“Honey, can you help me paint the <insert room here>” is quite possibly hardest question to answer. Sure, I want to say “uh, no!“, but know that if I do say that, I’ll be sleeping on the couch until I’m needed to paint something and answer correctly.

I can paint edges freehand pretty well, but to be honest, I’m more of a roller guy.  If I have an angled brush, damp rag, painter’s tape, and a drop cloth, I am very good.  But even when I have all those things, it is still a laborious process.  I have to be in a certain position to get the brush angle right.  Most of the time I’m either on a ladder with my nose at the ceiling or kneeling on the floor.

When we tackled our dining room I put aside my painterly pride and got the Shur-Line Edger.  There were just too many doors, windows, and well, edges to do on my own.  It takes a couple tries to get the hang of the edger, I recommend practicing on a piece of cardboard first.  Once you know how much paint you need on the pad, it is so easy to use the edger.  There are two rollers on one side that go up against the trim, ceiling, or floor.  These can get some paint on them if you oversaturate the pad, so you may want to use tape, but you don’t have to be precise with it.  The pads are washable and reusable, which makes clean up no different than using a brush.

The best part? It’s under $3.00.  Go on, try it.  You’ll be glad you did!

Ok, the Paint Buddy Rubber Maid Touch Up Tool may seem a little expensive for paint touch ups, but you get six.  And it is worth it to not have to hope your paint is still usable and to avoid cleaning brushes for small jobs.  We have one at the ready for our living room, dining room, and kitchen – plus the trim colors and ceiling white.  I have found this the most practical for touching up a newly painted ceiling.  Even with the pink-to-white paint I miss something and when painting a wall I never get a truly perfect edge using a roller or brush, even when I tape.  Now, it takes no time at all to fix.

At the end of every painting job, I fill the reservoir with left over paint.  I know that I will see a couple spots that need a bit more coverage; using the Touch Up Tool actually helps me finish a room.  If I noticed touch ups after all the clean up, chances are I would procrastinate.  It is also very handy for the small gaps we have between many of our doors; they aren’t wide enough for a normal brush and they are too narrow for an artist’s brush.  The Touch Up Tool easily and cleanly covers the wall.

No home is without awkward to paint nooks and crannies.  Even if you are lucky enough to have wide expanses of blank walls between door and window trim, you still have to cut in.  And, as we have discovered, edging with a brush does not give the same level of coverage as a roller.

Too many times I have tried for hours to get the paint along the ceiling line to look as good as the rest of the wall.  The Wooster Brush Co. Jumbo-Koter Flip Frame Mini-Roller handily fixes my problems.  I used to precariously balance a brush, paint, and myself on a ladder or chair to cut in around the ceiling.  I have kneeled and even laid down to paint along baseboards.  But, since the roller can flip to four different positions and it can be attached to any extender, I no longer have to hope I do not drop the paint can or wish for knee pads.  If you have a steady hand, you could probably avoid taping altogether.  Painting around doors and windows is a breeze.  And since you are using a roller, you do not have to worry about feathering in strokes between brush work and a larger roller.