See How to Paint New Drywall for more complete instruction on how to paint new drywall.

When removing wallpaper and wallpaper glue, many DIY'ers will try all sorts of concoctions to remove wallpaper and the glue the binds it to the wall.  Countless hours and much mess are often the results of this type of experimentation.  Save yourself the hassle.  There are great products in the marketplace made to do this specific job - and none are all that expensive.

I watched a tradesman one day trying to remove heavy duty adhesive with hot water alone, the carpeted floor was soaking wet, sweat dripping from his brow as he was contemplating giving up and just priming over the whole thing.  Hot water does work - sometimes. But, for tough jobs, or where you want to save yourself a lot of aggravation, I would simple use a product designed to stay on the wall (gel removers),and not soak the flooring below, and one that will not just wet the glue, but break it down chemically.

Use a gel remover like DIf (made by Zinsser) or something similar, if you want the job to go smoothly. That is my advice.

See more about removing wallpaper at The Painting and Decorating Concourse website.

In order to paint to stick to a glossy surface like enameled trim requires a bit of surface preparation.  If you just paint it with a latex paint - you are asking for trouble.

Clean - Dull - Dry
The rule for a substrate that is ready for paint is: clean, dull and dry.  Let's look at how to do this.

Clean / Dull (Homes Built After 1978)
You can do this in one step by using a pre-paint cleaner like Krud Kutter's Pre-Paint Cleaner or Gloss Off used in conjunction with a scrubber pad.  Wipe the cleaner on, scour the surface and wipe it off.  Done - You will have a clean and dull painted surface if clean in this manner.

NOTE:  Don't scour and degloss if your house was built before 1978 (the year lead paint was banned), instead, clean the painted surface with a general cleaning solution (don't scour, sand or "disturb" the paint), rinse and allow to dry and proceed to prime.

Prime
Priming with the right primer will save the day when repainting trim. Use a bonding primer made for sticking to "hard-to-grip-to" surfaces.  I like Zinsser's oil-based Coverstain for this.  Oil primer as such, is more user-friendly in terms of being a "universal" primer for most situations. It will convert a previous oil enamel over to a new latex enamel without any problems, as well as preparing latex paint for waterbased enamel. 

Coverstain will stick to most surfaces (see label) tightly as long as the surface is clean.  The key to using quick dry oil bonding primers is to provide for good ventilation during and after priming as they are a bit strong in odor. 

Once the primer is dry, (about two hours) you can recoat with a waterbased enamel or oil, whichever you prefer.  The newer waterbased enamels (like ProClassic, Muralo's Ultra, or Benjamin Moore's waterborne Impervo) level out smoothly, like an oil-based enamel, without the yellowing that can occur with oil.

FInd the painting supplies you need at the Internet Paint Store.com. 

You can use standard manila masking tape for a lot of different things when painting.  Use it to tack up plastic and to mask off items that you don't want to get paint spatter on.  But, when you need clean lines, you must use special painter's tape.
Painter's tape is usually made for delicate or freshly painted surfaces and is therefore equipped with a low tack adhesive for easy removal.  

Some of these specialty tapes can be left on the surface and  removed after a certain number of days without leaving tape adhesive behind - on the surface.   Some tapes can be left on surfaces in direct sunlight and then removed without leaving adhesive behind.

One of the more important features of a good painter's tape is that they are resistant to paint bleeding under the tape.  If you want crisp, clean lines you need a tape that will not allow paint to bleed under it.  One of the best is 3M's blue tape, specifically #2080 blue tape.  This tape is smooth and conforms to the underlying surface for a tight (yet easy release) seal, providing for good clean lines.  

Use #2080 for faux finishes, murals, painting stripes and similar interior painting projects where you need good clean lines.

See Painter's Tape Review for more in depth look at painter's tape.  You can find painter's tape at the Internet Paint Store.com.

There are really only two types of sprayers used for house painting:  Airless sprayers and HVLP sprayers.  Conventional air compressor sprayers are not used for house painting because of the over spray produced.

HVLP stands for High Volume (of air), Low Pressure (of air). This combination of air pressure helps to atomize the paint very finely without an undue amount of overspray. Airless on the other hand, means that air is not used to atomize the paint.  The paint is pressurized in an airless system and forced through a small orifice in the spray gun to atomize the paint.

The real virtue of the HVLP sprayers is the fine finish and small gun (as opposed to an airless rig and 100 feet of hose), making it a good choice for small projects like wood trim, and fine finishes like stain work clear coats.

This small project recommendation comes with an exception, and that is HVLP sprayers are not very good at spraying latex finish paints.  Probably the best type of sprayer to use for latex finish paints on small projects (like shutters, a door or two, a section of fence, a garage door etc...) are the Wagner cup sprayers with Optimus (see Wagner, Power Painter, Model 320, Wide Shot) or the very high quality Graco True Coat and True Coat Plus airless cup gun sprayers.

The HVLP sprayers are good for spraying thinner viscosity materials like clear coats, oil based primers and paints, shellac primers and clears, lacquers, and latex primers and clear coats. Some of the thinner viscosity latex finish paints (like some waterbased enamels) are sprayed fairly well with the HVLP sprayer. You may need to thin the paint a bit for good atomization.

The HVLP cup gun does not waste paint in the paint line or hose like the airless rig (which probably uses a quart of paint in the line before it even reaches the spray gun), and is quick and easy to clean up.  Again, because there is not hose to chase the paint out of when cleaning, a simply cup cleaning and spraying clean solvent (depending on the material used: water, mineral spirits, lacquer thinner or alcohol etc..) through the gun - and you are done with clean up.

