Sprucing up the rooms of your home with a new lick of paint can breathe new life into your living space, and vastly improve your satisfaction with your environment. However, before you can get cracking with your aesthetic home improvements, you need to tool up with the best kit possible.
Picking the perfect paint rollers is a vital step in compiling any home improvement kit. With the right painting tools in your arsenal, you’ll be able to revamp your rooms quickly and efficiently, but with the wrong roller at your disposal, you might find yourself struggling - even making a tricky job more difficult.
To help you avoid that pitfall and arm yourself with the best possible paint roller for your home’s requirements, we’ve pulled together everything you need to consider before buying, along with some of the very best rollers to purchase.
How to choose the best paint roller for you
Buying a paint roller is more complicated than you might think. There are lots of types to choose from, and each is often best suited to specific sorts of painting. Take yourself through these important questions before you buy.
What size of paint roller do you need?
The standard size for a paint roller is seven inches wide, and that’s generally perfect for most interior paintwork, unless there is a particularly huge or tiny area that you are planning to paint.
If you are planning to paint a room with lots of little nooks and crannies, or where there are slimmer areas, say, next to a window, then you might want to invest in a smaller roller that can squeeze into them. It can’t hurt to have a few options in your locker, so you might want to get a 3-inch roller, a 9-inch roller and a 12-inch roller, particularly if you’ll be tackling lots of different surfaces and areas.
How thick a paint roller nap do you need?
The other main variable between different paint rollers is the ‘nap’, which is the word given to the thickness of the woven cover that goes onto your metal paint roller frame. It’s important to know what each different nap (also known as the cover’s ‘pile’) is built to do: for example, 1/4-inch naps are perfect for painting smooth surfaces; 3/8-inch naps are ideal for lightly textured surfaces; 1/2-inch naps are designed for moderately rough surfaces; and 3/4-inch naps work wonders on a very rough surface. Again, if you’re planning to paint lots of different surfaces, there’s nothing wrong with stocking up a varied supply with lots of different naps.
Do you need a foam paint roller?
Rollers with 1/4-inch naps should be fine for most untextured surfaces, but there is another option on the market if you want to paint some smooth surfaces: foam rollers. These have no nap whatsoever, are ideal for slathering paint onto absolutely texture-free surfaces and recolouring the area without any blemishes.
Most casual painters will be happy with a more forgiving 1/4-inch nap, but if you want to take your smooth-area painting to that next level, you’ll want to consider adding a foam roller to your line-up.
What type of surface are you painting?
Essentially, picking the perfect paint roller depends entirely on what sorts of surface you are planning to paint. If you are painting a room with perfectly smooth walls and no architectural features jutting out, a standard 7-inch roller with either a 1/4-inch nap or a foam covering will suit your needs well. But if you are painting lots of different surfaces with multiple textures and features, you’ll want to purchase a variety of rollers and covers to go with them.
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The best paint rollers to buy from £3
1. Harris 4337 Paint Brush and Roller Kit: Best value paint roller set
Price:£6 | Buy now from Amazon
With this Paint Brush And Roller Set from Harris, you get a 9-inch roller and two polyester sleeves to use it with, as well as a paint tray, a 1-inch brush and a 2-inch brush. That’s everything you should need to kick off your decorating project at a very affordable cost.
The rollers included have a medium pile, which should allow you to tackle most standard rooms, while the brushes included will help you polish off any tricky corners or features. A lot of big brands sell rollers solo at double or more this cost, which seems like an absolute waste of money compared to this bargain bundle.
Key specs - Size: 9-inch; Sleeves: 2x 1/2-inch knitted polyester; Extras: 1-inch and 2-inch Harris Taskmaster brushes
2. Telescopic Long Reach Paint Roller: Best extendable paint roller
Price:£15 | Buy now from Amazon
If you’re painting a high ceiling or a tough-to-reach outdoor area (such as a tall pipe or a lofty shed), you might want to invest in an extendable paint roller, which can save you from the hassle spending hours up a ladder. The extending handle on this Telescopic Long Reach paint roller can reach from 1.3m to 2.2m, allowing you to reach those otherwise unreachable spots with ease.
The brush itself is 9 inches wide, and fully removable if you ever need to replace it. The price is also very reasonable, which makes this an inexpensive addition to your collection, as well as a very useful one.
Key specs - Size: 9-inch; Sleeves: 1x 1/2-inch knitted polyester; Extras: None
3. Purdy Adjustable Paint Roller Frame: Best adjustable paint roller
Price:£24 | Buy now from Amazon
This Purdy roller is one of the more versatile options on the paint roller scene. If you’re planning a paint job that will require various different roller covers, picking up one of these adjustable paint roller frames will allow you to swap effortlessly between roller covers without having to fork out on a load of different frames.
It comes with a 12-inch roller cover that has a 1-inch nap, but the roller frame can handle any width of roller cover between 12-inch and 18-inch. It’s also remarkably lightweight, considering its chunky appearance and advanced functionality. You can also attach this frame to a range of different extension poles, giving you options if your project requires more height or length.
Key specs - Size: 12-inch to 18-inch; Sleeves: 1x 1-inch polyamide; Extras: None
4. Wagner Paint Roller TurboBall 550: Best electric paint roller
Price:£40 |Buy now from Amazon
If you’re painting a large area over the course of your home improvement project, and you don’t fancy wearing your arms out with all of those rolling motions, Wagner’s ‘TurboRoll’ is exactly the roller that you’re looking for. Thanks to a battery-powered motor installed in its handle, this roller can spin without you exerting yourself. It’s easy to use – you fill up the handle with paint and then set the roller to spin by thumbing a simple switch – and a real saver of time and effort.
If you’re using it properly, you should be able to paint 15m² in just ten minutes. It runs on 4 AA batteries which should be good to get through around 40 litres of paint before giving up the ghost.
Key specs - Size: 9-inch; Sleeves: 1x 3/4-inch knitted polyester; Extras: None
5. Harris 4129 4-Inch Mini Gloss And Emulsion Roller: Best mini paint roller
Price: £3 | Buy now from Amazon
Tidying up a bit of paintwork, as opposed to redoing a whole room, doesn’t really require any huge or complicated rollers. In some situations, a small roller will do the job nicely, and this Mini Gloss and Emulsion set from Harris is the perfect option for these little ‘touch-up’ jobs.
It comes with a small frame and two different 4’’ roller covers: a foam cover perfect for gloss paint, and a fabric cover for use with emulsion. Trust us: if you’re planning a few little touch-ups around your home, you’ll find the job far easier with this kit than you would with that cheapie roller from the local pound shop.
Key specs - Size: 4-inch; Sleeves: 1x 1/2-inch knitted polyester, 1x foam; Extras: None
6. Wooster Brush R017-14 Sherlock Roller Frame: Best super-sized paint roller
Price:£13 | Buy now from Amazon
In other cases, like when you’re painting a huge surface area or several different rooms, only a large roller will do. This Sherlock roller frame is perfect for such scenarios, promising smooth painting and easy grip to all users. It also has an impressive quick release spring mechanism, which allows for an easy hands-free removal of roller covers.
The width of this roller frame is an epic 14 inches, though there are 7-inch and 9-inch versions if you need to tackle smaller areas. With highly durable fibreglass reinforcements, this is one roller frame you can use time and time again without fear of breaking. The only downside is that roller covers are sold separately, meaning that you can use it time and again without fear of breaking it.
The only drawback is that you’ll need to buy your roller sleeves separately, adding a little more to the cost, though this means you can get the right one for the job you have in mind.
Key specs - Size: 14-inch; Sleeves: None supplied; Extras: None
