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A fresh coat of paint is one of the greatest ways to improve the look of your home and to add some value too. You can color everything from your walls and large pieces of furniture to your cabinets and doors. Using a roller is fine for smaller jobs, but when it comes to larger jobs, you need a sprayer.
These tools come in different options like corded and cordless models as well as those that are similar to the ones used by pros. These bigger models weigh quite a bit and are a bit too cumbersome to carry around your home as you work. We factored in weight and design as well as reviews when looking for the excellent product for interior walls.
The model that we picked as the top product is the Graco Magnum X7 (Check Price on Amazon.com). While it’s a little larger than you might expect for a tool you can use at home, it comes with a car that makes it easier to transport. That cart also lets you take it outside for exterior wall coloring and other projects.
We offer a detailed review of this model for those who want to start as soon as possible. You’ll also find tips on retouching colors in your home and useful information on how to choose this product.
Contents Table - Click to expand
How to Choose the Right One for You
What Comes with the Sprayer?
Painting interior walls with this device is much easier when you have the right tools, which is why you should make sure that you buy one that comes with more than just the tool. It should also come with a hose or a cup that provides you with the liquid and at least one tip. Models that come with more than one tip are great for those who want to do more than just interior coloring because you can switch out those tips for different projects.
Does the Tip Have a Rating?
When using thicker types like those with an oil base, you need to use a larger tip. This tip has a larger hole on the end that allows a stronger flow of liquid to come out without the paint clogging the end. Smaller tips are better for working with mineral-based and thinner paints.
Looking at the packaging is an easy way to find out if the tip can handle the type you want to use. Find out if the manufacturer has a rating for the tip or if the company tells you the type of paints compatible with that tip.
What Types of Sprayers are Available?
They come in different types that include compressed air, airless and HVLP. High volume, low pressure (HVLP) products use more air volume but less pressure to create a higher flow that sticks to more areas of your walls and covers more space. These are used with thinner paints like those you'll use on your walls and doors.
Compressed air sprayers with either come with a tank that provides the air or will hook up to an air compressor. These products use the air compressor to produce the pressure that you need. As these models are usually a more expensive and better suited for pro use, we looked for airless types.
An airless one is a great option for those looking for DIY interior tips. They produce their own air, which provides you with a continuous flow. Airless models can handle the thicker ones that HVLP products cannot.
How Will You Move the Sprayer?
Before you begin looking at the best colorants for interior walls and checking out our list of the top products, make sure that you know how much it weighs and how you can move and carry it. Some models are so small, compact and lightweight that you can use one anywhere in your house. This makes it easier to color the walls along your steps and to reach your ceilings.
While our number one choice is not one that you can pick up and carry, it is one that you can easily move because of an included cart. Similar products that function like those used by the pros will also come with a cart. The cart has handles on the top for carrying it up and down the stairs and wheels for moving it across any room or surface.
Do You Prefer a Hose or Cup?
You also need to pick between using one with a cup or one that comes with a hose. Hose models will work with different buckets and will fit inside a five-gallon bucket, but these models require that you use at least one gallon at a time. Models that come with a cup hold less liquid but are better suited for smaller jobs.
Spray Painting Indoors
Always Clean First
Before applying a single coat to your interior walls, always clean the walls first. The only exception is when you want to color the walls on a newly constructed home. If you lived there for any amount of time, your walls will pick up debris from pet hair and dander as well as other things floating through the air.
Unless you properly clean your walls, you'll find that it sticks to each piece of debris and makes it stand out. Looking at the wall without seeing those marks is almost impossible.
You can use ordinary soap and water with a soft cloth or sponge and a dry towel. Mix the soap with the water in a bucket, use the sponge dipped in the solution to wipe down the walls and dry the surfaces off with the cloth. If you can wait a few hours, you can go back over and look for any spots that you missed.
Protect Your Home
Home improvement stores sell drop cloths and tarps that you can put down on your floors, but you can also use old sheets and newspapers. Simply spread those materials onto the floors to catch any drips or spills.
