Secrets to Painting a Room Fast with Less Mess

With only one room left to finish in the basement, we were anxious to paint this room fast!

This soon to be home gym was our painting room for all of the basement doors.

Once we finished with the basement family room One Room Challenge, this room certainly looked like a scene from Monsters Inc.

Painting all of the doors with the Wagner paint sprayer, certainly saves time, but left quite a mess in the room.

But since the room was unfinished, we knew we’d be painting the room anyway.

And we’re excited to share with you what is now our favorite new tool for the fastest and easiest way to paint walls, the Wagner EZ Roller paintstick.

This post is sponsored by Wagner, but all of the opinions are my own.

Room before painting was used to paint doors with Navy blue paint, navy blue overspray on the bare walls with images of door shapes, reminiscent of the doors in Monsters Inc.

While we’ve used the paint sprayer to paint walls and it’s quick, it does leave dusting of paint everywhere.

And since we have our newly finished basement family room, we wanted to keep it clean.

So, scroll down and take a look at our tips for painting a room fast with less mess.

In this post…

How Do I Paint a Wall Myself?

If you’re new to painting a room, you may be wondering how can I paint a room myself?

Painting a room is really a straight forward project that’s perfect for a beginner.

Perhaps you’re leery of painting because of the time it may take, poor results you’ve achieved in the past, or the lack of knowing how to achieve great results.

If you’re feeling a bit uneasy, we’ve got more tips on how to paint a room that will ensure you achieve professional results.

If this is a project you’re doing yourself, first you’ll want to allow enough time to complete the project.

Certainly if you’re feeling rushed or stressed, you may be more inclined to make mistakes.

Another important factor is prepping your room before you actually bring out the paint.

No paint job will look professional if you don’t prep before hand.

Prep Before Painting a Room

First, you want to make sure your walls are clean.

And if you’re painting in a kitchen area, we recommend washing the walls with a degreaser like TSP.

Next, you’ll want to remove the light switch and outlet covers.

Tip: To ensure the outlet or light switch screws do not get lost place the screws and the covers into a plastic bag.

Then patch any holes or wall damage with dry wall putty.

Let dry and sand smooth.

Also take a look at your baseboards, if your caulking is cracked or pulled away from the wall, you’ll want to re-caulk.

Before you begin painting, lay out drop cloths to protect your floor.

And apply painters tape around window frames and molding.

Make sure to press the tape firmly so paint doesn’t seep under.

Supplies

Determine How Much Paint You’ll Need

The easiest way to figure out how much paint you’ll need for your project is to use a paint calculator.

Simply measure the length, width and height of your room and count the number of doors and windows.

And don’t forget to include the molding in your home to get the most accurate estimate.

One gallon of paint will usually cover 350 to 400 square feet.

How to Cut-In Fast

Woman's hand holding a small high density foam roller, cutting in the edges of the wall with white paint.

The first step to painting a room is to cut-in at the corners, ceiling and along the baseboards.

In our room the baseboards are’nt installed yet.

We’ll install them after the laminate flooring is installed.

Today we’re sharing our tips for painting a room fast, while still getting great results.

You can cut-in with a brush for all of these areas, but a handyman shared this tip with us that makes the cutting-in process faster.

Take a high density foam roller, roll it in a small paint tray to saturate.

Then press the roller against the corner as you roll the paint.

Focus on one wall corner at a time.

Then flip the roller over and roll the adjacent wall.

Woman's hand holding a small high density foam roller, cutting in the edges of the ceiling with white paint.

Use this same method where the ceiling and wall meet.

Give this method a try and see if you feel it speeds up cutting-in for you.

Once all of the corners are cut-in you’re ready to roll the paint on the walls.

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How Do You Use an EZ Roller on a Paintstick?

Woman holding the Wagner paintstick EZ roller to show it's features.

As this was our first time using this painting tool, we were unsure of how we’d like it.

But let me tell you, we were really impressed with the quality and ease of this tool.

The handle holds the paint, and you simply pull the trigger to release more paint as you roll the wall.

No more messy paint trays, with less time reloading the roller.

How Do You Fill the Wagner Paintstick?

So how does this work?

Woman clipping the inlet tube to the side of a bucket filled with white paint. Alson on the table is a large 5 gallon bucket of paint and miscellaneous painting tools.

First, clip the fill tube to the side of your paint can.

In our case, we’re using a 5 gallon bucket that was half way gone.

So, we poured our paint into a bucket and clipped the fill tube to the side.

Woman placing the Wagner paintstick EZ roller on the inlet tube to fill with white paint to begin painting a room with white paint.

Place a thin layer of petroleum jelly on the top of the fill tube. (Included with roller)

This will help the fill valve slide easily on and off the fill tube.

Press down and firmly hold the fill valve onto the fill tube.

Woman with the Wagner paintstick EZ roller at a table, white paint in a bucket, filling the paintstick with white paint by pulling plunger on the paintstick. Miscellaneous paint tools also on the table.

