10 Essential Tools You Need to Paint Your Home – When to Throw in the Towel and Call a Professional

Painting your own home can be a huge money saver, but it takes a great deal of commitment and perseverance to get it right the first time.

Television shows have made painting homes look super easy. It is always a group of friends sharing pizza and painting using a roller or a paint brush. However, what these shows do not showcase is the prep work.

Prep work often takes way more effort than the actual painting. It’s also not rewarding. There is nothing satisfying about sanding surfaces and protecting furniture with plastic. Therefore, the first thing you need to do before you get started is setting the expectations straight. Prepare yourself for hours of removing power outlets, scraping old paint, sanding rough patches, and protecting areas with tapes and sheets and taking care of any sheet metal bending.

If you don’t care for doing these necessary painting tasks, it’s best to throw in the towel before you begin and hire an exterior or interior paint service, now. You really don’t want to start painting your home and call in help midway. If you are okay with the prep work, then you are ready to take on the task. You just need to do complete research on where to purchase the tools and which paint brand is perfect for your home painting job. There are different types of paints specialized in each part of the house. You can find the best bathroom and ceiling paints on OccupyTheFarm for your buying guide.  Here’s what you need to get started.

Tools You Need to Get Started

One of the major investments, when you are painting your own home is buying all the necessary tools. Professional painting firms have their own tools; thus you do not need to pay for them when hiring them.

5-In-1 Painting Tool: We start with something that is highly versatile and something that’s often forgotten. The 5-in-1 tool does the job of a roller scraper, a paint scraper, a screwdriver, a putty knife, and a nail puller.  The tool has different edges that help with the little things such as opening paint cans, applying putty, and cleaning cracks. One of its critical functions is to scrape the excess paint off paint rollers after you are done with them. This saves paint and keeps your rollers clean. This tool costs around $6 to $10 and is available both online and in any local hardware store.

Large Painting Buckets: A lot of newbie painters use a 1-gallon paint bucket when painting their homes. These buckets have narrow openings thus making dipping wide rollers a challenge. They also lack the stability and they hold less paint. Larger buckets allow you to mix more paint, which ensures you achieve a consistent color. The larger buckets are also more stable with wider bases and larger openings. A 2-gallon bucket is ideal for painting small to average-sized homes.

Roller with 4-inch Naps: The 4-inch roller is perfect for doing the trim work and it comes in handy whenever painting a tight spot. Make sure to buy one that has a solid metal frame so you can apply pressure without the worry of bending it. Bent rollers can produce undesirable lap marks, so getting a good quality roller is essential. The good thing is that these rollers pretty much last a lifetime if you care for them properly.

Roller with 9-Inch Nap: The 9-inch roller with a wide nap is perfect for walls and it drastically reduces the effort of painting large sections.

3-Inch Paint Brush: While rollers are good, there are certain paint situations that can only be solved with a good old-fashioned paint brush. Buy a 3-inch paintbrush preferably with an angled sash to get those corners right.

1-Gallon Paint Pan: Don’t be tempted to buy those small paint pans. Those pans hardly hold any paint and thus requires frequent refills. We suggest a 1-Gallon paint pan that goes with your 9-inch roller. Metal pans are ideally more suited for long term use. However, if it’s just for a single project, then buying a cheaper one makes sense.

Anti-Slip Drop Cloth: While a lot of DIY painters use regular sheets and plastic sheets to protect their floors, your best bet for a mark-free floor is an anti-slip drop cloth. These are specially made to soak in drops of paint, not allowing them to come in direct contact with the floor. Get an anti-slip cloth so you can use ladders for hire and move over it with more confidence.

Extension Pole: Extension poles allows you to reach high places without a ladder. These are great for exterior and interior painting jobs and it fits regular 9-inch rollers perfectly.

Tape: To protect specks of paint from the trim and ceiling, you need quality painters’ tape. They cost around $5 to $8 and offers the only solution for protecting those trims from stray paints.

Sanding Paper: Sanding paper is critical when prepping your home, it helps in smoothing rough patches and removing old paints. This is an essential prepping tool and you can never have enough. Get a large roll, to begin with. To make life easier, consider buying a good detail sander.