20 Secret Tips From Professional Painters

Rewiring your entire house may be beyond your range of skills, and you might not be able to install a sink, or put up new drywall, or finish a basement all on your own, but painting? Now painting is something you can do!

Indeed, most homeowners don’t hesitate to call a plumber or electrician or contractor when something’s not right in their houses, but when it comes to putting on a fresh coat of paint, they’re more than happy to take a do it yourself approach. And why not? Painting doesn’t require any special knowledge or intricate understanding of how certain systems work. You just buy the paint and maybe a few implements to get it on the wall, and you get started.

Or do you? The truth is that while painting may seem like an easy task — one that you could even complete in a few hours’ time — it takes a certain amount of knowledge and a little finesse to do it properly. Nothing brightens up a room and boosts the mood of an indoor space quite like fresh paint on the walls and trim, but if that paint is applied haphazardly and without abiding by certain rules, it can look like a real hack job.

Before you tackle that painting job on your ever expanding home improvement checklist, you’ll want to read this list to make sure you do it right and create a space that you’re proud to live in and show off to guests.

Here are 20 secret tips from professional painters.

1. Empty out the room before you get started. It’s not an easy job to remove all furniture, wall hangings, and other belongings from a room, nor is it easy to figure out where you’ll temporarily keep everything. However, an empty room is significantly easier to paint than a full one. You’ll be able to move around the space without anything getting in your way, and you won’t have to worry about ruining any of your stuff with little drips of paint. Of course, sometimes there are things that you simply can’t clear out of a room before you paint; in those instances, cover these items with plastic or a large drop cloth to protect them.

2. Clean the dust before you get started. It’s always best to paint a clean surface: the paint will form a stronger bond with the wall (or whatever it is you’re painting), and the resulting paint job will look better and last longer. A day or two before you plan to paint, vacuum up any cobwebs and dust bunnies, then wipe down the trip and the walls very well with a soft, damp sponge. Then, let the surfaces dry completely before you put any paint or primer on them.

3. Also before you paint, fill in any notches, divots, and uneven areas in the walls and the trim. To spot these, carefully examine the surface with a handheld light bulb (sometimes called a raking light). When you see an area that needs smoothing out, mark it with a small piece of tape or even a light pencil mark. Then, fill in these areas with spackling compound, which can be purchased at any hardware store; for especially deep holes and crevices, you may want to use an epoxy wood filler. Let this dry completely according to the manufacturer’s instructions, then sand it down, clean up the resulting dust, and then paint.

4. To keep the seams between woodwork and walls smooth and tight, apply a thin line of caulk before you paint. It improves the overall aesthetic of your work, making for a cleaner looking and more professional paint job. To do it right and make it as easy as possible, apply the caulk with a dripless caulk gun, then gently remove the excess with a putty knife.

5. You don’t want to paint the cover plates of the room’s light switches and electrical outlets, so before you pry the lid off a can of paint, take the cover plates off. Then, tape over the outlets and switches before you paint. If you still have a landline phone jack in the room, remove it if you can, or tape over it. This makes for a much neater paint job and a lot less clean up when you’re done. Once the paint is totally dry, you can re-attach the cover plates.

6. Use cotton or canvas drop cloths rather than plastic ones. Sure, plastic drop cloths are cheap and disposable, but they’re also slippery to walk on. Plus, they slide over both hard and carpeted floors. If you take a spill, you’ll have to delay your painting project to attend to bumps, bruises, or if you’re really unlucky, a broken bone. Plastic drop cloths just aren’t worth it in the long run. As a bonus, you can use a canvas or cotton drop cloth multiple times; if you paint a lot, you’ll probably save money overall.

7. For hard floors, skip the drop cloth altogether and use rosin paper. Rosin paper is a felt paper that is no-slip, which is an especially handy quality when you’re trying to move around and paint carefully. Tape it down, and you’ll have a much safer space in which to paint. It will help to keep your floor safe against paint drips, but if you have a bigger paint spill, you’ll want to stop and clean it up quickly; otherwise, the paint can soak through and stain your floors.

8. Prep yourself for painting! You’ll probably be wearing some old clothes and a painters cap to cover your hair, but it’s also a wise idea to cover your arms and face in a good layer of body lotion. (Any kind will do!) This makes your skin soft and slippery, so if any paint splatters should land on you, they’ll wipe off quickly and easily. And, as an added bonus, your skin will get a nice moisturizing treatment as you paint.