Then pull the plunger to draw the paint into the main tube.

When the tube is full, you’re ready to begin using the EZ-Roller.

Then push the plunger until you see the paint coming through the roller cover.

What is the Correct Way to Roll Paint on a Wall?

Painting a room with white paint, woman holding the Wagner paintstick EZ roller, rolling the paint on the primed wall.

Tip: If you need more than one gallon of paint to paint your room, mix them together to ensure that your color will be uniform.

Begin at the ceiling, paint across the short width, overlapping each row.

When painting the walls, focus on painting one wall at a time.

Begin painting at one end of the wall and roll out the letter “W” or “N”.

Fill it in rolling up and down, working in a 3′ x 3′ section.

As more paint is needed squeeze the plunger and fill the roller cover.

Finish the section by rolling up and down with one solid swipe from ceiling to floor.

This will give you a nice even paint finish.

Be careful to not over-saturate the roller cover.

This may cause drips or splatter.

Also make sure to run the roller over the areas you previously cut-in to even out the texture.

If you need to stop and take a break, finish painting the entire wall you’re working on.

This will prevent lap marks.

You’ll always want to roll along a wet edge.

Tip: For best results, maintain a steady flow of paint to the roller cover.

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Roll Paint Without Roller Marks

Immediately we noticed one of the benefits of using the EZ roller is no roller marks.

When you use a traditional roller and a roller pan, often too much paint collects on the edge of the roller.

This seems to be eliminated because the paint comes through the roller cover.

If you’re using a traditional roller, here are some tips to avoid roller marks.

Use a good quality roller cover. If your walls are smooth, choose a short napped synthetic roller cover. Longer nap rollers are better for textured walls.
To avoid lint or flecks in your paint surface, use painters tape or a vacuum before you use it.
Avoid using too much paint. Dip your roller in the paint and roll back and forth on the grooves of the paint pan to evenly distribute the paint throughout the roller.
Unload some of your paint in a “W” or “N” pattern, then roll the paint from the ceiling to the floor. Continue across the wall always working against a wet edge.
Press the roller with moderate presser. If you’re seeing lines or streaking, you’re probably pressing too hard.
Paint the entire wall at once.
If you spot a roller mark and it’s still wet, you can go over the area with a light touch on the roller.

Painting Trim

You can choose to paint your trim before rolling the walls of after.

If we’re painting our trim work a second color, we like to come in with a brush and cut along the edge after we’ve painted the walls.

In our room we have our trim and wall the same color.

So we painted our door casings before we rolled the walls.

We will install our baseboards after the floor is installed.

Painting one coat of paint on our molding before we install them helps keep our floors looking new.

Once they’re painted we installed the baseboards.

We then puttied the nail holes and caulked where the baseboard meets the wall.

And then we paint the second coat of paint using a high density foam roller.

This method works great if you have the flat craftsman style molding, but if not use a brush to apply the second coat of paint.

How Many Coats of Paint Should You Put on a Wall?

Painting a room, finished white painted room with shelves for storing home gym equipments and black and white motivational text art on the wall, green plant in the corner of the room, eliptical maching, treadmill, black ceiling fan.

Typically when painting a wall you’ll want to apply two coats of paint.

Not only will this ensure good coverage, but it also improves the durability of the paint.

Also keep in mind that dark colors, may require more than two coats.

In addition if you’re painting a light color over a dark shade, you may also need more coats.

In fact, in this case it’s a good idea to prime the wall first before painting.

Clean Up

If you used a water-based latex paint, use warm soapy water to clean the EZ-roller.

If you used oil-based paint, you’ll need mineral spirits.

You’ll find complete instructions for cleaning in the owners manual.

Painting a room, finished white painted room with shelves for storing home gym equipments and black and white motivational text art on the wall, eliptical machine and a blue yoga mat with a foam roller on the wood floor. Navy blue doors in the white painted room.

Clearly, we were impressed with the EZ-Roller.

We found that it didn’t splatter like a traditional roller, plus it’s definitely a lot faster.

No more running back and forth to the roller pan.

The tube holds 22 ounces of paint, so you can paint your ceilings and walls about 2 times faster than a traditional roller.

The ceilings in our room are 9′ and we were able to paint the walls and ceiling easily with the EZ-Roller paintstick.

So if you want to paint a room faster and with less mess, try the Wagner EZ-Roller paintstick.

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PIN IMAGE, WOMAN PAINTNG A ROOM WITH THE EZ-ROLLER PAINTSTICK

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This Post Has 4 Comments

Donna Marie August 5, 2022 Reply

I use paint pads. Have you ever tried them?
1. Michelle Dickson August 5, 2022 Reply
  
  We’ve never tried paint pads. Sounds like that’s something we should try next time we paint. Do you like them?
Renae Frey August 4, 2022 Reply

Great tips. The room looks amazing. Blessings to you.
1. Michelle Dickson August 5, 2022 Reply
  
  Thank you Renae, you are always to kind. Have a wonderful weekend.