Tested: How to Paint the Drywall Behind a Radiator

Those pesky radiators really make it hard to do a thorough paint job.

At least, that’s what I convinced myself when I moved into my house and painted every room floor to ceiling, except for those irritating tight spots behind the radiators. You know which ones I’m talkin’ about.

Need to paint the wall behind this radiator.

The ones no standard paint roller or brush will wedge into, without being totally obvious that you forced a large, drippy, paint-covered object in there.

Sad, unpainted wall behind a radiator.

Installed extremely close to the wall, cast iron radiators take quite a bit of time to drain and remove for the convenience of painting without obstacles. And if you’ve ever been patient enough to drain one, you probably already know that you need to hire a small army to help you move it. And then you and the army bond over the next two days laying on the couch watching DIY Network because you all threw your backs out or dropped it on your foot.

My experience, at least.

So, I was furiously determined to come up with an easier way to paint behind the radiators.

My inspiration came to me when I was painting the entryway radiator. Actually, what happened is that a piece of plastic wrap got stuck to the paint (dried paint, thankfully). It occurred to me that if I wrapped the whole backside of the radiator with the same plastic wrap, it would probably stick well enough to serve as a handy paint barrier.

And it worked!

Plastic wrap stuck behind a radiator.

The Easy Way to Paint Behind a Radiator

1. Slide a horizontal piece of plastic wrap behind the radiator to cover the lowest area. The cellophane may stick to your paint surface, and it may need to be taped to adhere well.
2. Add more pieces of plastic wrap, layering and stacking until the entire radiator backside is covered
3. Apply paint to the wall using a small 6.5″ paint roller that can reach through narrow spaces
4. Add an extension to your paint roller handle, if necessary
5. Allow the wall to dry before you remove the plastic wrap

Steps 1-2

I started from the bottom, coating the back of the radiator horizontally with long pieces of the wrap until the whole possibly-effected area was covered adequately, like hot dog rolls at the beach. And a messy paint job is just about as devastating as sandy rolls, so don’t act like I’m overthinking this.

Radiator covered with plastic wrap.

Steps 3-4

Because I’m in the process of patching the stairwell from having removed the colorful gallery, I had gone and bought a new gallon of Burnished Bronze by Behr and was raring to crack it open. I used one of the smaller 6.5″ paint rollers that’s better for fitting in small spaces (as well as usually getting a finer paint finish), and went to town.

Choose a narrow paint roller that can fit behind your radiator.

The application process went really well. And moreover, it wasn’t messy. The roller was a perfect fit into the narrow space, and while the plastic wrap got some paint on it, the radiator itself was totally guarded. The most nerve-wracking part of the whole job was whether or not the mixologist at Home Depot could match my previous can of Burnished Bronze exactly.

In this and the previous photo, the wall is still a little sticky, so you can see the variance in the wet paint spots versus the dry. The dog did not seem as unnerved. He was patiently waiting a birthday beach walk (he turned the big 0-3).

Watching paint dry.

Step 5

Once the wall is dry, you can safely remove the plastic wrap from the radiator. Happily, the color match dried perfectly, which based on everything my Mom has told me, never happens.

The wall behind the radiator was successfully painted!

And I’m finally through with staring at that white paint that had been peeking out at me.

I didn’t actually Google to find this idea, just tried it out for myself. Without bothering to look now, after the fact, does anyone else have any good tips before I paint the next 3 radiators in the house?