Skill level: 3

🔘🔘🔘⚪️ ⚪️

Time to complete:

Experienced: 4 hrs.

Handy: 6 hrs.

Novice: 8 hrs

Materials:

1. Spackling compound or wall-repair materials
2. stain blocker and /or primer
3. high-quality latex.
4. paint, blue painter’s tape, 120-grit sandpaper
   12inch baseboard-masking paper

Tools:

1. Putty knife
2. brushes
3. rollers
4. spray bottle (for priming brushes and roller covers)
5. extension pole
6. 5 gallon paint bucket with roller grid
7. small paint bucket
8. latex paint respirator (optional)
9. safety glasses
10. drop cloth
11. ladder (if necessary)
12. rags

1. Fix the dings. Examine all the surfaces, then carefully repair and sand all cracks, holes, or dents before you apply the paint. For information on repairing walls, see …..

2. Tint the primer. Only a limited percentage of the primer’s volume can be made up of tint, so it may look lighter than the finish coat. Not all primers need tinting; let the paint salesperson follow the guidelines of the manufacturer.

3. Mask the room. Determine the order for painting the room, working from top to bottom. Prime land paint) the ceiling first, trim second, and walls last wiping off wall drips from trim). Mask all areas being painted last from those that are painted first.

4. Spot prime. If using latex, dip the brush in water to help it absorb the primer. If using alkyd, dip the brush in mineral spirits. Brush out the liquid on a piece of cardboard to remove loose bristles. Prime all areas of walls and trim that need special attention: patches in drywall and plaster, areas of bare wood exposed by scraping or sanding, and any spots treated with stain blocker.

5. Moisten the roller. A dry roller won’t absorb thick 5 primer or paint well, so moisten the roller beforehand. For a latex primer, mist the roller with water and squeeze off the excess. Use mineral spirits for alkyd primer. Run the roller over the paint grid or roller tray several times to saturate the roller cover with primer.

6. Cut in the edges of the ceiling, brushing an area about 2 inches wide and 5 feet long at a time with primer. Then, wearing safety goggles and an old cap, roll primer onto the ceiling, overlapping the roller into the cut-in area. Roll with diagonal strokes, moving from the edge toward the middle of the room. Continue cutting in and rolling until you’re finished.

7. Mask off the trim if you haven’t already done so. Wait until the ceiling dries and mask it off with blue painter’s masking tape. Cut in around the windows, doors, and corners. (Starting in a corner, brush primer along about 5 feet of trim, 5 feet of ceiling, and from top to bottom of the corner.)

8. Roll the walls, getting as close as possible to the masked trim, ceiling, or adjacent wall. This minimizes the area with a brush-stroke texture. Some professional painters reverse the rolling and cutting-in steps, rolling as close as they can to the masked trim; then, to save paint, they cut in only what’s left.

9. Begin rolling at the top of the wall along the cut-in strip, working toward the bottom in a series of W-shape strokes, as shown above, to avoid creating a visible pattern. Move along the wall in 3- to 5-foot sections, cutting in and rolling until the job is done. Work in sections you can cover with a single load of the roller, and always roll up on the first stroke. The key is to overlap areas of wet paint.

10. Sand the walls if needed. When the primer is thoroughly dry, lightly sand any blemishes. If using a full sheet of 120-grit sandpaper, tear it in four pieces, folding each one in thirds. Lightly rub the wall to remove bumps and other high spots. When the paper fills with paint dust, refold it to reveal a fresh face and continue. As an alternative, use drywall screen or a 4-to 6-inch putty knife to knock down the bumps. Wipe the smoothed wall with a damp rag to remove dust and debris.

11. Masks the top of the walls, and roll the ceiling with paint. Cut in a section and roll as in step 6. Protect your eyes with safety goggles and wear an old cap. Extension poles allow you to reach more areas safely, without leaning from a ladder. A 5-gallon bucket with a roller grid requires filling less often than a paint tray and it is less likely to tip. Use a roller with a spatter guard to reduce spattering.

12. Cut in the walls. After you’ve painted the ceiling, remove the tape from the top of the walls and let the ceiling dry overnight. Then mask off the ceiling and trim to paint the walls. Starting in a corner, cut in a few feet along the ceiling, a few feet along the baseboard, and in the starting corner, as in Step 7.

13. Roll paint on the wall working from top to bottom in a series of W-shape strokes. The cut in (brushed) areas have a different texture from the rolled areas. Paint into the freshly cutin areas with a roller to minimize the difference; if you have masked properly, the roller can get very close to cover almost all of it.

14. Prime and paint the trim. Remove the masking tape from the walls, wait for the paint to dry thoroughly, and mask off for the trim. Control drips to minimize mistakes, pour the trim paint into a small bucket and dip the brush about halfway ing the paint. Then tap the brush against the sides (instead of scraping it against the rim) to remove excess paint at the lip of the brush.