painting a room

It's a whole lot easier and faster to paint an empty room.

Rollers will speed up the job a lot. Maybe 2 to 3 different sized brushes. I'd seal unused roller dishes and rollers with tied plastic bags to stop drying out. I always worked from the top downwards, ceiling, walls, woodwork. Cutting in takes up a lot of time and I'd sometimes do that first. It's a lot easier to match colours so if cutting in isn't accurate it won't show so much. Oil based paints need white spirit to clean the brushes and they take longer to dry and the smell lingers. Water based paints smell less and the brushes are cleaned with water (soapy then clean). I used kitchen sink to clean latter but dumped oil based waste in corner of garden so as to not contaminate sewers.

Use a paint brush to 'edge' the room, going around the corners, skirting etc. where you won't fit a roller. When doing it feather the paint in towards the wall centre so you don't end up with a thick edge. Have a damp cloth ready and if you accidentally get the paint where you don't want it clean it straight away and it will wipe off. Covering the carpet is a good idea. Then roller. Splodge some paint in a tray, roll the roller back and forth through it and then on the wall. In between coats cling film the roller as they take a lot of effort to clean. Wall paint is usually water based and you can just wash in the sink. The tins will say on them what you need.

I'm terrible with a roller (dad used paint pads and taught me to use them too) but I'm trying to get better with a roller, my best advise with them is don't roll too fast. Load the roller up with paint (don't overload) apply to wall then slowly spread this out over the wall...slowly being the operative word to avoid splashes.

if planning to do a few rooms worth spending a bit on some of the tools for the job.

It can get tiring as you use body parts not used normally might be trying to do 2 rooms will be too much so a good idea to pace yourself with one to start with, a bit more set up and cleaning but worth it.

Unlike a pro that needs to optimize time and are fit, if you can spread it out over a few days you can get a better result than trying to do it tired. (arms will ache a lot)

Empty room makes life a lot easier and you can put down a full cover dust sheets, old sheets etc are OK but a good set of dust sheets not too expensive. also if you can not use the room for a few days you can shut the door and save on setup/clean down time

There are plastic film ones that are cheap but I don't like them, OK to go under regular sheets in case of a big spill.

preparation is the key to success.

Prep the walls fill, sand ,clean, fill, sand, clean etc. take your time and prep everything this is the bit that makes the rest of the job easy.

take out the dust sheet and give a good shake before starting the paint job.

I found a step of some sort to make reaching the ceiling/wall for cutting in worth considering, we have a stepper stool but if not(or doing more decorating) I would look at one of the small work platforms to give a much longer reach and not need moving so much or a large platform step(some come with trays for the paint pot).
Not too heavy they need moving round the room.

The other tool is a good pole and decent roller cage to do the ceiling and top of the walls(might not need it for the walls if you have the reach)

As you have coving the cutting in should be relatively easy

I would plan 2 coats there can be a tendency to try to cover in one go, I think you get a much better finish with 2 thinner coats and you get to practice cutting in, after the first coat you will see how good your prep was and can do touch ups before finishing with the second coat

cutting in, get a good brush, I found the angle one better, the trick is getting the right amount of paint to do long single strokes, the steady hand comes with a bit of practice.

I found guards or tape just bleed or takes longer than a bit of practice.

I like white ceilings and do the coving the same color, over paint to the wall.

Then cut into the coving/skirting/achitraves and blend in with the roller,
I keep spreading till the cover is even and blend into the previous pass starting a new one as the roller empties, you get a feel fairly quickly, the trick is to work quick enough to keep a wet edge but no so quick you get covered in paint. if careful you can get very close to the woodwork so hardly any brushed area shows.

then you have the wood work to work on(prepped already) if doing 2 coats on the walls you could do the first coat of the woodwork between them.

We have gone for matt woodwork using Dulux diamond, if going gloss you might want to consider which order you do walls and woodwork.

I don't do long days, I go for a day to clear the room and start prepping till tired or fed up, keep prepping next day till done,

A small room can get both ceiling&wall coats done in a day larger area spread over 2 days, woodwork often a day per coat.

if fitter than me and prepared to put in more hours a smallish room empty can be done over a weekend if not to bad too start with.


There is a trade off between cost quality and time when it comes to some equipment, some just throw thing out rather than spend the time cleaning them

For cleaning rollers I have an 2 ltr bottle top cut to act as a a circular scraper I push it through and that cleans off most of the surplus.
(just right for 9" rollers)

I then have another that I use to soak if I don't want to do a full clean straight away just drop it in with soapy warm water.

Stick to water based products for everything much easier.


Forgot, I loosen all electrics and tape up. Roll into the area covered by them much neater finish.

As you can see from the replies here, there's no hard and fast rules to this.

I would suggest you do what we all had to do at some point - just get in there and start painting. It probably won't be perfect, but the second room you paint will be better, and by the third you'll be starting to know what you're doing.

My personal tip - keep a damp cloth in your back pocket for quick mopping up of accidental splashes. So much easier to sort out if you do it immediately.