Protecting other areas of your home will require the use of tape. Look for pro's tape or masking tape, which peels off easily and won't stick to surfaces. The tape lets you mark off any areas you do not want to get color on and will create a solid line or edge at the end of your work.
Experiment
Unless you used a similar product before, you should experiment with it outside before using it inside. Check out all the settings as you apply color to a piece of plywood or some cardboard. This helps you see the coverage that you get with each setting and which one you can more easily control.
Trim Pieces
Many people do not want to stain their trim pieces at the same time that they put color on their walls. You'll need a claw hammer to remove those pieces. Insert the edge of the claw along the top of the trim piece and apply enough pressure until it lifts off the wall.
These products are great for coloring these pieces, though you may want to sand down the surface first or apply some primer to get a smoother finish. You'll want to hold it at least 12 inches away from the surface as you slowly apply the color. Let each coat dry before checking to see if you need another.
The Ultimate Interior House Paint Review
Many companies now offer samples that you can request before you buy a gallon or more. When you visit a home improvement store and look at samples, you may find that the paint chips available don’t match the finished look that you see on your walls because you didn’t use enough layers or didn’t apply primer first. Though we recommend getting a sample if you have your heart set on a specific color or want to match a new color to an old shade, we also found some options for those who want to change colors.
Renaissance Chalk Finish
Using chalk colorant lets you create the same finish you would find on a chalkboard on any wall in your home. The top product out there is this one from Renaissance, which comes in unique colors beyond the traditional black and green like Verona Rose, Camelot Blue and Venetian Red. Renaissance offers it in half-pint, pint, quart and gallon sizes.
Rust-Oleum Mold and Mildew Proof Interior
Another product that we think you’ll like is this item from Rust-Oleum, which is perfect for use in kitchens, bathrooms, basements and other rooms where mold and mildew are common. It creates a protective barrier on the surface of your walls to keep mold and mildew from growing and from spreading. It has a satin finish that has some nice gloss to it and is available in a traditional white shade, though you may find some other colors or have the chance to mix your own color.
Honorable Mention
Wagner FLEXiO 590
Before we get into the best product for walls, we wanted to recommend a model that we think is worth a look. The Wagner FLEXiO 590 is an HVLP unit that costs less but still does a good job of coloring on interior walls. This is smaller in size than our top choice and more lightweight than our number one pick, but that lightweight design allows you to easily carry this one and use it while standing on a ladder to use on your walls and ceiling.
Different settings help you use it on all areas of your walls and do some finishing work along the edges and on the trim pieces. It is compatible with both oil-based and other types and will work with undiluted stains too. The included cup holds the perfect amount of stain for a smaller job.
This product also has a Lock-N-Go design that lets you turn the tip to lock it in place, which prevents any accidental spills. You can then unlock that tip to remove it for cleaning. The same design applies to the cup too.
And the Winner is…
After looking at dozens of different models, we picked the Magnum X7 from Graco as the best product for interior walls. One of the top features on this product is a knob that rotates to let you pick how you want to use the unit. This knob shows you an image relating to each setting and tells you what each one does, which helps you select the right setting to use when cleaning your walls, priming the walls or applying color.
Unlike other models from Graco and other companies that use a cup to limit how much liquid you can use at any given time, the X7 comes with a suction tube that you can insert right into your bucket. It works with large buckets of up to five gallons and single gallon buckets. This hose produces the suction necessary to pull the liquid along the hose until it reaches the head.
Suitable for those who go through up to 125 gallons in a single year, the X7 can handle almost any type of project. The included cart has a hose wrap for keeping your hose stored when not using it and large wheels that can move effortlessly across carpets and other types of flooring. This cart also has two wide legs on the base that keep the cart and unit upright and stable as you use it.
With the PowerFlush adapter, you can easily clean the hose too because this adapter lets you connect the product to your garden hose. You can use that hose to clean your walls. The X7 also comes with a reversible tip that you can switch over in seconds when the tip clogs.
