8.12.2013

Straight Lines on a Textured Wall

So I will be perfectly honest with you, I am (if you don't know already) not a crafty person, or a true diy gal. I'd like to be but #1, I'm a little afraid of power tools (need to work on that), #2, I'm a bit lazy and would rather just buy it than make it, and #3, did I mention I might be a tad lazy?

However, one thing we definitely do around our home is paint ourselves. I sort of like it other than the prep work and the clean up afterwards. Other than that, I like it. Haha. Again, did I mention the laziness?

We try to be very detail oriented while painting though. There's nothing like spending all that time prepping and moving furniture, painting, and having it look like a 6 year old slopped some paint on the wall. We try to do our very best with the cut in work around the moldings and trim work, and if we are doing the ceiling and walls a different color, we do our best to make that as straight of a line as we can.

Our old trick was to put tape on the ceiling close to the intersection of the wall as possible, and first paint the color of the ceiling to seal in the tape. Once that was dry, we would paint over with the wall color. Pull it off and voila, a straight line. Well, most of the time. But we have textured walls, and sometimes it doesn't come off quite as straight as I'd like.

Recently, we've been working on daughter #3's room, ( #3 for birth order, not for how well she is favored) We painted her ceiling a fun turquoise color and painted the walls white. I wanted to do something fun, so decided to put a green stripe at the top of the wall, where crown molding would go.

I was researching how to paint a stripe, since I've never done any and I found a "new to me" trick that I was intrigued to test out.

(note, do not put caulk where it shows in this picture. I couldn't keep my hand placed right on line while taking picture in the other hand.)
 
 So, first step is to tape the ceiling right up to the edge of the wall.
Then for your stripe or stripes; decide how big you want the stripe and then take a measuring tape and make pencil marks every 12 inches or so along the length of your wall. Then take your tape and tape along those marks. You might want to take a leveler to make sure you made your tape line straight.
Then once it's all taped up, take white paintable caulk and very lightly put in on the edge of the tape lines and take your finger and thin it out along the line. This is to seal the tape really well, and gets in the grooves of your textured wall.


Then you are good to go on painting your stripe(s). I let my paint dry but after re-reading/watching some other tutorials, you don't need to wait for paint to dry and can pull it right off.


I was very happy with this new trick and will definitely use it again.  Have you used this trick before?
There are many youtube videos out there if you need a more visual tutorial.

The room is getting closer to be done. Need curtains, curtain rods, art, reupholster her desk chair, and maybe a rug. Again, other than that it's almost done. Whew! Better get my butt moving.
Hope to share the end results soon!
**Disclaimer** I know I don't paint the best picture of myself (no pun intended) about myself being lazy. If anyone ever wanted me to help them in their own home (which is my goal someday), I would not be lazy for anyone else. It's just in my own home projects that things tend to get pushed aside, and prolonged longer than they should. Anyway, just wanted to be sure you all knew I have "selective" laziness, and should be seeking help for it soon. Hopefully, I'm not the only one out there that has that disease.

6 comments:

  1. Such a neat painting trick. Those textured walls can be a bear!!!

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  2. I have never painted textured walls - that sounds like a great trick for getting in all the nooks and crannies before painting a stripe! You are so smart!
    And I too am lazy in my own home. I take shortcuts I don't take in other people's homes, particularly with prepping to paint (which is why I have paint speckles all over the floors of my house - don't look too closely!)
    :)

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  3. Hahaha, I am reading your disclaimer. Yeah, you may not want to tell people you are lazy if you want to run a design business :). It's ok, the shoemakers kids...or however that goes. You rocked the straight line on the textured wall.

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  4. What a great idea and love your disclaimer. Isn't it hard to get motivated in your own home? I tend to change my mind too much for myself!!

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  5. Well this turned out great I don't know if it would turn out as well. I did it!


    Ali of Dressing Ken

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