Clear the room to be painted as completely as possible. Furniture, hangings, pictures, light switch and outlet covers, even doors and light fixtures, if possible.

The more you can clear, the less you have to work around and worry about spattering with paint. Of all the interior painting tips I can give you, this is one of the most important.

Label any removed light switch and outlet covers with masking tape so you know where they belong when it’s time to return them to their rightful place.

A clean and flat surface is a necessity for painting. If your walls are damaged, a new coat of paint is more likely to highlight those imperfections than hide them.

Wash walls thoroughly with a mild mixture of dish soap and water. A sponge mops works well for this step.

Fill in nail holes, dents, and small cracks with spackle, allow to dry, and sand. Caulk any gaps where your surfaces meet moldings or woodwork.

Be sure to at least spot-prime any areas you patched with spackle, or those areas will appear shinier after painting.

This is an important and fairly simple tip…but it never ceases to amaze me how many people still attempt to use masking tape (or worse) for their painting projects.

Painter’s tape is blue…you can find it at any paint, home improvement, or hardware store. It is low-tack, so it can be easily removed from nearly any surface without damage.

Once you’ve taped off your woodwork, adjoining walls, outlets, and any other obstructions with Painter’s Tape, double check to make sure your tape is flat and completely adhered to the surface your want to protect.

Take some time and press the tape down along the edge with a putty knife, to insure complete adhesion. If your tape is not completely adhered, paint will bleed behind it.

Taping is time consuming and monotonous, but well worth the extra effort.

This also ranks up there as one of the highest priority interior painting tips I can give. Choosing quality paints and paint supplies will help make your interior painting project far less stressful.

Painting is often done on a budget. We all like to save our money. But believe me, paint and painting products are not the place to get cheap.

I am not saying that you need to go out and buy a $40 gallon of paint, or spend a hundred dollars on a fancy artists’ brush. I simply mean, do not settle for no-name, budget brands.

Choose well known, name brand paints and supplies. You can get a decent interior paint brush for $10-$15 and a mid-grade gallon of name brand paint for around $20-$40. If you see a bin full of $1 paint brushes, keep walking. Your sanity (and your painting project) is worth more than that.

Before use, you should wash all new roller covers with mild dish soap and water. Rinse very well before using.

The reason for this is simply that new rollers (even quality rollers) contain loose fibers. You want to make sure that these fibers come out in the drain…not in your paint.

This is one of those interior painting tips I wish someone would have given me when I first started painting.

As a beginner, I made the amateur mistake of cutting in an entire wall (or room!) before I began to roll them out.

This allowed the “cut in” sections to dry first, which created a visible line between the cut in sections and the rolled sections when the project was finished.

In order to blend sections together, you must continue to work with a “wet edge” of paint. This means you should “cut in” only in small sections, then roll out that section before the cut in areas have a chance to dry.

Once you’ve started painting a wall, do not stop until you’ve completed it. This will allow you to maintain a wet edge and blend your sections seamlessly.

The pole extension for a roller is an absolute godsend for painters, and yet I’m always surprised by how many people don’t use them.

A pole extension is simply an adjustable pole that screws into the bottom of a common roller handle. It allows you to reach high areas, ceilings, and hard to reach spots without climbing up and down ladders constantly.

It will save your legs, and your sanity

This is another of those interior painting tips I wish I had gotten when I first started. One of most common problems “do it yourself” painters run into is removing the tape. Latex paint forms a “skin” on a wall…unfortunately, it also forms a skin over top of the tape you use to protect your adjoining surfaces and woodwork.

When you finish painting, run a utility knife along the edge between the paint and the tape.

This will help you avoid the common problem of pulling paint off when you remove the tape.

This is one of the most time-saving interior painting tips I know.

Many painting projects require more than a single day of work. But of course, you have to wash your brushes, rollers, and supplies every day after use, right?

Um, no…not really. If you are intending to use the same supplies and colors the following day (or even a couple of days down the road), you don’t have to wash your supplies.

But you do have to wrap them and keep them fresh. Wrap your wet brushes and rollers in plastic wrap and Ziplock bags. Then store in the refrigerator.

This will keep all your paint and supplies ready for use the next time. Just be sure to remove your supplies from the fridge at least 25 minutes before use so they have time to warm to room temperature.

These ten interior painting tips will help make your home painting project a breeze. Good luck.