Experiencing Joy Through Art

   Greetings! In my previous post I mentioned my mom purchasing a new home. I am helping her to choose furniture, paint, etc. As with my own new house which I moved into back in 2008, it’s time to pull out my bag of tips and tricks for painting and decorating.

   I’d like to share with you one of my all time favorite painting tips I have learned on how to get perfectly clean straight paint edges on a textured wall surface. Textured walls are much more common in newer homes and this is an issue that can cause some problems if you are using more than one color in a room or trying to get clean edges along a ceiling or corner.

   In order to make this tip work you will need some of the original or old paint that the wall is already painted. If that is not available, you can always have your local hardware or paint store match the color as closely as possible. You won’t need a ton of it.

   You will also need some blue painter’s tape and a good quality paint brush. 

   Start by placing the tape along the edge or line where you want to change colors or get a clean edge. Press it down as much as possible. Now, the key to making this trick work is to go over the edge of the tape with the old paint color that the wall already is. That way the color that is already on the wall will seep under the tape and fill in all the little gaps and valleys. 

   Next, allow that paint color to dry completely. Now you can go over the edge again with the new color and continue painting that. Once that has dried, remove the tape carefully and voilà! You should now have a perfectly straight line on your textured wall! 

   The photo below shows my own guest bathroom, with this graphic stripe on the wall. I used this same method to achieve a nice clean line on the textured surface. After painting the main blue color and letting it dry, I taped off the edges where I wanted the brown to go and then went over the tape edges with the blue again. When that was dry I painted in the brown area to create my striped wall!

   Use this tip on your textured walls to create clean lines like a pro!