The Secret to Painting Perfectly Crisp Lines!

I don’t know if I’m the only one who dreads painting along baseboards, cabinets, trim or trying to paint insets onto walls. It seems no matter the quality of the painters tape I use, I get bleed through. It just looks awful and is so frustrating.

Well last week while I was working on designing kids rooms I finally discovered the secret to painting perfectly crisp lines! It was easy and worth the added extra step and time it added to the project.

Seven-year-old twins Carson and Jackson share a bedroom. One likes the color blue and the other likes red.  During their “design consultation” with me they both said they liked this room – so it was our jumping off point.  Here’s what their room looked like when we started – yep, it was pretty much a disaster as we had pulled all the furniture into the middle of the room.

First their dad painted the walls white, then, on the angled wall above each of their beds, my idea was to paint an inset of their favorite color. I worked with their dad (who did all the measuring and straight lines). Once we marked the lines, I taped it all out and painted.

Here is the wall all taped out {left}. My secret to perfectly crisp lines was to try the advice I had heard about first painting the wall color over the tape to kinda “seal” the bleed area so the new color doesn’t bleed through.

The photo to the right shows the coat of wall color I brushed on before starting the accent color. I dipped my brush into the paint and then wiped it on the edge of the can to get most of the paint off – I wanted to almost dry brush it on.

It probably took a total of 20 minutes to apply a light coat and let it dry. It’s an extra step but I thought if it worked, it would be worth it.

Here you see the big reveal – there was NO bleed through and the lines were perfectly crisp! We were so excited about how crisp the edges looked!

The room is still in progress because the bedding is on back order. When I return to Atlanta next month I hope to be able to finish the room. For now, I’ll leave you with two photos of how things now stand. I can’t wait to finish the room and I know the boys are anxious too! 

In this first photo you can see that the final coat of paint is still wet . . . but oh, what beautiful, crisp edges!!

Carson was the first to see the room. His reaction? To go yelling down the hall for his brother. He said “Jackson, you have to come see the room. It’s great!!” High praise indeed.

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Tagged as: boys bedroom, paint bleed through paint bleeding through tape, painting crisp lines