The cup gun design and siphon tube feed makes HVLP sprayers ideal for small projects, delivering a professional finish with the right paint finish.

Glaze is a clear medium that is added to paint to make the paint more translucent. Glaze can also be tinted with universal colorants and used without paint.

Why use glaze?
Faux finishes are created by using an inter-play between the base coat and subsequent layers of finish coats that contain glaze which gives them transparency. You cannot get this transparency by using paint which is opaque. 

Another function of glaze is to add "stiffness" to the paint / glaze mix.  This stiffness allows the mixture to be manipulated.  For instance, when using a wood graining glaze, the grainer will manipulate the glaze with combs, brushes and tools to get the mixture to look like wood. It is imperative that the finish "hold the pattern" and not flow back in a self leveling process.  Glaze allows for transparency and stiffness.

You can do some faux finishes without glaze.
Some faux finishes don't rely on transparency to create the finish, instead, they mesh wet paint colors together to get a blended color effect.  The Faux Italian Plaster finish and some different Sponge Painting techniques use this effect.

Learn more about faux finishing at The Painting and Decorating Concourse.

Some paints level better than others.  A good quality in an enamel (waterbased or oil) is the ability of the paint to level out as it dries to a smooth sprayed-on-like finish.

Oil enamels as a rule, will level out much better than a standard latex enamel. The problem with oil enamels (other than the odor and clean up) is that they yellow over time. This is problematic with whites and is more a an issue in dark areas (like a basement) where there is limited ultra violet light.

Water based enamels do not yellow, but they tend to look "ropey" with brush marks - unless you spray them. The newer generation "waterborne" enamels level very nicely.  In fact, the best of these enamels look and feel like an oil based enamel.

In any case, whichever enamel you choose to use, you can minimize (or eliminate) brush marks in you enameling by using a sponge roller to apply the paint - then "tipping" it off with the bristles of a quality brush.

As a rule you probably won't apply your enamel with a sponge roller to door casings, these are easy enough to brush on, tip off and move on.  But, for larger surfaces, like a door or shelving unit, applying the paint with a roller makes sense. 

Roller application applies paint more evenly than brush application. Because of this, it is easier to level out the very fine stipple that the sponge roller lays down, by softly smoothing out the fine stipple by a follow up wipe with the tips of a quality brush. This combination is usually good enough to minimize or eliminate brush marks on most surfaces.

Learn more about painting trim and enameling see How to Paint Trim and Woodwork With Enamel.  Find all the painting tools you need at The Internet Paint Store.

The key to painting good straight lines with a brush lies in the brush itself.  You cannot paint straight lines and crisp cut ins with a cheap brush. 
Cheap, throw-away brushes have their place in the scheme of painting, but not for cutting in straight lines. Inexpensive throw-aways are great for touch-ups and when painting with solvent paints (oil-based) when you don't want to clean up the brush after using it.

Clean, straight lines require a brush with chiseled bristles that come to a "point" at the tip of the brush end. Quality brushes not only have chiseled bristles, but they also will form a straight edge when you flex the bristles on the substrate you are painting. You can't paint a straight line with a crooked brush.

Technique:  I have found that retracing the cut in after the initial painting does the best job when cutting in corners (like the wall / ceiling joint).  The method is done by doing the painting in the usual way: cutting in and rolling out the walls, then allowing the paint to dry.  Then, once the paint is dry, you come back with a quality, small, chiseled brush and "clean up" your lines by re-tracing the wall / ceiling cut in. This procedure allows you to concentrate on strictly the cut in line without the pressure to get on to the rolling or without the need to lay down a full hiding band of paint as you would when doing the original cut in.

You can paint straight lines using painter's tape, edging tools or free hand, with a quality brush.  Let the situation dictate which one of these methods is the best to use.  Learn more about interior painting at the Painting and Decorating Concourse.

There are situations where a pad edger or cut in tool will not work.  If you are painting a stripes on a wall or even a graphic design, you will need to use a clean line tape to create straight or crisp lines. You can use painter's tape to mask ceilings or trim in order to get a straight line too.

Painter's masking tape:  There are many different kinds of masking tapes used for painting.  Some are better for holding up draped plastic, or masking paper, or for general use in covering up, others are intended for creating clean lines and edges.

Blue painter's tape.  The best of the blue tapes is 3M's #2080.  This tape is smooth, unlike the crepe tapes that have a fine textured surface, which allows the tape to cling tightly to the wall. It is also an easy release tape making it useful on delicate or freshly painted surfaces. Other blue tapes may be easy release, but are not smooth (they are crepe paper tapes) which allows paint to migrate under the fine wrinkles in the tape's surface - creating fuzzy lines and edges.

Specialty tapes:  One of my favorites is the Easy Mask paper tape. This is a smooth, low tack tape that gives crisp, clean lines consistently.  I use this tape when painting wood trim and casings to give clean lines at the wall. This tape is cheaper than the best blue tape (3M 2080) but, it has adhesive on one edge of the tape only and is a bit closer to masking paper than a masking tape.

Frog tape is a specialty tape that contains an additive on the edges of the tape that expands when it comes in contact with water. This expansion seals out paint from bleeding under the tape, allow for clean paint lines. 

See Painter's Masking Tapes on the Painting and Decorating Concourse website for more detailed information on masking for straight lines and painter's tapes.