Ben Moore’s best painting tips

Clean walls with warm water and a sponge, remove mildew, and prime the walls.

You’ll need a high-quality roller sleeve and handle, a pan, an extension pole, and a stepladder.

Use a 21⁄2-inch angle sash brush to paint along the ceiling line, corners, windows, doors, molding, outlets, and switches.

Place a liner in your paint tray, pour paint into the tray, and roll the roller along the raised roll-off area of the pan to load it. Touch the paint without completely immersing the sleeve, repeating until the roller is fully saturated. Start by working the paint into the wet edge of the wall, then make a W pattern working out from the wet area. Fill in the W by working across from the wet area into the dry.

Benjamin Moore recommends two coats to achieve full color development and to optimize performance. On bare substrates, two coats are recommended; previously painted surfaces can be finished with 1 or 2 coats.

It is recommended to cut in for every layer of paint you add. Once the layer of paint is dry, cut in for the second time and then roll out again.

Test the paint on a piece of poster board that you can move around the room to see how it reacts to colors that are there and will be there after you’ve painted.