Looking for Painting Tips and Tricks

I am going to paint the entire interior of my home after the first of the year. I have painted over the years under the direction of my husband who is no longer here. I need some tried and true tips for making the job as easy and long lasting as possible. I have seen a number of products on TV, which look great in theory, particularly that little roller that is used to do trim so you don't have to tape off everything. Since it seems too good to be true I thought I'd ask if anyone has used such items and how they rated.
Rebecca

Painting Tips and Tricks: Paint Trimming Tool a Great Resource

I have painted the interior of our houses several times over the years and the one tool I would not want to be without, besides a basic roller for the walls, is the little pad with wheels to paint next to trim without getting on the trim. They are about 4x6 inches in size and are very easy to use and clean. The pads can be replaced. They cost approximately $3-4.

I first paint the woodwork around the doors, windows and baseboards if it is going to be painted. Then, as I paint the walls, I use the little pad with the wheels for the part next to the trim and fill in the big blank areas of wall with the regular paint roller. The little wheels guarantee you don't get paint on the woodwork. The pad holds enough paint to move it 2-3 feet before needing to lightly re-dip it in the paint.
Becky

Woman Painting a Wall photo from Shutterstock

Painting Tips and Tricks: Professional Painting Tricks and Resources

My husband worked with his father doing professional house painting during the summers. His dad was a schoolteacher, so the painting provided extra income in the off months. What he's taught me about painting is this:

1. Buy good quality paint. It will cover with fewer coats and last for more years.
   
2. Never tape to do your edging. It will take you less time to do a careful job with a brush. If you use tape, sometimes it pulls up part of your new paint job when you pull it off.
   
3. Do your roller painting in manageable-sized squares, such as a square yard. Load the roller well with paint, then paint approximately a square yard by rolling side to side, back and forth with medium pressure. Without reloading the roller, then roll over the same square painting up and down, again with medium pressure. Then, again without reloading, roll over the square side to side very evenly with light pressure to give it an eggshell finish. Start your next square (after reloading the roller) overlapping the first slightly, while the paint is still wet. To avoid having seams, don't let the paint dry. Paint so that you're always contacting wet paint. Work out from your original square in this way until you've finished the whole wall.

I saw the same commercial for the edger and asked my husband about it. He said it's not new and it doesn't work very well. Before long, paint gets on the wrong side of the guard, which can mess up your edging job.
Happy painting!
Drea

Painting Tips and Tricks: Not Satisfied with Roller

Save your money and buy an inexpensive pad-type trim tool from a discount store. Even this did not do a great job on the floor molding, however, so you'll probably still need to tape here. We tried one of the "magic" trim rollers advertised on TV, and as the old adage goes, it was too good to be true! The paint leaked profusely out the sides all over the door trim on our first try. We also tried one of the nifty rollers where you pour the paint inside the roller instead of rolling it in the paint tray. Less mess to be sure, but the pressure needed to apply the paint to the wall made me give up after one wall. Also, when you went back over the same area, the roller took the paint off you had just applied. I had never painted before and was slightly afraid of it, so I wanted to make it as easy as possible. My advice would be to invest in some basic good rollers and trim tools. Old fashioned, maybe, but gets the job done right.
Michelle

Painting Tips and Tricks: The Right = Easy Job

We just finished doing some painting in our home this past weekend. We used one of those "paint sticks" that comes with the special top and fill tube that sucks the paint directly from the can into the paint stick and, in turn, into the roller. It is fantastic! It was easy to use and it sure beat having to fill the roller pan every few minutes and slopping paint everywhere. There was no mess, no drips, no streaks or runs. Clean up was easy, too, and the paint seemed to go a lot farther.

We also used a "window edger" to paint the window frames. It is two pieces of curved plastic, jointed in the middle in a wide V shape. You place it in the corner of the window and along the frame as you go, against the glass, and it allows you to paint the frame without getting any paint on the glass - a very handy little tool.

One more thing we found helpful was a baseboard edger. It is a long (appx. 14" long x 2" wide) piece of flexible plastic that you put on top of your carpet at the bottom of the baseboard. The curved edge goes all the way down to the floor, below the carpet nap, so you can paint all the way down your baseboard to the bottom, to get the most finished look. Protects your carpet from stray brushstrokes also. All these tools, especially the paint roller, made the job so much quicker and easier!

Painting Tips and Tricks: Not a Happy Painter

I recently tried the Pro-Trim paint kit (pretty much the same as the Edgemaster) and was extremely dissatisfied. The guard that is supposed to be like tape was atrocious. It left a groove in my walls around everything. So not only did I have to tape anyway, I had to spackle the grooves the thing left. I do not recommend this product at all.
Shannon

Painting Tips and Tricks: Hints from the Pros

Professional painters will remove all fixture covers before painting. Also, many painters find that if they use a new angle-edged 2 inch brush (correct for the paint type) and slap the excess paint off the brush against the edge of the paint can they can "trim" the edgework without using masking tape much at all. One technique folks' need to learn is to hold the brush in a fixed position and move the brush along the edgework area by moving your arm at the elbow, rather than the wrist. This steadies the hand much more than you'd think and the line of paint remains very straight. If you don't want a lot of brush marks showing up in your work, always be sure to sand the primer smooth before you apply paint and always paint back "into the wet". That is, finish your brushstroke by heading it into the wet paint you just applied rather than dragging it into an unpainted area.
Latas

Painting Tips and Tricks: Book to Check Out

Don Aslett's book, Painting Without Fainting , is very helpful. Check it out of the library and follow his advice. The result should be a professional, efficient, and not a very messy job.
Kim