4 Best Uses for a Trim Roller

Those who are painting homes and other properties have often struggled with the dilemma of whether to use paint brushes for most of a project, or whether to rely more on paint rollers or tools like a trim roller. Full sized paint rollers cover a wide area quickly, but where the painter runs into trouble is anywhere that they encounter smaller or more specialized surfaces. Switch plates, doorknobs, trim frames, and any other protrusions from a wall or door space can make roller painting a laborious process.


With trim rollers, smaller rollers from 3 to 4 inches in length, there’s a middle ground between the ease of using a roller to broadly apply paint and a small imprint for more complex areas of a wall or surface. Trim rollers make many kinds of painting jobs easier by allowing for more various application with a single tool. That doesn’t mean those using trim rollers will never have to pick up a brush, but these smaller roller designs can be useful in cutting down on the time it takes for an overall painting project, and giving professionals or amateurs a better tool box.

Trim rollers come in especially handy in some of the situations for which they were designed. Here are some popular uses for these handy small roller tools.

Exterior Trim Frames – Painters zipping along the exterior of a building may be using a full size roller on a flat exterior wall space, but trim frames can present a challenge. When the sizes of these frames fit the size of a trim roller, this project can become a lot easier. Both rollers can neatly share the same tray, eliminating the need for going up and down a ladder to switch tools.

Interior Trim – All kinds of wooden or synthetic trim and molding can be neatly painted with trim rollers as well.

Door spaces – It can be a little hard to go over any paneled door with a regular roller. The roller width is just too long to be able to apply paint into the small, slight bevels in the panel. These spaces, along with areas around a doorknob, etc. can be more accessible with a smaller trim roller.

Electrical Boxes and Other Wall Protrusions – A painter who is making good time with a flat wall space might come to an outlet, box or other installation that projects just a few inches from the surface. It’s not impossible to do these pieces with a traditional roller, but with a trim roller, there’s less of an issue with the paint on the unused portion pooling up and causing problems. Trim rollers can be great for these kinds of temporary obstacles to smooth sailing.