This post has been a long time coming! I have been painting all the things from cabinetry to walls to floors and I’ve tried a LOT of different paint products and supplies. So let me save you the hassle and money and just trust me, these are the best painting supplies.

Brush

Wooster Short Handle Brush. Hands down. No competition. This brush not only gives you clean lines and washes well, but it’s COMFORTABLE to hold (no hand fatigue) and it’s $6. YES $6. You don’t need a $20 brush to paint your walls. You just don’t. While I will say the bristles on a nice Purdy brush are nice, my hand hurts after 20 minutes. With the Wooster short handle I can paint all day without fatigue. You can buy them as a box of 12 and get them as low as $4.25 which I’ll link here.

It’s the only brush I use for everything. Exterior, interior, paint, stain.

WASH TIP: I wash it in the sink with warm water and some dish soap (be sure to hold the brush with the bristles down this prevents build up in the top of the brush), and I will wash BETWEEN coats. It preserves the life of the brush and usually will swap out for a dry one for coat 2.

Roller

Did you know there are different fluffinesses of rollers? And the one you choose depends on the textured surface you are applying the paint onto? #mindblown YES!! So when you are selecting your roller you need to account for how rough the surface is. Painting stucco outside? That’s pretty rough so you need a higher NAP roller. Painting walls that are smooth as silk, you need a lower NAP roller. Most of the time you’ll be using a 3/8″ nap roller for most semi-smooth surfaces. If you use the wrong nap you 1. could not get the coverage your want 2. be adding texture onto a smooth surface you want to keep smooth.

My go to paint rollers are the Wooster 3/8″ or the Purdy 3/8″ rollers. Both do a good job at not shedding. Paint coverage is pretty smooth.

Painting a smooth surface like cabinetry/furniture? I would opt for a high density foam roller or these Purdy smooth rollers. The key with these rollers is to not push down hard! Guide it softly over your piece of furniture/cabinetry will prevent roller marks and splattering paint! I also use these for door trim, baseboards, interior doors.

Roller Handles do they make a difference? For the longest time I thought, no. A cheap roller handle will get the job done just as well as an expensive one. NO NO NO NO!!! THIS right here is your golden goose! A good roller handle will help your roller smoothly roll over the wall. It will also evenly distribute your paint PLUS eliminate the weird paint roller edges.

My two favorites: Wooster 9″ roller handle and Purdy Roller Handle. Just walk away from the cheap $2 economy ones for forever.

Paint Buckets & Trays

I’ve tried literally every one on the market and while some have some pretty cool features, they are uncomfortable, heavy, or cumbersome to use so here’s what I recommend. Handy Paint Pail. They just have it figured out. This one is all you need! It holds a mini roller + magnetizes to your paint brush. Has disposable inserts, and a comfortable hand grip. Handy Paint Pail.

Using a larger roller? Get this paint tray! It can hold a whole gallon of paint, magnetizes to your paint brush, plus has a handle and disposable inserts as well. Handy Paint Tray

Tape

The only tape you should be buying is Frog Tape. It truly outperforms all other tapes in getting a crisp line and actually STAYING put where you need it. If you are just marking imperfections or planning out a project you can use the cheaper blue stuff, but if you are actually painting. Stick to frog tape!

Paint Sprayers

I have a whole blog post on when to paint spray vs roll and how to paint cabinets if you want more in depth on when to use a paint sprayer and how, but for this post’s purpose I will only talk about what one to get.

Good: Homeright Super Finish Max – It is a HDLV sprayer which means you really need to dilute your paint to get to to spray. It does spray evenly, but has a little learning curve to get it to spray enough paint. Cleaning is pretty simple and has minimal overspray. For $100 it’s a good paint sprayer.

Better: Graco Truecoat – there’s a few different versions of this paint sprayer. It does spray a LOT of paint and doesn’t have a lot of adjustments so you need to mask off well and move quickly to prevent drips, but the finish is VERY smooth. It’s usually between $200-300 and has held up through multiple paint projects.

Best: Graco TC Pro – it’s cordless. It runs on Dewalt batteries. It has liners for easy cleaning and lots of adjustments you can make to get the spray the right consistency. It really is hands down my favorite sprayer, but I understand the price tag is steep and because of that I usually recommend the Truecoat.

The extras

Everyone needs to have a 7 in 1 paint tool. These guys are a painters best friend. Open your can with it, cut your tape lines straight, get the excess paint off your roller, clean your brush with this version.

Mouse sander & Mini Sander for your prep! I’ve done away with the block sanders and now just use these mouse sanders. They are comfortable, easily swap out sand paper onto them and work really well at getting in tight spaces.

Bondo for getting rid of seams! It is super hard, doesn’t crack and sands smooth. Cons – you need some elbow grease to sand it down, it dries really quickly so you have to work fast and it smells really really bad! But it’s also what a lot of the pros use to get a seamless finish so if you withstand the smell, it’s an awesome product.

Plastic Wood Wood Filler – extremely useful for filling in nail holes.

Caulk – I’m all for just using Alex Fast Dry, but I will say that the Extreme Stretch is a little bit better and worth the extra few bucks if you can spare.

Spackling – If you have any drywall holes you need to fill, this spackling works like a charm. It goes on pink and when it’s ready to be sanded it turns white. It can be painted over without primer.

Hopefully this is helpful as you go about tackling your own painting projects. For more in depth step by step on how to do DIY basics, check out DIY Beginner Basics my online course that teaches YOU how to DIY. Use code HONEYBUILT10 for 10% off!