* Load up a section of wall with paint, and then even out that paint. Don’t try to make paint look perfectly even from the moment you apply it to a surface. Instead, focus first on getting enough paint onto every part of a section of wall roughly two to three feet wide. Apply a reasonable amount of pressure to the roller to get the paint down into the texture of the surface and use enough paint that there are no tiny gaps, and overlap each subsequent pass with the roller by around half of your roller’s width. Once you have done this over a two-to-three-foot-wide section, position your roller at the top of the section of wall you just painted without loading the roller up with additional paint and gently and smoothly roll from top to bottom a couple times over the paint you applied moments earlier, taking the roller off the wall each time you reach the bottom and repositioning it at the top. This is known as “laying out” the paint, and it smooths away imperfections such as edge marks left by the roller. Then move on to paint the next two- to three-foot wide section of wall the same way, overlapping the section you just completed by approximately half the width of the roller.
Bottom Line Personal interviewed Chris Berry, a Boise, Idaho-based painter and contractor with 27 years’ experience. He is founder of The Idaho Painter, a website and YouTube channel that provides painting advice. TheIdahoPainter.com
