How to Paint a Room
Paint a room with clean edges and no roller marks, from choosing and buying paint to taping, cutting in, rolling two coats, and cleaning up without paint on your floors.
You will end up with straight edges along the ceiling and trim, an even color with no roller marks, and no paint on the floor.
Painting a room is not hard, but the prep decides how it looks. Skip the prep and you get wobbly edges, visible roller marks, and paint on things that should definitely not have paint on them.
The prep itself is straightforward. Tape the edges, cover the floors, and prime if needed. After that, the actual painting goes fast. Plan on most of a day for a standard bedroom, because the 2 to 4 hours of drying between coats sits in the middle of it.
Paint (measure your walls to calculate how much, or use the formula in FAQ 1). A roller frame with a 9-inch roller cover (3/8-inch nap for smooth walls, 1/2-inch nap for textured walls). A 2- to 2.5-inch angled brush for cutting in edges. A paint tray. Painter's tape (blue or green, not masking tape). Drop cloths or plastic sheeting for the floor. A step ladder for reaching the top of the walls. Lightweight spackle, a putty knife, and 220-grit sandpaper for patching. Primer, if step 4 says you need it. A paint can opener or flathead screwdriver. Stir sticks. Damp rags for wiping drips. Optional but helpful: a paint grid instead of a tray, and an extension pole for the roller so you can reach the top of the wall without the ladder.
Choose your paint and color
Go to the paint store with your room measurements. Tell them the room size and they will help you calculate how much paint you need. A gallon covers about 350 to 400 square feet per coat (the figure on Sherwin-Williams' SuperPaint data sheet), which is enough for one coat in a standard 12-by-12-foot room. You will need two coats, so buy 2 gallons for a room that size. Choose a sheen level. Flat or matte hides wall imperfections but is harder to clean. Eggshell is a common choice for bedrooms and living rooms because it has a slight sheen that wipes clean. Satin works well in kitchens and bathrooms where moisture is a factor. Use semi-gloss for trim and doors.
Good to know: Buy all your paint at once and ask the store to shake it. If you need more than 1 gallon of the same color, pour them all into a 5-gallon bucket and stir. This is called boxing the paint. It evens out the slight color variation between cans, which can otherwise show as a visible change where one can ends and the next begins.
Prep the room
Move furniture to the center of the room and cover it with drop cloths or plastic sheeting. Remove outlet covers, light switch plates, and any wall-mounted hardware. Lay drop cloths along the baseboards covering the entire floor area you will be working over. Clean the walls with a damp cloth to remove dust, cobwebs, and surface grime. Paint does not stick well to dirty walls. If your home was built before 1978, its old paint may contain lead, and sanding it creates lead dust. Before you sand anything, follow EPA's lead-safe advice for do-it-yourselfers, which recommends having a certified lead inspector test the surfaces you are working on. Fill any nail holes or cracks with lightweight spackle and smooth it flush with the putty knife. Check the label for two different dry times. DAP's Fast 'N Final, for example, can take latex paint after 30 minutes with no sanding, but needs about 24 hours before you sand it. If a patch dried with a ridge, wait that long, sand it smooth with fine-grit sandpaper (220 grit), and wipe away the dust with a damp cloth.
Tape the edges
Apply painter's tape along the ceiling line, baseboards, door frames, and window frames. Press the tape down firmly with your finger or a putty knife, especially along the edge where the tape meets the wall. The mistake to avoid is leaving the edge unsealed, because paint bleeds underneath and dries as a wavy line. Take your time here. Run your finger along the entire length of each tape strip, pressing the edge flat. The tape should overhang the surface you are protecting, not the wall you are painting.
Heads up: Use real painter's tape (blue or green), not standard masking tape. Masking tape does not seal as tightly, leaves adhesive residue, and can peel paint off the surface it is protecting when you remove it. Painter's tape is made to come off cleanly, and each roll says how many days it can stay on, so check yours before you leave it up.
Prime if necessary
You need primer if you are painting over a dark color with a lighter one, covering new drywall or spackled patches, dealing with stains or water marks, or painting over a glossy surface. Use a stain-blocking primer for stains and a standard primer for everything else. Apply primer the same way you will apply paint (cut in edges first, then roll). Let the primer dry for the recoat time on its label before you paint. If you are painting a similar or darker shade over existing paint that is in good condition, you can skip primer entirely. Many paints are sold as paint-and-primer-in-one for exactly these situations.
Cut in the edges
Dip your angled brush about one-third of the way into the paint. Tap off the excess on the side of the can rather than wiping it across the rim. Paint a 2- to 3-inch border along the ceiling line, baseboards, corners, and around any trim or fixtures that the roller cannot reach. Use long, smooth strokes rather than short choppy ones. Work in sections of 3 to 4 feet at a time. The goal is to create a clean painted border that the roller will overlap and blend into. Cut in one wall at a time and roll that wall before moving to the next one, so the cut-in edge is still wet when you roll over it.
