The most popular do it yourself home improvement project is house painting. Painting is the most affordable and quickest option when its time to improve your home. Here are the basic tools you need for painting your house:

1.) Paint brushes - these are the most basic of all painting tools.  Choose the one with good quality because they are comfortable to use and will perform for a very long time.  Paintbrushes come in a wide variety of sizes and types and are necessary for those hard-to-reach spots a paint roller cannot reach.  

2.) Paint rollers - for large, flat surface areas like walls and ceilings, this is the tool that is efficient and easy to use.  Paint rollers help you get the job done in about half the amount of time it would take with a paintbrush.  Rollers come in varying widths; the two most common sizes are 7 inches and 9 inches wide.  Paint rollers intended for wall or ceiling painting have handles made of plastic or wood.  A good roller pole is positive locking and comfortable to use.  Many styles are available in different lengths.They have a metal or plastic frame that is slipped inside a roller cover.  Paint rollers come with paint trays that are made of aluminum or plastic and come in standard 7-inch and 9-inch versions.

3.) Airless sprayers – use this tool if you want to deliver the greatest amount of paint in the shortest amount of time.  An airless paint sprayer uses a small electrical pump motor that forces paint through a small hole to beak it up into a fine spray.  The shape of the spray cone can be adjusted for various patterns to match the job.

Carefully clean all surfaces to be painted.  Remove or cover all furniture and flooring, fill, patch and sand holes and cracks in the surface.  Remove electrical switch and plug covers.

There are two types of paint, latex paint and alkyd paint. Both types have excellent qualities but are incompatible with each other. An oil base paint, alkyd house paint, can be applied over water base paint, latex or acrylic house paint, but never the other way around. A primer must be used before applying latex over oil base paint.

Latex Paint – these are the most common types of paints on the market. Because its primary liquid is water, latex dries quickly and almost odorless. The type of binder used affects the quality of latex paint. The best water based paints use 100% acrylic resins. Some manufactures use the term acrylic latex paint.

Alkyd Paint - this type of paint is use especially on interior trim. It is stain resistant and dries with less brush marks. However, the disadvantage of alkyd paint is, it has a strong solvent smell and dries slowly.

One gallon of paint covers about 375 square feet.  To find the total square footage of the room, not including the ceiling, multiply the perimeter of the room (width of each wall including doors that will be painted) by the floor-to-ceiling height.  For example, the room has 4 walls that are 12 feet wide each, 4 x 12 = 48.  If the floor-to-ceiling height is 10 feet, then 10 x 48 = 480 total square feet.  To find the number of gallons of paint needed for that room, divide the square footage by 375, so 480 / 375 = 1.28, or equivalent to 1.5 gallons.  To calculate the paint needed for the ceiling, multiply the length by the width of the room to get the square footage, and then divide by 375.  Just be sure to account for the application of second or third coats of paint, if necessary.

Wear a proper mask for respiratory protection and take frequent breaks in the fresh air while painting.

If a paint job has recently been completed in your home, air the room out for at least 48 to 72 hours.  Open the windows wide and, if possible, use a box fan in a window that is set to blow out.