HOW TO PAINT A ROOM

 This is my strategic How To guide for a top quality interior paint job that you do yourself. 

The quick description: Take a good brush plus good paint, a damp rag, a ladder and a piece of plastic around the room, one or two walls per day.  Paint carefully and concentrate on being neat and even with your painting.  For excruciating detail, continue reading....

 I spent four days last week painting my large-filled-with-stuff-and-unwieldy-furniture dining room, and then I rearranged it.  It's a whole new room in my same old house and I love it!  I also love painting, and after many many years of painting various rooms, have finally got it down and come into my own special expertise.  My way is fast, neat and economical.  I had a big argument with Steve about this, and he disagrees, because he says that "the experts who do it for a living know better".   Ha.  My method is every bit as neat as any expert and when you get it down, it goes pretty fast and it's pretty painless.  
I don't tape off, I don't use messy roller pans and rollers (unless for a large flat ceiling or long uninterrupted walls). 

You need:
A four foot ladder
An excellent paint brush - I use a Purdy 2 1/2" Clearcut Stiff Nylon Polyester Angle brush and it's wonderful and worth every cent
Excellent paint - Benjamin Moore Regal Select Eggshell is my favorite

Painting Clothes - something comfortable to wear, including footwear, that you only wear for painting projects - even though you'll be painting so neatly that there will hardly be a speck of paint anywhere but where you want it
Flat head screwdriver, stirring stick and a hammer - to open and then securely close your paint can

Nice sized clean damp/wet rag - you're going to wipe down your walls and then use this for quick clean ups if you drip or splatter as you go along
Drop cloth - this can be a large piece of plastic or a large sheet - ideally it's light weight and about 6-8 feet by 4-6 feet

OK!  Years ago, Mrs. Debra Hogan told me how she painted a room - one or two walls a day at a time, and this is what I now do.  

1) Put on your painting outfit and clear away all the stuff from one or two adjacent walls. Lay the drop cloth on the floor at the left most place that you are painting. Put your ladder on it, get your damp rag and start wiping down the walls top to bottom.  If the walls are super dirty or dusty, vacuum the big dust off first, then do the damp rag.  If the rag is getting dirty and spreading dirt around on the walls, rinse it continually until the walls are clean and not dusty.  You only have to do the walls you'll be painting that day.  If the room is empty and you want to do the entire room, fine.  If you want, you can stop here and continue tomorrow.

2)  Open up the paint can and stir your paint, unless you just brought it home and they mixed it at the store.  If you want, you can dampen your brush, but dry off any excess wetness (I do this sometimes, sometimes not).  Take your ladder back to the drop cloth at the beginning of the project.  Decide whether to travel left to right or right to left - doesn't matter, just be consistent.  Put the paint can on the ladder shelf, climb up the ladder with your brush and damp rag, and start cutting in at the ceiling or top of the wall under the ceiling molding.  The brush has a nice sharp angle point, and when I say "cut in"  I mean paint yourself a border at the top using the point at the corner.  Go neatly and slowly and deliberately. Once you have the border painted, paint over it in vertical lines.  Don't let the paint get too thick or too thin on the walls.  Keep it even.  Keep it vertical from your top border to your bottom border.  Go super generous in corners - make sure the room is well lit especially if you can't see the difference between the old and new colors.  You've got a few days where you can go back and fill in and it won't show, but this is time consuming, so get it right the first time.  With the Benjamin Moore Regal Select, one coat does it.
If you drip onto the molding or floor or overpaint onto the ceiling, use your damp rag (white tee shirt fabric is ideal) to immediately wipe off the drip.
3)  After each session, rinse your brush with cool/warm water - you can even get a comb to comb through the bristles.  You don't want one smidge of paint to still be coming off that brush as you rinse.  Make sure the water is running clean before resting the brush on it's side to dry.  

Previously it took more than a gallon of paint to paint our dining room.  This time, brush only, no roller?  1/2 gallon of paint.  By painting accurately and evenly, and not wasting time with the roller rigamarole, you save paint.  Now have at it and enjoy the journey as well as the fresh new room!