Roll the walls
Pour paint into the tray and roll your roller through the paint, then roll it back and forth on the tray's ramp to distribute the paint evenly across the roller cover. Start by making a large W or M shape on the wall with the loaded roller. Then fill in the area with even, overlapping vertical strokes. Work in sections about 3 to 4 feet wide. Reload the roller when it starts dragging or leaving a stippled texture. Apply light, even pressure. Pressing too hard squeezes the paint out and creates edge lines. Overlap into the cut-in edges while they are still wet so everything blends together.
Apply the second coat
Let the first coat dry for the recoat time printed on the can. It varies by brand, from 2 hours for Behr Premium Plus to 4 hours for Sherwin-Williams SuperPaint, both at 77°F and 50% humidity. The wall may look patchy or uneven after the first coat. That is normal. Apply the second coat the same way, cutting in the edges and then rolling. The second coat evens out the color and fills in thin spots, so plan on two coats for every wall.
Remove tape and clean up
Follow your tape's instructions for when to pull it, because tape makers disagree. FrogTape says to remove the tape while the paint is still wet, and to score along the edge with a razor blade first if the paint has already dried. ScotchBlue says to wait until the paint is dry to the touch, then score along the edge with a putty knife or razor blade so the paint does not pull up with the tape. Either way, pull the tape back on itself slowly at a 45-degree angle. Wash your brushes and roller covers in warm soapy water if you used latex paint. If you plan to use them again the next day, wrap them in a wet rag instead of washing them. Fold up the drop cloths carefully to contain any drips. Put the outlet covers and switch plates back once the paint is dry to the touch. Benjamin Moore lists wall plates among the things to return only after the paint cures, but latex takes 2 to 3 weeks to cure, and an outlet box without its cover leaves the wiring exposed for that whole time. OSHA's wiring standard for workplaces requires a cover or faceplate on every outlet box for the same reason.
If paint bled under the tape or the tape lifted a flake of paint, let the wall dry fully, then touch up the edge with the angled brush. If you see thin, lighter patches once the second coat is dry, roll a third coat over that whole wall. The paint feels dry to the touch within hours but takes much longer to cure. Sherwin-Williams says latex and acrylic paints typically take 2 to 3 weeks to cure, and Behr's data sheet for its Premium Plus eggshell, the sheen step 1 suggests for bedrooms and living rooms, says to wait 4 weeks before cleaning it with a mild detergent. Check your can or the product's data sheet for its figure. Benjamin Moore says to allow proper cure time before you put frames back on the walls, so hold off on hanging pictures or pushing furniture against the walls until then. When you are ready to put things back up, our guide on how to hang a picture gets the height and the level right.
Questions we get asked about this
Answers from experience, not a textbook.
Measure the total wall area by multiplying the room perimeter (in feet) by the wall height. Subtract 20 square feet for each standard door and 15 square feet for each window. Divide the total by 350, the low end of a gallon's coverage. Then double it because you need two coats. A standard 12-by-12-foot room with 8-foot ceilings, one door, and one window comes to 349 square feet, so it needs about 2 gallons. Buy a little extra rather than a little less. Running out mid-wall can leave a visible line where wet and dry paint meet.
Wait at least the recoat time printed on the can, 2 to 4 hours for the two latex wall paints named in step 7. That time assumes 77°F and 50% humidity, so a cooler or more humid room needs longer. Before you start the second coat, touch an out-of-the-way spot. It should feel completely dry and not tacky at all. A second coat over paint that is not fully dry can peel, bubble, or streak.
No. If you are painting a similar or darker shade over existing paint that is clean and in good shape, modern paint-and-primer-in-one products handle it fine. You need separate primer when covering dark colors with light ones, painting over new drywall or repaired patches, covering stains (use stain-blocking primer), or painting over a glossy surface that needs dulling for the new paint to stick.
Ceiling first if you are painting it, then the walls, then trim and doors last. For the walls themselves, work one wall at a time. Cut in the edges, then roll that wall right away, so the brushed edges and the rolled center blend while both are wet instead of drying into visible lines.
For latex (water-based) paint, rinse brushes and rollers under warm running water, working the paint out with your fingers. Use a brush comb or old fork to separate the bristles and remove paint from the base. When the water runs clear, shake out the excess and reshape the bristles. Hang them bristle-down to dry or lay them flat. Never store brushes resting on their bristles. For oil-based paint, you need mineral spirits or paint thinner instead of water. Follow the same process but in a well-ventilated area.
Home Maintenance 101
How to Clean a Microwave
How to Fix a Running Toilet
How to Unclog a Drain
How to Paint a Room
← you’re hereHow to Clean an Oven
How to Hang a Picture
How to Unclog a Toilet
How to Remove a Stripped Screw
How to Remove Rust from Metal