Painting is so meditative for the soul...at least for me. I notice that I have some really amazing thoughts while I paint. If I am alone while I paint, I think up solutions to problems that have been plaguing me and I receive comforting thoughts from what could only be God. Yesterday I was having a moment where I wondered if what I am doing to the living room is worth all the trouble and a few minutes later I noticed that my phone was lit up and I was amazed to find a bible verse right there on the screen! Phillipians 4:13 - I can do all things through him who gives me strength. WOW! Amazing timing and I couldn't even figure out why that verse had popped up on my phone.
If I am with someone else and we are both painting, I end up having some of the best conversations of my life! Seriously. My mom came over Sunday to help me paint and we found ourselves having really deep, heart-felt discussions that I know we never would have had if we were sitting down at a table and talking. Recently the topic of personality types came up with a circle of friends and I had a lot of time while painting to think about how well my own Myers Briggs personality label INFJ really suits me. As I painted, I was able to tap into some of the strong desires of my heart - some big dreams that are not nearly baked enough to share with anyone...yet.
Okay, so you are here because you want to know what I learned about making straight painting lines right? Just a short background information on this: I am very precise when it comes to many things (some have used the term perfectionistic), and painting is one of those things. There has always been this deep, meditative side to painting that I enjoy so much, yet there was always a darkness lurking in the corner. How to make those corners straight? You know, where the ceiling or trim meets the wall or trim? Where the door trim meets the wall? How to make straight lines? My method up until today has been to do my best freehanded. Oh yes, in the past I have tried taping those areas and more than once I have thrown the paintbrush down in complete disgust when I discovered that paint had bled through the tape and messed up my straight line. Taping takes a lot of time! So in an effort to save time and frustration, I've tried to freehand a straight line lately. I did that with the living room, and while some have great success free-handing a straight line, I do not.
While the freehanded technique I have used doesn't look awful, it doesn't look great either and I am spending a crazy amount of time trying to fix the many mistakes with a tiny kid paintbrush from one of my kids art sets. Just when it almost looks perfect, I hit the other color and ugh! I have something else to fix. This is taking up so much time and let's just say I am not handling the frustration well!
I am so disappointed that I did not learn of this method before I began painting the living room because if I had, it would most definitely be a near perfect paint job! However, I did not discover this technique before I began painting, but I am now able to go back and fix the areas that need fixing. Okay, be quiet and tell us the method, right?
Alright, here you go...scroll to the bottom for a pictorial description!
Let's say that you have a piece of doorway trim that you want white and you want the wall which meets the trim to be gray. This is how you achieve a perfectly straight line.
1 - Paint your trim whatever color you desire and overlap that color slightly onto the adjoining wall (overlap by an inch or so). Let it dry and apply a second coat if needed. Let it dry again.
2 - When your trim coat is dry (I waited one hour - even set my timer so I didn't have to guess), carefully tape your doorway trim to protect it from the wall paint. You need to use painters tape and make as straight of a line as you can right where you want your line to be. The straight line will only be as good as your taping job.
3 - After you have a straight line with your painters tape and your trim is well protected you are going to paint a line using your trim color. This line of paint will go right over the edge of your tape because inevitably it will bleed a little under the painters tape but get this - it will not matter because it is bleeding onto the trim with the trim's color!!! This step is CRUCIAL as you have now sealed your painters tape. Wait one hour (set that timer if you need to).
4 - After one hour you will now use your wall paint to paint right along that tape line, overlapping onto the tape and covering the wall with your wall color.
5 - As soon as you have completed step 4 you will now pull off your painter's tape. Pull at a slight angle and ENJOY your wonderful, perfect straight line!
Today I had to do this in reverse because we had overlapped wall paint onto the trim BEFORE I discovered this technique. While it did work, I would recommend overlapping trim paint onto the wall paint as described above if the trim paint is lighter than the wall paint. I had to do two coats for step 4 because the wall paint is darker. However, I did the exact same technique, but taped the wall next to the doorway trim instead. Here are the steps I took, in pictures...
STEP ONE:
STEP TWO:
STEP THREE:
STEP FOUR:
STEP FIVE:
STRAIGHT LINE!!!!
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