Each painter has slightly different methods and preferences, but the pros all know the trade secrets.

1 – Sand Away Flaws

You have to start with a perfectly smooth surface to end up with perfectly painted walls or woodwork. One pro tells PM that Sander would be a more fitting job title than Painter since he spends so much time pushing sandpaper. Sanding levels outs spackle or joint-compound patches and flattens ridges around nail holes. Sanding also removes burrs and rough spots in your trim.

Sand the walls from the baseboard to the ceiling with fine-grit sanding paper on a sanding pole. Then sand horizontally along the baseboard and ceiling. Don’t put a lot of pressure on the sanding pole or the head can flip over and damage the wall. Sand woodwork with a sanding sponge to get into crevices.

2 – Buy the Best Supplies

Don’t cheap out on paint and brushes. Cheap brushes are false economy. Buy a Wooster or something with some heft. That $3 plastic brush is going make it look like you smeared paint on the wall with a rake. And the bristles fall out. I like a nice 2-1/2-inch angled brush. It’s versatile and you can wash and reuse it until the bristles wear down to a nub. And get the most expensive paint, too. Why? Because it will go on easy and offer the best coverage. It’ll last a long time. You’ll be able to wash a grubby fingerprint off the wall without taking the paint with it. And your whole job will just go quicker and easier.

3 – Cover Furniture

If you can’t move furniture out of a room, move all of it to the center of the room and cover and wrap it with plastic sheets that are taped at the bottom. This will not only protect your furniture from paint drips and splatters, but also all of the dust from sanding.

4 – Use Tinted Primer

Before the pros paint walls, they fill holes and patch cracks with joint compound. But if you paint directly over it, the compound will suck the moisture out of the paint, giving it a flat, dull look (a problem called “flashing”). Those spots will look noticeably different than the rest of the wall. To avoid that, pros prime the walls before painting.

Instead of using white primer, pros usually have it tinted gray or a color that’s similar to the finish paint. Tinted primer does a better job of covering the existing paint color than plain primer, so your finish coat will be more vibrant and may require fewer coats. This is especially true with colors like red or orange, which could require three or more coats without a primer.

5 – Press Tape With a Putty Knife

Nothing is more discouraging when you’ve finished painting than to peel tape off the woodwork and discover the paint bled through. To avoid the pain-in-the-neck chore of scraping off the paint, do a thorough job of adhering the tape before you start. “Apply tape over the wood, then run a putty knife over the top to press down the tape for a good seal,” a painter with more than 16 years of experience says. “That’ll stop any paint bleeds.”

Use the blue painter’s tape instead of masking tape. Masking tape can leave behind a sticky residue that’s hard to clean off. Plus, paint can cause the tape to buckle or get wavy, which lets paint run underneath it. Painter’s tape can be left on for days (some up to two weeks) and still peel off cleanly. And it stops paint bleed without buckling.

6 – Eliminate Brush and Lap Marks with Paint Extender

The secret to a finish that’s free of lap and brush marks is mixing a paint extender (also called a paint conditioner), such as Floetrol, into the paint. This does two things. First, it slows down the paint drying time, giving you a longer window to overlap just-painted areas without getting ugly lap marks that happen when you paint over dried paint and darken the color. Second, paint extender levels out the paint so brushstrokes are virtually eliminated (or at least much less obvious). Pros use extenders when painting drywall, woodwork, cabinets, and doors. Manufacturer’s directions tell you how much extender to add per gallon of paint.

7 – Scrape a Ridge in Textured Ceilings

The problem with painting along the edge of textured ceilings is that it’s almost impossible to get a straight line along the top of the wall without getting paint on the ceiling bumps. Pros have a simple solution. They run a screwdriver along the perimeter of the ceiling to scrape off the texture. “This lets you cut in without getting paint on the ceiling texture,” one of our pros says. “The screwdriver creates a tiny ridge in the ceiling, so the tips of your paint bristles naturally go into it. And you’ll never even notice the missing texture.”

8 – Use Canvas Drop Cloths

Pros don’t use bedsheets as drop cloths, and neither should you. Thin sheets won’t stop splatters and spills from seeping through to your flooring. And while plastic can contain spills, the paint stays wet for a long time. That wet paint can (and usually does) find the bottom of your shoes and get tracked through the house.

Use what the pros use—canvas drop cloths. They’re not slippery and they absorb splatters (but still wipe up large spills or they can bleed through). “Unless you’re painting a ceiling, you don’t need a jumbo-size cloth that fills the entire room,” a pro says. “A canvas cloth that’s just a few feet wide and runs the length of the wall is ideal for protecting your floor, and it’s easy to move.”

9 – Finish One Wall Before Starting Another

It might seem easy to do all the corners and trim in a room, then go back to roll the walls, but don’t. Pros get a seamless look by cutting in one wall, then immediately rolling it before starting the next. This allows the brushed and the rolled paint to blend together better.

Cover your paint bucket, tray, or container with a damp towel when switching between brushing and rolling to keep your paint and tools from drying out when not in use.

10 – Scrape (Don’t Tape) Windows

Don’t bother taping windows when painting sashes—it takes a long time and paint usually ends up on the glass anyway. Go ahead and let paint get on the glass. Once it’s dry, simply scrape it off with a razor blade. The paint peels off in seconds. “Just be careful to not break the paint bond between the wood and the glass,” a pro cautions. “Otherwise, moisture can get on the wood and cause rot.”