Works for Me Wednesday: Painting clean lines

It's another Works for Me Wednesday over at Rocks in My Dryer. Head on over there for more great tips and ideas. I am not known for my ability to make straight lines. And awhile back I posted on my love for the laser level. But I also learned another trick while painting the lines in my girls bathrooms. This trick can also be used when painting any wall or ceiling and it ensures nice clean lines. Once you have your painters tape in place you will take the base color of whatever wall the tape is on and put a light coat over the tape. Don't be afraid of getting it on the other wall that you will be painting. Now let it dry. Once it's dry go ahead and paint your other wall the desired color. When you remove the tape you will have a clean line. Why? Because instead of the new paint color accidentally seeping through the tape and make spots and getting on the wall, the original color has sealed the tape keeping the new color from seeping through. I couldn't do this on our ceilings when painting our walls because I had run out of ceiling paint. Oh, I wish I had been able to. But it worked wonderfully on the stripes in the girls room.

This doesn't show it, but what I did was took the lighter color that was the base coat, and run a thin coat on the tape. I let it dry and then painted the darker color in between. When I removed the tape I had clean lines. I discovered you don't want this too thick because your stripe will be a little raised instead of flush with the wall.

With Joy UNquenchable,