How to Create Crisp and Clean Lines On Your Next Painting Project

Sure you can spend your money on buying the blue painters tape, but what if you can create perfectly clean tape lines using the masking tape lying around your house?

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• masking tape or painters tape
• paint in all colors that you will be taping on.
• rollers/paint brushes
• clear paint-able calking
• optional.

1. Prep the surface correctly. Wipe down walls with a damp cloth or sponge, fill holes AND sand; prime the walls if they need it.

2. Tape of desired boundaries for your project.

3. Here's the trick! Paint the tape edge first with the color of paint that the tape is stuck to. EXAMPLE: if the tape is on a white baseboard and you are painting your wall green you take a brush and paint along the tape edge in WHITE first. The trick here is that texture, dust and short cuts on taping leave little pockets where the tape hasn't sealed to the wall. This creates a little vacuum that sucks the paint under it. By painting the color of the baseboard first the only paint that is sucked under the tape is the color you want under there.
   Note: if you are taping against natural wood you simply put a dab of clear calking on your finger and run it along the tape line. This will suck clear calking under the tape rather than the wall color. This step is longer but worth it to protect beautiful natural woodwork.

4. * Let the paint dry about 30-40 minutes. Test to ensure that the paint is sufficiently dry by lightly touching with your finger. If your finger comes away clean you're good to go. If you get paint on your finger then give it about 10-20 more minutes. Repeat the finger test until you find the paint dry enough to proceed.

5. Paint the rest of the project. Paint up to the tape as you typically would have.

6. Pull the tape as soon as your are finished painting your last coat. Don't wait for it to dry first! The cheaper the tape the weaker it is. You have in some case just covered the tape with about 4 coats of paint and it will want to stay on the wall. Remove it while the paint is still wet or damp to ensure your tape will come off. This is less important if you are using the more expensive blue painters tape as it is much stronger than dollar store masking tape.

Tips & Warnings

• Removing tape with wet paint on it is messy business. Make sure your area is propertly protected and you are too.