As I said last week, there’s nothing like a fresh coat of paint to make all the difference in a space, but having the right tools to get that job done is a huge part of that!

While my morning project of painting our stairway spindles is still going on, and work still continues across the street removing wallpaper, patching and painting, I’m also working on another project helping a family friend freshen up some areas of their house.  One of the areas they wanted taken care of was a wall leading up the stairs.  The wall was dark wood paneling, and not the smooth sheets, this was the real wood, deep groove and has a lot of texture.  They wanted this wall painted to brighten up the space and I was a little worried having painted grooved and textured areas before.  I knew that the deep groove meant that most times you need to paint those grooves by hand because even the thickest roller pad will not reach the entire groove. 

I went to Lowes and checked to see what types of roller pads were available and found the Purdy brand roller pad ‘for rough surfaces’.  This had a 1 ¼ inch nap, which was the largest they had, so I thought this was going to be the best shot for getting this wall finished with the least amount brush work (which meant less time spent).  It was around $6 for one, so it was definitely a little more expensive than the regular wall/ceiling roller pads I usually get.  Then, I thought, with such a thick nap, would it make a huge mess?  I knew I’d be using a drop cloth, so it was at least worth a shot to try it, even if I had to go super slow with the roller.

At first, of course the pad soaked up a lot of paint, but immediately upon rolling on the wall, I knew this was going to be a game changer!  The roller not only got into about 90% of the deep grooves and hit all the textured areas, it also DID NOT MAKE A HUGE MESS!  Now, I’m a slow, fairly cautious roller anyway (I don’t like having to scrub the paint splatter off my arms), but even at a steady pace, there was literally NO SPLATTER!! 

The only issues I had with the roller pad was that I did have to turn at an angle to get into some of the really deep grooves, and the thick pad meant it soaked up more paint which made it considerably heavier than a normal roller pad, but, overall, it was a huge timesaver (and I guess you could gain a little arm muscle in the process)!  I will definitely be purchasing another one this spring when it warms up enough to finish painting my stone porch columns!!