How to paint a straight line – here are the basics:
The smoother the wall you have, the easier it is to paint a straight line. This is a contemporary home, built in 2006. This drywall has a texture on it. What that means is, when you apply your tape in a straight line, there are…it’s like a topographical map, and paint can get in-between the tape seam. So, what we are trying to do is make a clean line such as this, and the way we do that – the way we improve our chances of doing that, is to take the original wall color…in this case, it’s Eurolux by FPoE. And once we apply our tape line, and use slight pressure along the tape line to push it towards the wall, we take the paint, this wall paint, the main field – I’ll call it, “A” – and just paint a slight bit of it right on the tape edge. This will actually let the paint seep underneath the tape, but it’s in the same color as the existing color.
I’ll call it, “A.”
Allow that to dry, and then use your second color…here, we’re using gray, we’re using chalkboard paint from Benjamin Moore. And then we wanna paint everything including up to the line in 2 coats.
You want to gently pull the tape off.
When I say, “improve your chances,” it’s almost impossible not to get small artifacts. There’s a little bit of leaking right here; overall, I think it’s a decent job.
I would need to go back; I have an artist’s brush.
Here’s the touch-up…a little bit of paint that’s come through.
Use some of this color right here, and get over those lines.
That’s when I say giving yourself the greatest chance. It becomes more difficult the more texture there is on a wall and also when you have a greater contrast between the two colors. This is a pretty good contrast so there’s a nice, sharp line. One trick of the trade is if you don’t have any of this main field color which happens sometimes, you can use a product such as Daly’s Crystal Fin. It’s a waterbourne clear-coat product. You wanna use a very, very small amount of it on the edge, and then put your main color.
Good luck! See the infographic for chalkboard paint
