So you want to paint your house.
You can hire a residential painter of course, but maybe you want to do it yourself.
Sure, paint rollers will make your life a lot easier.
But you can’t use a paint roller everywhere, as nice as it would be.
No, there are points where you need to get your brush out and paint an edge or a corner.
Now, this isn’t as difficult when you’re painting the corner of two walls you’re planning to paint the same color.
But if you’re painting your ceiling, painting your foundation, or doing an accent wall, you’ll need better brush control.
Here’s how.
Start With Prep Work
As with all painting jobs, the prep work is the most important part.
It’s also the least enjoyable part, which is why a lot of amateur painters skip it.
But the reality is if you’re going to do a good job, here’s where you have to start.
1. Clean Your Walls
It might not seem like that big a deal, but cleaning your walls will give you a much better finish to your paint.
Take a cloth and wipe down the walls to remove stains, cobwebs, dust, and other stuff.
If you’re painting walls with cigarette stains, you might need to get a little more heavy duty.
2. Patch Your Walls
It’s uncommon for full on holes to appear in the corners of walls.
This is because just behind corners you’ll find your wall joists, which makes these parts of your house the strongest.
However, you can still end up with chips and cracks in corners.
For more on how to do this, check out our article on everything you need to know about drywall putty.
Now What?
At this point, you have two options.
You can either use painter’s tape, or go freehand.
Many seasoned professional residential painters as well as professional commercial painters prefer to use freehand.
After all, we’ve been doing this for a while and we’re pretty good at it.
Which you choose is up to you.
Let’s talk about both methods.
How To Paint Edges And Corners With Painter’s Tape
Before you start, make sure to buy a high quality painter’s tape.
It will cost you a couple of extra dollars, but it’s worth it.
After all, cheap painter’s tape will often lead to paint seeping underneath it, ruining your straight line.
Once you have the good stuff, and your walls are prepped, here’s what to do.
1. Smooth Out The Tape
Assuming you know to put the tape on your wall to mark off where you want your paint to stop, the next step is to make sure the tape is really solidly on the wall.
The easiest way to do this is by taking a clean putty knife and running it along the tape.
This is the biggest mistake amateurs make with painter’s tape (other than buying cheap tape), so make sure you don’t skip this.
2. Seal Your Tape
Before you paint with the contrasting color, paint the edge of your tape with the color that’s on the other side.
This will seal the tape in place, and give you a really clean, crisp line.
You can use some caulking if you’re painting a textured surface instead.
Either way, though, this will give you the crispest line possible.
3. Paint Your Wall!
Use nice, even strokes with your brush.
Complete all the coats you’ll need – in most cases it’s two coats.
It’s always important to make sure the paint isn’t clumping in one spot, but it’s doubly important for painting edges with painter’s tape.
4. Peel Off The Paint
Now here’s the trick – peel off your painter’s tape while it’s still wet.
If you wait until it dries, it can end up pulling up the edge of some of the wall paint with it, which will ruin that wonderful crisp line of yours.
Be careful when doing this – if you’re sloppy, the wet tape might touch the contrasting wall.
How To Paint Edges & Corners Freehand
You don’t play by the rules.
You’re a maverick.
Or maybe you just find taping everything obnoxious and tedious.
For whatever reason, if you want to paint freehand, here’s how.
1. Have A Wet Cloth On Hand
Know that no matter how steady your hand is, you might slip.
But that’s where a wet cloth comes into play.
If you do make a mistake, wipe it away with your wet cloth.
If you catch it right away, you’ll never know it was there.
2. Hold Your Brush Properly
Grip your brush the same way you’d grip a pencil.
Sort of.
Hold your brush between your thumb and fingers around where the metal part of your brush ends and the wooden (or plastic, etc) handle begins.
This will give you the best control.
3. Dip, Press, And Glide
No, that’s not a dance move.
Dip your brush in your paint, and then press your brush into the wall about half an inch away from the edge you’re painting.
Glide it slowly along so that only the edge of your brush touches the wall.
Go back and forth – this helps you pick up any globs or missed spots.
Call PurcellPro Painting Today
Does all that seem like too much of a hassle?
No problem, we can help.
Call PurcellPro Painting Today.
