Bill Nunn: Hi! I am Bill Nunn, Painting Consultant for The Family Handyman Magazine; the leading magazine for Do-it-Yourselfers. This wall has been prepared and cut in and is ready to be rolled out, and that's what we are going to do next. To get started we'll put some paint in the tray and get the roller wet. So I have loosened the lid on this can of paint, and we'll pour in enough to get us going, not too much.

Again, I'd like to stress that it's important to think about spillage with paint and so you don't really need to fill your tray too full at any one time. You can always replenish the paint. I have a 9-inch roller here that we'll get wet and let the paint soak in for minute. We don't have a very high ceiling here. So there isn't a great need for an extension pole but I do have one here that I can show you that I often do use, and just screw into the roller handle like so. We're ready to roll.

First off, let's talk about the bottom edge. We've got our line cutting with the brush. So to start rolling, I often like to take a pass horizontally along the baseboard without nudging up against the tape, that would might create spatter on the floor. You might even go past, but just getting into this painted area, helps me control what happens here at the bottom of the wall.

I am going to move this tray out well in front of me, so I don't bump into it, and load up the roller, and just take here horizontal pass with the roller. Try to get into the line that you made with brush, but try not to get onto the tape too much. When you do this, don't get too far ahead of yourself because we're going to roll out the field and we want it to blend in with this wet paint before it dries. So I'll fill in here to the left into our corner.

Now I'm going to reload my roller for my first vertical stroke. I'm working from left to right. So I'll start in the corner and unload the roller onto the wall, pass, come back down, and we'll take another pass up, kind of feather our left edge a bit, and one more pass down to feather the right edge. I can also cut in across the top a bit like I did at the bottom near the baseboard. Remember to make sure you reload your roller for each pass.

Remember to keep your tray well out ahead of your work, so it's not on your foot. Here, I am coming close to the window frame, so I just flip my roller over, so the bar is away from the window. Again, we need the tray, and paint across the top, and reload and paint across the bottom.

So here is a tip. When you go to take a break it's important to cover your wet painting tools so they don't start to dry out while you're away, and I've found that a little aluminum foil does a job very nicely. Just put it over your tray, and wrap it down the sides, and it seals it from air pretty well while you're away at lunch, same with your painting pot.

Well, I can see we have a nice uniform coat on our wall with the roller. If you follow this technique down the wall and around the room, you'll have a really good first coat on. After 4 or 5 hours you should be able to come back and start over again for second coat that will fill out the coverage. Good luck with your project!