Painting Tips: How to Give Your Walls a Pro-Level Finish

When you’re painting the interior of your house, there are small ways you can take your finish to the next level. As we all know, painting is 80% prep and 20% painting so most of what we discuss will be things you can do to improve you prep work, but at the end we’ll go over some techniques with the brush and roller as well. At Cozy Home Painting Pros, we follow all of these steps and then some to deliver you the best results possible.

Make sure to clean your walls

Even if you don’t notice it, there might be small residue leftover from the past. Unclean walls can lead to a blotchy finish or even may cause paint to peel off in the future. Under normal circumstances, a quick rinse with warm water will do. If you're in a kitchen or a bathroom where the walls are more likely to have contaminates, consider using a cleaning product like TSP. If you do use more than water, make sure to do an additional rinse with plain water before painting.

De-lint your roller before starting

Even the most high-end rollers have a little bit of fuzz on them when you get them from the store. Save yourself some hassle and take the lint off by wrapping tape around the entire roller before getting started.

Dampen your brush and roller sleeves

If you get your brushes and roller sleeves damp before starting, it can help them to hold more paint each time you dip them in the pan. It also helps make clean up easier. Don’t ask how it just works!

Tape off the baseboards

Taping off the baseboards is the best way to improve the results of your painting project. For the at-home painter, it helps to create a laser sharp line. And it helps to protect the baseboard and floor from any splatter the roller may create.

Use the right brush

Brushes are made of different materials, and if you use the wrong one you can leave heavy brush strokes on the surface you just spent so much time painting. For indoor use on walls with waterborne paints, you want to be using a Polyester/Nylon blend such as the Corona Cortez or Wooster Alpha.

Use the right roller sleeve

A smooth wall without texture should be painted using a 3/8 inch or 1/2 inch roller sleeve. Like brushes there are many materials that roller sleeves can be made of, at Cozy Home Painting Pros we use Wooster Pro/Zoo-D 1/2 inch for 95% of our work. For textured walls you may want to use longer nap.