Patch the drywall before you paint

Paint does not hide a crater. It highlights it. If you can feel it with your fingertips, you’ll see it after the room is the new color.

Small holes

Nail pops: screw them down, dimple, compound, sand. Don’t leave the nail standing and hope.

A fist-size hole needs a patch, tape or a mesh square, two or three thin coats of compound, then a prime. One fat glob of spackle will shrink and flash.

Stains

Fix the leak first. Then stain-block primer. Finish paint will not seal a water mark. It will yellow it.

Texture match matters on ceilings. A smooth patch on a knockdown ceiling is a spotlight. We match texture, then paint the whole plane so the patch isn’t a postage stamp.