How to Start Painting Walls

Open the can of paint with a flathead screwdriver. Stir the paint with a stir stick. You will not need to stir the paint if it has just been mixed at the paint store.

Pour some paint into a small container. Do not fill the container more than half full. This minimizes the risk of spills. Wipe off the side of the paint can with a rag, if necessary.

Start cutting in with a paintbrush in an upper-left corner. Cutting in means carefully applying paint up against an edge. Brush a line of paint about 4 feet long where the top of the wall meets the ceiling. Do not get any paint on the ceiling.

Apply paint to the seam where the left edge of the wall meets the adjacent wall. It is fine to get paint on both walls. Stop when you have painted down about 4 feet.

Pour some paint in the well of a paint pan. Dip the roller in the paint. Roll it over the raised strips in the paint pan a few times.

Roll the upper-left corner of the wall, using horizontal brush strokes. Fill in the 4-by-4-foot square that corresponds to your cut-in edge. Roll on top of this square with vertical strokes.

Paint the rest of the wall's left edge with a brush. Cut in along the baseboard. Roll out this lower square of wall.

Paint the upper area to the right of your first square. Continue working top to bottom in a left-to-right direction until all of the walls have been painted.