Nail Holes and Tiny Dings
For holes under 1/4 inch, you barely need tools. A tub of lightweight spackle and your finger will handle most of them.
Press a small amount of spackle into the hole with your fingertip. Wipe off the excess with your finger running flat across the wall. That's it. The spackle will shrink slightly as it dries, so a small dimple is normal. Touch it up with a second pass if needed.
For a slightly cleaner result, use a putty knife. But honestly, for picture nail holes, I've never noticed a difference between finger-applied and knife-applied spackle once it's painted.
Let it dry completely before painting. Lightweight spackle usually dries in 30 minutes to an hour, but I give it at least two hours to be safe. If you paint over damp spackle, you'll get bubbling and the patch will fail.
Drywall Anchor Holes
Plastic anchor holes are bigger than nail holes and often have chewed-up edges where the anchor was removed. They need a little more attention.
First, deal with any loose material. Press around the hole and knock off anything that's hanging on. If there's a big lip of raised drywall paper, carefully slice it off with a utility knife rather than trying to spackle over it.
Fill the hole with spackle, pushing it in firmly to fill the entire cavity. Don't worry about it being perfect on the first coat. Let it dry, then add a second thin coat to get flush with the wall.
Here's a trick I learned from Uncle Frank: for clean-looking anchor hole repairs, use the corner of your putty knife to press an X into the spackle right after applying. As the spackle dries and shrinks, the X helps prevent a single depression from forming in the center.
I'm not 100 percent sure that's real science or just superstition, but his anchor hole repairs always look better than mine did before I started doing it.
Doorknob Dents and Holes
That satisfying thwack when a door swings open into a wall means you're patching drywall soon. Doorknob damage ranges from shallow dents to actual holes, depending on how fast the door was moving.
Shallow Dents
If the paper facing is intact and there's just an indentation, this is a spackle job. Fill the dent with lightweight spackle using a putty knife. Apply it slightly proud of the surface since it will shrink. Let it dry, apply a second coat if needed, sand smooth with 150-grit.
Multiple thin coats work better than one thick coat. Thick spackle takes forever to dry and is more likely to crack.
Holes Through the Paper
When the doorknob punched through to the gypsum core or all the way through the drywall, spackle alone won't hold. You need a patch to bridge the gap.
Self-adhesive mesh patches are perfect for this. They come in various sizes, usually 4 to 8 inches. Stick the patch over the hole, centering it so there's mesh on solid drywall on all sides.
Cover the patch with joint compound, not spackle. Joint compound is stronger and adheres better to the mesh. Spread it thin, feathering the edges out 2-3 inches beyond the patch. Let it dry, sand lightly, apply a second coat. Maybe a third if the edges are visible.
Prime before painting. Joint compound absorbs paint differently than the surrounding wall, so you'll see the patch if you skip the primer.
The Spackle Question
Home Depot sells about fifteen different types of spackle and patching compound. For small repairs, you don't need most of them.
Lightweight spackle is my go-to for nail holes and small anchor holes. It dries fast, sands easily, and shrinks less than regular spackle. The pink stuff that dries white is nice because you know when it's ready for the next coat or for sanding.
Regular spackle works fine for the same applications but is harder to sand and takes longer to dry. I don't see an advantage for small repairs.
Joint compound is better than spackle for anything requiring mesh or tape, like doorknob holes. It's stronger and bonds better. But it's overkill for nail holes and is harder to work with for small touch-ups.
My neighbor Dave uses wood filler for drywall repairs. It works, technically, but it doesn't sand well against drywall and the color match is harder. I'd skip it.
Making Repairs Invisible
The patching is the easy part. Making the repair invisible when painted is where people mess up.
Sand smooth. Feel the repair with your palm. Any lump or ridge will show through paint. Sand until it feels exactly like the surrounding wall.
Prime the patch. Always. I use a spray can of primer for small repairs since it's not worth cleaning a roller for a 2-inch spot. The primer seals the spackle and gives paint something uniform to grab onto.
Texture match if needed. If your walls have any texture, a smooth patch will stand out. For light orange peel, I've had luck spraying a very light coat of texture from a can after priming. For heavier textures, you might need to skim coat a larger area.
Cut in carefully when painting. If you're just touching up the patch on an otherwise good wall, feather the paint edges out 6-8 inches so you don't get a sharp line where new paint meets old.
The Hundred-Hole Saturday
If you're dealing with a wall full of holes like I was, batch your work for efficiency.
First pass: fill everything. Walk through with your spackle and putty knife and hit every hole. Don't worry about perfection, just get them filled.
Dry time: go do something else for two hours.
Second pass: touch up anything that shrank too much. Check your work by running your hand across each repair. Add more spackle where needed.
More dry time: another two hours at least.
Sand everything at once. 150-grit on a sanding block or pole sander for efficiency. Wipe down the dust with a damp cloth.
Prime all patches. I used a small roller for my 147-hole adventure because spray primer would have been expensive and created overspray.
Paint. At this point you're basically repainting the walls, so commit to full coats rather than trying to blend patches into old paint.
That whole process, done efficiently, took me about six hours including paint drying time. Way better than 147 separate trips up and down a ladder.