Friday, December 5, 2014

How to paint straight lines on trim

How to paint straight lines on trim using a wet rag and a putty knife

How many of you guys ever tried painting any room in your house, and ended up getting the paint on everywhere?. And i mean all places possible like ceilings, crown moldings, baseboards and windows/doors casings... And you end up so dissapointed with your work that the only way possible to fix it is calling a professional painter to come an do it for you. Well today i am gonna show you a very simple 2 step technique you can use to achieve nice and professional lines on trim and save a lot of money doing it by yourself! .

This is what you will need:

  • 3" or 3.5" Corona brush
  • Putty knife or five in one
  • A rag and a bucket with water

How to do it

Keep in mind that the process i recommend for this technique to work properly, is painting all the trim first. The reason why.. is you have to make sure when you are painting the edge of the trim, to get at least one inch of trim paint on the wall(as shown in the picture below). Trim paint has a latex base, and when it dries it makes it very easy to slide the putty knife with the wet rag.

First step: "Cutting in"

Dip your brush with a reasonable amount of paint, avoid getting to much on it. Slowly start cutting in as you would normally do trying to get as close as possible to the window, but only letting the very tip on the bristles do the job

Second step: "Ragging the paint"

Put your rag in the bucket with water and squeeze it leaving it barely wet. Wrap your five in one or putty knife with it and position it at the very edge of the wall and window casing. Firmly press it and slowly begin sliding it up or down(depends on your position). Repeat this as much as you need to achieved the desired result.

Final Result

The final result is professional with a perfect straight line and not even a single drop of paint on the casing, or any paint bleeding you would get if you were using tape.

You can use this technique on baseboard and crown molding too. Here is another example on crown molding.

,,

The result is nice and clean

Keep in mind

This steps are designed for the first coat, you can either first roll or cut in the walls.

For the second coat you need to cut in the walls first. In the first coat you already drew your lines with your putty knife, so the only thing you have to do is follow them on the second coat being careful and trying not to mess them up.(you dont have to get real close to the line, try to stay at least a quarter inch away from it). Then roll your walls, so you can erase your brush marks.

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