apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I've been using a skinny paint roller lately and I do love it.
I think we bought it because it fit in tight spots but I find it much easier to manage. It splatters less and I can see what I'm covering better.

I've been wondering the same thing.

I like them better because they are much lighter than the regular rollers - when you are painting a larger area, it makes a big difference on the comfort factor.

a skinny roller won't hold as much paint, so for a large area, it'd not be ideal in many cases (save the weight issue noted above)... to be honest, when i saw them on the hollywood-deign shows, i simply thought it was a set-up for the shot before they brought in the real painting crew...

I never considered this! I have a roller just like the one above but I was using it to get into tight spaces, like behind my radiators. I have alot more painting to do so I will try this. My shoulders and arms hurt after a day of painting. If this works well it would be great!!

I use them. They hold plenty of paint, splatter much less, and are easier to use around windows and doors. They also take up less space in the fridge between coats.

They are easier to use around trim, they have a different (smoother) surface texture than most standard rollers, and they are much lighter. But I agree with 2lastnames: for big open areas, use a regular roller.

be careful if you have textured walls though.

I love them. I was introduced to Johnnie Rollers (the street name, not sure why they're named that) when I was apprenticing as a faux finisher in the early 90's and never went back.

It's true they don't hold as much paint as the larger rollers, but they do offer more control and sputter less (even with premium paint). Cottage cheese walls are created by painters overloading their huge rollers and not spreading the paint out. Fairly difficult to commit the crime with the smaller rollers, no matter how inexperienced a painter you are.

Just like the big rollers, you need to get the right roller for the right reason. Fluffy fat ones for textured walls, foam for varnish, mohair for oil-based, etc...

Easier to clean too. Though 5-in-1 tools are designed to clean the big rollers. (There's an invention waiting to happen.)

Also there are 2 types of rollers... "hollow" ones where the roller mechanism is part of the handle itself and ones where they are within the roller. (Ask about it at your local paint store). The hollow ones are a bit more eco/green...since you don't throw a plastic bit away with each roller. But if that doesn't move you . . . they are cheaper.

nah, i'll stick with a regular roller and edger. i don't have time to waste.

if you're worried about splatter, get a splatter cover. sure, it affects the angles you'll be at, but you can figure it out easily enough.

I just used both types of rollers for a small passageway and found that the larger roller spread paint more evenly and quickly. I primed with a small roller and switched to the larger roller to finish the job off.