I have painted before, and often. I am currently priming the kitchen and a hallway, and repairing the drywall, from imperfections. So I am priming the whole thing. Looks nice and smooth, and white premiered. I can see any imperfections until I am tired of looking.

So the main question to those who have done a lot of painting.

I suppose I could easily prime everything. Ceiling is done, walls are done, and I suppose Should at this time prime the door way trim as well. So all will be primed., then...

I will do the final paint on the ceiling.

Then do I do the trim color and let it over lap a little on the wall, or do I do the wall and let it overlap a little on the premiered trim?

At some point I will use blue tape, or even better that green tape, and do the fine detail around the trim. So I guess I should paint the wall final color, and get as close to the trim as necessary, but getting all of the wall for sure, and then after it dries, tape off the wall and paint the trim.

Sounds good, lmk, if plan sounds ok.?

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Microman
I have painted before, and often. I am currently priming the kitchen and a hallway, and repairing the drywall, from imperfections. So I am priming the whole thing. Looks nice and smooth, and white premiered. I can see any imperfections until I am tired of looking.

So the main question to those who have done a lot of painting.

I suppose I could easily prime everything. Ceiling is done, walls are done, and I suppose Should at this time prime the door way trim as well. So all will be primed., then...

I will do the final paint on the ceiling.

Then do I do the trim color and let it over lap a little on the wall, or do I do the wall and let it overlap a little on the premiered trim?



At some point I will use blue tape, or even better that green tape, and do the fine detail around the trim. So I guess I should paint the wall final color, and get as close to the trim as necessary, but getting all of the wall for sure, and then after it dries, tape off the wall and paint the trim.

Sounds good, lmk, if plan sounds ok.?

If you're gonna prime everything first then do that..

--cut in EVERYTHING with primer first... start at ceiling...cut in all inside corners..ceiling/walls..walls/walls..etc corners..cut in the walls above the baseboards..it's ok to lap over a bit onto baseboards as long as they are prepped..save trim--doors and windows and baseboards priming for after you roll out..you'll check them for drips too

Roll everything out with primer..CEILING FIRST..work top down

When you get ready to roll out the walls check for drips from your ceiling work and cut-in work..smooth the drips and splatters out...Then, Roll out the walls

After everything is rolled out..cut in your door jambs n trim, and baseboards with primer..

---You're finished with Primer..

Follow the same course with your finish colors...cut-in and paint ceiling

Then cut-in and roll out walls walls (check for DRIPS on walls from celining work again again and fix)...now you will be taking good care to cut in good lines if you have different colors going on...if it's all one color? much easier..

the last thing you do is baseboards and general trim..doors and windows..and before you do it..you check all this stuff for paint spatters, big drips etc...fix that and paint all above mentioned trim with a brush

You always work your way down so you dont make a huge ass mess of your nice prep work..



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/25/2021 10:10AM by Kraniac.

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Microman
Then do I do the trim color and let it over lap a little on the wall, or do I do the wall and let it overlap a little on the premiered trim?

You don't want intentionally to lap the wall over the trim or vise-versa if they are different colors, it might show. Keep the edge for best results.

I've been painting houses for something like 30 years. I used to do walls first then trim. Thats so much more trouble. I do all the trim first. However many coats needed. Then I apply painters tape to the baseboard only. THEN I paint all the walls. Still cutting in all the trim. But not having to be quite as careful and also not getting roller splatter all over everything.

You can certainly do the walls first. But cutting in trim on an already painted wall is a massive time suck. I have amazing results from the method I use but ultimately it comes down to using the correct tape and applying it correctly. Rip that sucker off and I have a razor sharp line every time.

---

What Kraniac said.

Use a good brush.

I usually don't bother with the tape, which won't work on a textured surface anyway. With enough practice you should be able to keep to a straight line on any joint without the tape.

Use a rag to wipe up drips and oops as you go. much easier than scraping dried paint.

Use a good brush.
Don't overload the brush. Keep it clean.
I have brushes over 20 years old that I still use.

Yes, come to think of it, I bought a CUT IN Brush at lowes the last paint job I did. If used correctly you can make the connection of ceiling and walls of two different colors look straight without any tape, which is next to impossible up on the ceiling anyway. Thanks for jostling memory. Will do Ceiling, TRIM around doors, then walls last.

I worked for a high end painter during my college summers. Our process was:
1. Clean everything first
2. Repair next
3. Sand trim to rough the paint up for better adhesion
4. Prime what needed to be primed. Previously painted didn't need to be primed unless there was a stain issue. Only other real reason to use primer on painted surfaces was if one was going from a dark to lighter paint.
5. Paint ceiling
6. Paint walls
7. Paint trim, doors and windows. Use an angled brush. We used to call them sash brushes. Don't skimp on brush quality. We never used tape and never painted from the paint can. Mix paint and pour into a smaller container that is easy to hold in one hand. Reduces the amount of paint that can be contaminated or worse yet spilled.

Use good quality paint, brushes and roller covers. It's worth spending the money to avoid the aggravation. Quality brushes will last years under normal homeowner use. I still have the brushes that I bought to use as a painter over 30 years ago. Clean them and put them back in the folding package when dry to maintain their shape.

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bazookaman
I've been painting houses for something like 30 years. I used to do walls first then trim. Thats so much more trouble. I do all the trim first. However many coats needed. Then I apply painters tape to the baseboard only. THEN I paint all the walls. Still cutting in all the trim. But not having to be quite as careful and also not getting roller splatter all over everything.

You can certainly do the walls first. But cutting in trim on an already painted wall is a massive time suck. I have amazing results from the method I use but ultimately it comes down to using the correct tape and applying it correctly. Rip that sucker off and I have a razor sharp line every time.

I started doing this, as well. It's faster and cleaner for me than walls first then trim. I agree that the painter's tape on top of the baseboard is critical to this method--it keeps spatter off the painted trim and allows a faster, cleaner cut in of the walls. I take the painter's tape off the baseboard as each wall is done. I once left it overnight and it pulled up some of the newly painted baseboard paint.