Classroom Before & After Makeover with Wagner SMART Roller

In this article: See how a large room can be painted quickly with this classroom before and after makeover with Wagner SMART Roller.

If you’ve been around this blog for long, you know I love a fun before & after room makeover project.

Today’s room reveal takes us out of our home, and into our church! We partnered together with our friends at Wagner for this special classroom project. I can’t wait to show you how it turned out!

Classroom Before & After Makeover with Wagner Smart Roller

This is a sponsored post written by me in partnership with Wagner. All opinions are 100% mine.

The Classroom Before:

This large classroom is one of our church’s multi-purpose meeting spaces. It’s well loved and used! At any given time, you may find a variety of groups here –  ranging in age from small kids to senior citizens.

It was designed with a room divider in the center so- if needed- it can be used by two small groups simultaneously. Or, if left open, it can accommodate a group of approximately 50 adults.

As with any space used by lots and lots of people, it was in desperate need of a freshening up. Posters held up with tape had ripped chunks of drywall out, chairs had left dents in the wall, and the paint color was feeling a little tired.

After patching and priming all the holes and dents (as shown above), it was time to put on a fresh coat of paint.

The new color chosen was Revere Pewter by Sherwin Williams.

Using the Wagner SMART Roller

After first cutting in around the ceiling, baseboards, and corners with a my favorite brush, it was time to roll on the paint.

(For detailed instructions on how to paint a room, see this post.)

We were thrilled to be able to use Wagner’s SMART roller to make this job go so much quicker!

What is the Wagner SMART Roller?

If you’ve never heard of the SMART roller before, it is a tool that allows the paint to be drawn into a hollow handle. Then, a trigger system pushes the paint into the special roller apparatus ~ eliminating the need for a paint tray system!

Not having to pour paint into the tray, load up the roller, and scoot it around the room with you saves SO much time!

The walls in this space were 10 feet high, but in a normal 8 foot situation, even a short person (like me!) can easily reach the top of the wall for quicker coverage.

How do I use a Wagner SMART roller?

Wagner’s SMART roller comes with all the parts needed and simple instructions. One of the important elements of assembling the roller is putting petroleum jelly (included in the kit) on all the rubber valve parts. That ensures a good seal and allows the paint to be drawn into the handle.

We initially had some difficulty getting the paint to draw up, so we eliminated the black plastic cover and just used the nozzle directly in the paint can. Pressing down firmly onto the nozzle and pulling slowly pulled the paint into the handle receptacle.

Here is a video of the process of getting started with the Wagner SMART roller.

How long does it take to paint a room with a Wagner SMART roller?

Obviously, there are a lot of factors involved with this question! But, for reference, we painted this very large room in 2 1/2 hours. Sometimes we painted together, and my husband had to leave for a few meetings in between…

The Classroom After

Paint was the biggest feature of this room makeover. Changing it from a dated beige color to a more modern gray gave it a fresh new look. Once it was all cleaned up and set up for future groups, here it is now!

For reference, here is the before again:

After:

Before:

After:

The back of the room before:

And after:

With the start date of school happening soon, we thought that adding a nice clock to the space would be a useful decor item.

I found it ironic that I was photographing it at around the time the dismissal bell used to ring at the school I went to…

I look forward to using the Wagner Smart Roller for more projects in the future. It makes painting so much quicker and easier!