9. Tackle the trim first. Any professional painter will tell you that gently brushing paint on trim first is easier than painting walls first. This is because it’s faster to tape off trip than tape off walls. Take your time, put a smooth and even coat on the trim, and then do a second coat. Let it dry completely before tackling the walls; it will usually take about 24 hours.

10. Paint color can vary slightly from one can to another, even if they contain the same exact color. If you’re painting a large space, combine several cans of paint into a five gallon bucket and mix it well before you get started. Otherwise, if you use one can at a time, you run the risk of getting a slightly different shade on each side of the room.

11. Keep your trim, baseboards, and floors well protected while you paint the walls by using wide painters tape that hangs over the edge of the trim. That way, if any paint drips down when you’re taking care of the walls, the overhang will catch it.

12. When you’re using a brush, you can use the edge of the can as a drip stopper if you must. However, if your can is full to the brim, that quickly becomes a messy task. Instead, take a wire hanger and bend it over the top of the can, fitting it around the edge and letting it hang down over the sides. Then, use tape to secure the wire to the sides, and voila — you’ve made an instant drip stopper! Another handy tip is to put your paint can inside of a disposable pie tin that’s slightly larger than the circumference of the can. That will help to catch any paint that drips down the sides of the can, keeping your floors protected and keeping the bottom of your can from leaving paint rings when you move it.

13. When choosing a roller, go for quality rather than affordability. Cheap paint rollers don’t hold much paint; you spend a lot more time reapplying paint to to a cheap roller, which means you spend a lot more time painting the walls (up to four times as much!). Instead, get a good wool blend roller. It will hold more paint and apply it to your walls more evenly. And, if you take the time to clean it up well after you’re done painting, you can reuse it several times.

14. Before you paint, prime your wool blend roller. While these rollers are great for applying paint, they can shed wool fibers when they’re new. If you use an unprimed roller, those small fibers can end up on your freshly painted surface and create noticeable imperfections. To remove the loose fibers, wrap the roller with masking tape and then pull it off. Do this a few times before you use a new roller to make sure all the loose fibers are removed.

15. Keep your roller wet between painting sessions. The easiest way to do this is to wrap it in a wet towel, put the towel and roller in a plastic bag sealed as best as you can get it, and then stash it in the fridge. A dry roller can cause lap marks, or lines of overlapping paint, to appear on your walls, and those aren’t exactly aesthetically pleasing.

16. When you’re painting with a roller, roll the entire height of the wall. This creates a smooth, evenly painted surface and helps to prevent lap marks and marks left by odd rolling patterns.

17. Go easy on the pressure when you’re using a roller. If you push too hard on it, you’re more likely to end up with an uneven paint job and noticeable drips. Plus, too much pressure can mat down the wool blend fibers, which means the roller won’t hold as much paint and you’ll spend more time getting the job done. If you’re new to using a paint roller, start with a light touch and build up as needed, using enough pressure to evenly cover your surface without causing excess paint to drip down.

18. Sand down your first coat of paint. This is especially important if you’re painting wood surfaces, such as a door. Yes, it’s a bit of a hassle to do, but it can go a long way in eliminating bubbles and other imperfections in your paint job. To do it, use a sanding sponge or 220 grit sandpaper, both of which should be available at any hardware store. Then, before you add your second coat, remove the dust by vacuuming the surface and wiping it down with a damp cloth or sponge.

19. Remove painters tape either when the paint is still wet or when it’s totally dry. Pulling off tape when the paint is only partially dry usually results in an uneven edge because little flecks of half-dried paint are likely to come off. When you remove it, pull it as close to a 90 degree angle as you can. If you’re having a hard time taking the tape off, or if it’s pulling paint with it as you go, use a hair dryer to apply some heat and weaken the adhesive; it should come off much easier and with a lot less damage.

20. If you spill paint on a wood floor or another hard surface, you can use a disposable facial cleansing wipe to clean it up. That’s right: the same things you use to prevent pimples can clean up a small paint mess. It sounds crazy, but the alcohol-based solution they’re soaked with can soften latex paint and remove it from most surfaces. Plus, these cloths won’t harm most materials, though before you clean, you’ll want to test it out in an out of the way place to make sure. This tip works best if the paint hasn’t been dry for very long, but with some elbow grease, you should be able to clean up most small mistakes even after a few days.