How to Paint Rooms With Carpet

Remove all the furniture from the room, or place it all in the middle of the room and cover it with painter's plastic.

Kneel down in one of the corners of the room. Hold the roll of tape in your right hand and pull the end of the roll of tape with your left hand until you've pulled a 2-foot piece of tape away from the roll. Don't break the tape off the roll.

Tuck the end of the tape into the corner where the wall meets the floor and the carpet meets the wall or baseboard trim. Lay the tape down on the surface of the carpet parallel to the wall. Get it as close to the wall as possible. Push the edge of the tape facing the wall down into the crack where the carpet meets the wall. Tuck the tape under or as close to the bottom of the wall or baseboard as possible. The idea is to pull the carpet away from the wall and keep it under the tape. Do this all the way around the room. Leave the outer edge of the tape loose and facing the inside of the room.

Lay down a piece of painter's plastic so that it overlaps the tape and touches the walls on all sides of the room. Get on your hands and knees and fold the edges of the plastic underneath itself, and then tuck its edge under the loose edge of the masking tape. Press the tape down fast to the plastic. Add extra pieces of tape over uneven areas where the plastic won't reach the wall. It's better to cover the carpet with tape than to allow paint to get on it.

Lay painter's drop cloths over the areas of the room where you'll be walking while painting the walls and ceilings. This will ensure the plastic doesn't tear.

Pour paint into a hand-held paint holder and cut in the corners of the walls, ceiling and masked floor edge with a paintbrush. Paint 4 inches up away from the wall so the roller won't have to get so close to the carpet's surface.

Pour 1 gallon of paint into a 5-gallon bucket that has a paint roller screen hanging from the inner lip of the bucket.

Slip a 1/2-inch roller cover nap over the spindle of a 9-inch roller frame and screw an extension pole into the handle of the roller frame.

Dip and roll the roller into the paint several times until the nap is fully loaded with paint. Before lifting the roller out of the bucket, give it one last abrupt roll down the roller screen to shake off any excess paint. This will keep it from dripping on the floor.

Roll the ceiling from left to right. Overlap each roller width pass by one-third the length of the roller. Remember that you don't have to push the roller into the corners, because you already painted them with the paintbrush. Roll the walls from left to right and from top to bottom. Roll down toward the floor, but only into the previously brush-painted area. Wait 24 hours for the paint to completely dry, and then remove all of the drop cloths, painter's plastic and masking tape from the carpet.