Depending upon the painting you wish to carry out will determine the best type of paint roller you should use. For example, if you are painting walls or ceilings with an emulsion, standard-sized rollers (and extensions) that are 9 inches wide are recommended. However, for upcycling projects, doors, skirting boards, or other delicate jobs, mini rollers that are 4 inches would be the better choice.
To assist you in selecting a paint roller, our handpicked selection lists top-performing rollers, chosen based on our first-hand experience painting interior and exterior surfaces with a range of paints. Our testing and up-to-date research further ensure the quality of our recommendations.
Our Top Picks At A Glance:
How The DIY Works Team Tests & Rates Paint Rollers
From painting walls, ceilings or even masonry, paint rollers are an essential tool for the job and over the years, we’ve tried and tested a huge selection.
Whether we are carrying out touch-ups or painting an entire house during a renovation, we’ve certainly got plenty of experience to base our recommendations on.
In terms of our testing, we have tested various paint rollers from some of the best brands in the UK. Whilst testing, we used the paint rollers on walls, ceilings, masonry and many other surfaces. As you can see in the photos below, we are using the Stanley Roller set to paint new plaster upon a ceiling.
It’s also worth pointing out that during our testing, we also used a variety of paints with the rollers such as emulsion paint on walls and ceilings and gloss paint with a mini roller kit for upcycling projects. As shown in the image below, we recently painted a peddle dash render too and this was made far easier thanks to a roller with an extension pole.
Below is a video that we posted on our YouTube channel that shows us testing one of our top recommendations (Stanley Roller). As you can see in the video, it’s easy to use and it smoothly applies the emulsion that we were using onto the walls with minimum mess.
To keep up our commitment to reviewing and testing the latest paint rollers (for this article), we are continually testing out the latest offerings from top brands in the UK. This means that when we notice a brand has released a new model of paint roller, we will upgrade our current rollers for testing where applicable.
As well as our testing and experience, we also based our recommendations on the latest research and several factors. Some of the factors that we took into consideration included the roller’s build quality (handle, sleeve and tray), type, accessories supplied within the kit, sizes available and value for money.
