Preparation

• 1). Measure the height and width of all the walls in your room. Divide that number by 350 to determine how many gallons of paint you will need for each coat. You may want to subtract the square footage represented by windows and doors. However, leaving that in will allow some extra for spillage and touch-up.
  
  
• 2). Clear the room of as many items as you can. Move anything you can't get out of the room to the center of the space.
  
  
• 3). Cover the entire floor with a drop cloth. Spread it so it has as few wrinkles as possible.
  
  
• 4). Take off your shoes and socks. Set a pair of slippers or sandals just outside the room, off the drop cloth. You are going to step in paint at some point. The slippers let you walk around the house without tracking the paint everywhere.
  
  
• 5). Remove the plastic plates from your electrical outlets, phone or cable jacks and light switches. Use your screwdriver, and set them someplace you can find them.
  
  
• 6). Place a layer of masking tape at any point where the surfaces you want to paint meet surfaces you don't want to paint --- for example, doorjambs, the ceiling and the baseboards or moldings. In each case, lay down the tape on the no-paint surface, forming a border.
  
  

Painting

• 1). Pour some paint into your paint tray, filling it one-third to one-half of the way to the top.
  
  
• 2). Set your painting roller in the tray. Roll it on the textured part of the tray to get an even covering.
  
  
• 3). Paint your wall, using long strokes that all travel in the same direction. Don't squeeze the roller against the wall to get more coverage. Reload the roller each time you start to run dry.
  
  
• 4). Paint cautiously near the masking tape. If you slop over onto the tape, you might get some bleed-through beneath it. For tricky areas, hold a splatter guard perpendicular to the wall at the border of where you want the paint to stop. If you don't have a splatter guard, you can use a dustpan, piece of cardstock or even a spatula.
  
  
• 5). Wait for the paint to dry, and then apply a second coat if necessary.
  
  

Finishing Up

• 1). Replace all the plastic covers for your outlets, cable and phone jacks and light switches.
  
  
• 2). Clean up carefully to avoid spilling or smudging paint drips during teardown.
  
  
• 3). Return all items to your newly painted room.