Using a Primer Over a Painted Wall

Cover the floors with painters tarps. Removing the furniture makes painting the room easier. The second option is to move furniture into the center of the room and cover it with a tarp.

Clean the walls with a mixture of warm water and mild detergent. Fill a bucket with warm water and a mild detergent. If the walls are particular grimy or dirty, use a stronger all-purpose cleaner. Wash the wall with a sponge. Let the wall dry.

Repair nail holes and cracks. Fill the nail holes with spackling. Spackling dries fast and is easily applied with a putty knife or your finger. Lightly wipe the area with a damp cloth to remove excess spackling. Fill cracks and gaps around the windows, doors, and trim with latex caulk. Cut the tip of the caulk tube at an angle and place it in the caulk gun. Apply a bead of caulk and the gap. Release the trigger to stop the caulk from flowing. Run your finger lightly over the bead of caulk.

Lightly sand the spackled nail hole areas with fine-grade sandpaper. Make the spackle smooth with the wall.

Open a can of primer. Stir it with a stick and then pour some of the primer into a small container. Apply, or "cut in," the primer to walls with a trim brush. Painters refer to brush work as "cutting in," as the idea is to "cut in" areas that a paint roller can't reach. Cut in along the ceiling. The cut-in line should be about 2 inches wide. Cut in around the doors and the windows. Cut in all the corners in the room. Finally, cut in around the baseboards.

Pour the primer into a paint tray. Attach the roller to an extension pole. This makes it easier and faster to cover the walls. Dip the roller in the paint tray. Roll it back and forth until the primer is distributed equally around the roller. Start in one corner of the room. Apply the primer in the center of the wall, halfway between the ceiling and the floor. Paint the wall in up-and-down movements, from the ceiling to the floor. Make sure the roller is always saturated with primer. Painting with an unsaturated, or dry, roller results in small missed spots. Inspect the wall periodically for heavy or missed areas.