How to Paint Walls and Ceilings
Supplies
In most cases, you’ll paint walls before trim, so you have to tape off only once. Apply at least two coats, allowing four hours of drying time in between; let the final coat of wall paint dry overnight before taping off and painting trim. When buying brushes, look for those with flexible (not stiff) bristles and flagged, or split, ends. Use a 3- or 4-inch brush on walls (anything larger is unwieldy); angled 1- to 2-inch ones are ideal for windows, trim, and cutting in.
Decant: Place a flattened cardboard box under paint containers to give floors an extra layer of protection. After mixing paint with a wooden stir stick, pour some into a smaller plastic vessel, filling about halfway. (Spouts on newer containers make this easier.)
Dip: To minimize the risk of drips, insert the bristles about 2 inches into the paint, then tap them against the sides of the container to remove excess.
Cut in: Paint part of a corner or around the trim (edges you won’t be able to reach with a roller) with a 2-inch angled brush. This is called cutting in. Do only 4-foot sections at a time to avoid the marks that appear when paint starts to dry.
Roll: Pour paint into your roller tray. Dip in the roller, then move it back and forth on the tray bed until it’s saturated but not dripping. To ensure even coverage, paint a 2-foot-wide V on the wall, and, without lifting the roller, fill it in with tight vertical strokes. Repeat, working top to bottom, until the wall is completed.
Finish: Let wall paint dry overnight; then use painters’ tape to tape off around the trim, burnishing tape with your fingertips as you go for proper adhesion. Apply paint to trim with an angled 2-inch brush. Although some people prefer to wait until paint is dry before removing tape, most experts say to remove it as soon as you are finished painting, when there’s less risk of causing the paint to peel off along with the tape. Either way, pull off the tape slowly at an angle.
To paint a door: First, sand and prime the door’s surface (after removing all hardware). With a 3-inch roller, paint one section of the door, such as an inset panel, then immediately brush over it with a 3-inch brush. Continue working in sections until you’ve finished the main body of the door, then do the vertical and horizontal framing.
To keep paint from drying out between coats (two or three days tops), cover can with plastic wrap before replacing the lid; wrap wet brushes and roller sleeves with plastic wrap and then place in resealable plastic bags (or a plastic bag that’s twisted to seal). Also, be sure to snap a photo of the label affixed to the can’s lid in case you need to buy more paint in a pinch.