Thank you HomeRight for sponsoring this post about the best tips for painting walls. Find my full disclosure here.

I am so excited to share our updated paint job in our master bedroom with you today! 3 years ago I painted our whole house when we moved in, but I was ready for a refresh in our bedroom. I have been loving the bold wall colors all over Pinterest lately and decided I needed something a little more moody in my own. Since there is such a contrast in the colors we chose, I feel like this room encompassed all the challenges you face when painting walls. So I thought it would be helpful to give you my best painting tips, tips for painting walls specifically.

In the past few years, I have done a lot of painting. I painted nearly our entire tri level house when we moved in while I was 7 months pregnant. Since then I’ve repainted a couple rooms and tackled our kitchen cabinets. I’ve learned a thing or two about painting along the way.

I originally painted this room Sherwin Williams Sea Salt. See more of how it used to look here. It was a nice, calm color that treated us well for 3 years, but I decided it was time to do something a little more edgy. So this time we painted an accent wall behind our bed Valspar Peacock House and the other walls Benjamin Moore Simply White.

The green is the perfect color for well, everything. My front door is actually this same color and I’m tempted to use it on the cabinets in my guest bathroom as well. And you can’t beat the simplicity of white and how it lets all the other colors and textures in a room shine.

Here’s how it turned out!

I have a little bit more styling to do but so far I am really loving how it’s coming together. We have 6 doors in our room so I love how the white walls help them blend in a little more. And obviously I cannot get enough of that green wall!

Painting walls is something that anyone can do, but it takes some practice (and a few tricks) to do it well and quickly. I’ve worked for a professional painter, but I know others do some things differently. This list is what’s worked best for me and I’ll tell you why!

Best painting tips for painting walls

Get all your supplies ready first thing.

Nothing slows down a paint job like running out to your garage a million times realizing you’ve forgotten something, again and again. I’ve been there far too many times. There are actually quite a few little supplies that go into painting. Another way to make this easier is to choose tools that cut down on your supply list and simplify the process. I recently tried out the HomeRight EZ-Twist Paint Roller Applicator and was able to ditch trays and liners. Instead you pull paint straight from the can into the handle of the roller and apply it directly to the wall. Less things to trip over are always a win for me.

My supply list consists now consists of paint, drop cloth or plastic, paint can opener (the one thing I ALWAYS have to run back out to the garage for), stir stick, paintbrush, HomeRight EZ-Twist and QuickPainter, painters tape, and a screwdriver for removing switch/outlet covers.

I’ve got more info (including pros and cons) for using the EZ-Twist Paint Roller after I finish up these painting tips!

Then do all the prep work.

Move the furniture. Dust off all the trim and doorways. Take off light switch and outlets covers. Tape everything that needs to be taped. This will save you so much time if you do it up front!

If you’re painting trim and walls, paint the walls first 

This way you don’t have to tape off your trim. Trim typically has a narrow ledge (especially the builder grade trim that is throughout our home) and it’s hard to get painters tape to completely seal to it. Unless you are super diligent about applying the tape correctly, you’re likely to get leaks through to your trim in some spots. If you paint the trim last, you can tape of the wall much easier than the trim since it’s a flat surface and gravity is on your side. It’s not as likely to leak through!

When painting walls, cut in around in your walls first

Cutting in is when you paint around the edges of a room. Use a paint brush or the HomeRight QuickPainter to quickly cut in around the ceiling the corners and the trim. Also go ahead and get around your outlets and light switches. It will all blend once you start rolling. Usually cutting in takes two coats to get full coverage if you’re using a paint brush.

Fill up your roller and paint your wall in long strips from top to bottom

Make sure you have plenty of paint on your roller. One thing that will take up a lot of your time is if you don’t have enough, you’ll essentially be putting paint on your walls then soaking it back up. That leads to more time trying to get good coverage and extra unneeded coats of paint. When your roller is full enough it will glide effortlessly down your wall. The second your paint job starts to get splotchy, it’s time to fill up with more paint. You shouldn’t have to press down hard to apply paint.

