Two Painting Don'ts: Don't Work Out of the Tin, Don't Roll Without a Pole

The Problem

Two habits mark out a first-time painter, and both end the same way — a sore back and a slow, patchy job: dipping brushes and sleeves straight into the paint tin, and rolling a whole room with the 9-inch frame held in your hand.

The Techniques

Don't paint out of the tin. On any decent-sized room, the tin holds your whole supply but only lets you reach a teaspoon of it at a time, and you're bent over it all day. Pour paint into a scuttle (a wide painter's bucket) — a proper working reservoir that loads a sleeve in one dip.

Don't roll bare-handed. A 9-inch frame with just a sleeve on it means you're at the wall, reaching up and crouching down, forever — and the coat comes out uneven. Screw on an extension pole, even a short one. Stand back from the wall, dip the sleeve, and work in sections: start from the middle of the wall and work up, then fill down. It's faster, the coverage is more even, and your back survives the project.