When painting plastered walls I always end up with a different finish around light switches and plug sockets.
I do most of the coverage with rollers, then use a little brush around the switches, and I can always see the brush marks afterwards. I unscrew them so I can get round behind without putting paint on the switches…. but it’s those brush marks that irritate me. What’s the secret to uniform finishes?

Can you use a mini roller once you’ve unscrewed the light socket instead of a brush?

That wouldn’t help with the edges of skirting boards though…

I know exactly what you mean.

I don’t know of a way to 100% avoid it, but personally I use a big roller for most of the wall, cut in with a brush, then use a smaller roller like @finbar says to help smooth out the brush strokes a bit.

You need to be quite careful with the little roller to avoid rolling into the wrong thing, but IME it helps minimise the obvious bush strokes for all but the very edges, which are less noticeable.

You can get paint pads as well – normally packs of different sizes & you generally get a small one which will go around switches & sockets OK.

Cut in first then do the roller work.

As above …you can probably use the big roller straight over the hole. Why not!
Must admit I use brushes and I know what you mean . It’s funny how we have learnt to think that things like that are of any importance ..flat walls, brush marks etc !

As TR says, cut in first. Get a decent brush as well.

I asked a painter working at a neighbours house as the finish looked really good, best brushes, cut in first, keep the paint line wet.

Also, he did a coat then went off to do another job, came back 4 hours or so later to start again. I imagined he had a few jobs on the go and didn’t sit around waiting for pint to dry.

He bought the best paint at jonstons.

Take the switches off. Roller straight across.

Add a bit of danger…

Take the switches off. Roller straight across.

Add a bit of danger…

…. by doing it in the dark

Make sure the area around the switch etc is smooth to start with. Cut then roller straight away- always paint off a wet edge

Power off, unscrew light fitting roe and small roller will get close enough that you can’t see it with rose refitted. Take switch off and paint with small roller.

With standard height ceiling it takes an extra 5 mins to do the above.

One of my decorating bugbears in seeing people paint over switches/roses/etc. As others have said, it takes 5 mins to unscrew and mini-roller. If wires are short and/or you don’t have much give to get behind the switch thsk stretch it out as far as you can and mask the switch (or protect with a bit of card) then mini roller the wall knowing you won’t mark the switch.

It’s these little 5 min jobs that are easy wins when it comes to improving attention to detail.

I use  masking tape and a mini roller. Just make sure it’s decent tape.

trail_rat
Free Member
Cut in first then do the roller work.

+1, though I tend to do an extra coat on the “cutting in”, just to make sure the shade match. A damp cloth will sort any over paint on switches (or drips), just keep it hand as you paint. Unscrew ceiling rose, but FFS don’t get paint on the ceil plate threads

I unscrew and usually there is enough wire length to move the switch/socket to of the way sufficiently to use the roller so same finish as the rest of the wall.

I don’t bother masking or painting around. Ultimately when you want to remove the switch or socket for maintenance or replacement if you’ve painted around you will most likely have some paint that has adhered to the side of the switch so when you pull the switch off you often pull a chunk of paint off too. Only takes 30 seconds to unscrew the socket off the wall though.

Just started painting our dining room. My wife suggested buying a proper cutting in brush to get rid of the masking taping nonsense. It’s the best decorating tool I’ve bought so far!

Personally I don’t really worry too much about the brush strokes being noticeable. You usually need to be pretty close to notice.