Start at the ceiling and roll all the way down to the bottom in one roll. Quickly go back over any spots that may need extra love and lightly roll over any drips or roller lines to smooth them out. Then move on. You’ll find you can get around a room much quicker when you follow this pattern and have enough paint on your roller. It’s also easier to spot drips when you aren’t painting willy nilly all over the wall, ha!

Advice for painting an accent wall

The hardest part of an accent wall is getting the corners where they meet another paint color just right! I can cut in the ceiling and trim without using tape, but corners are a whole other beast! For this part I definitely recommend using painters tape. Tape off the opposite wall and use a credit card to smooth over the tape and make sure it is down tight on the wall. Then paint your accent color. Use a small artists brush to touch up any paint that might still get through.

So that’s it for tips! If I missed anything you have questions about, let me know in the comments and I’ll update! Seriously, everyone can paint a wall – these are just my best painting tips to speed up the process!

Using the HomeRight EZ-Twist Paint Roller Applicator

I wanted to give you some more information about this tool because we all know that some tools are too good to be true. Sometimes they’re more work than they’re worth, so I thought it would be beneficial to explain this one more.

First off, there is a bit of a learning curve to using both the Quick Painter and the EZ-Stick. Mostly it involves getting comfortable with sucking the paint into the handle directly from the paint can. You will definitely want to read the directions. But after a couple fill ups you’ll get the hang of it. And let’s be honest, pouring from the paint can into a tray is often a little stressful and messy. This definitely saves you the mess!

Filling up the Quick Painter

For the Quick Painter (the one you use for edging), it’s pretty self explanatory. You press the trigger and pull the handle out to suck paint in. The tricky part is releasing the trigger before releasing the handle. But once you get that down, it’s easy sailing!

Filling up and using the EZ-Stick

I actually found the EZ-Stick even easier to fill up, however I wouldn’t have figured it out without the directions. There’s just this little button that has to be switched up for filling up the handle, then flipped down when you’re painting. After that you just twist the handle to push more paint onto your roller.

The entire first handle of paint is used to soak your roller. Remember how important it is to have a properly filled roller! You want to roll the roller on the wall while filling it with paint so it fills evenly and doesn’t drip. Then you go back to the paint can to get another handle full of paint and you’re ready to really get to painting. Not counting the first handle to soak the roller, I only needed to fill up twice on each wall. This is a huge time (and back) saver compared to traditional rolling with a tray.

You’re supposed to roll as you twist the handle when you need more paint to avoid drips. There is also a guard to keep splatter at bay. I did find that it was easier for me to paint down low without the guard.

Pros and Cons of the EZ-Stick

Pros:

• Less time filling your roller so you can knock out that paint job (the number one thing!)
• Less supplies, no tray to trip over or move around with you. And it saves you money!
• Everything is reusable. I feel so wasteful when I’m constantly throwing out rollers and tray liners, but they usually aren’t practical to reuse. The entire system comes apart for cleaning so you can easily reuse it all. You will probably want a new roller cover after a few uses, but it cleans up really well so you won’t have to throw it away every single time.

Cons:

• A little bit of a learning curve. But you adjust fast and it only takes a few minutes to read the directions.
• Cleanup is a little involved, but it’s not hard. There are just quite a few parts to take apart so you get the paint out of everything. I personally think this is well worth it when you think of the reusability and the money it saves you if you do a lot of painting like me. I’m so glad I won’t have to go buy more liners and rollers for my next paint job!

So there you have it…my best tips for painting walls and a ton of information on the HomeRight painting supplies! Painting is like everything else, the more you do it, the better and faster you get. And it’s always the quickest way to make a huge impact in your home.

And if I haven’t mentioned it yet, I absolutely love how my bedroom walls turned out! It was exactly the look I was going for. We’ll be updating and perfecting the decor in a few other ways (rug, bedding, general decor), but this is a great start!

Here’s a few more pictures!

If you’re interested in learning how to paint furniture, I have a guide for that too!

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