WFMW: How to Paint Straight Lines

Today's WFMW tip comes from many, many hours of trial and error (and subsequent drywall repair). This is a tip I wish someone had told me BEFORE I tried to paint my kitchen navy and sunflower, with the navy and sunflower colors blending in a mash of varying thickness stripes. Believe me, I saw it online, and it looked really cute. In reality, it was not so cute. Not to mention a complete flop that damn near RUINED the wall in our kitchen, among other things, to include my sanity.

Nonetheless, I still like stripes. I have them still in both of my kids' rooms. Just not like the ones from the kitchen. These stripes are roughly the same color and are of uniform width. I not only have vertical stripes, I also have a horizontal stripe, separating 1/3 of the upper part of the wall from the lower 2/3.

Where the pink matches the brown is actually the corner of the room. That said. When taping to paint, I learned that if you paint the light brown, tape over it where you want your colors to divide, and then paint the dark brown, the dark brown will "run" under the tape and produce a very not straight line. If you've ever tried this you know exactly what I mean. This is how to prevent this phenomenon, and get a laser crisp line.

Paint the lower 2/3 of the wall light brown and let it dry. Keep the light brown handy, you will need it again... place painters tape at the height you want the dark brown to start. USE A LASER LINE TO KEEP YOUR TAPE STRAIGHT!!! DON'T EVEN TRY TO MEASURE/TAPE/MEASURE/TAPE...IT WILL NOT BE STRAIGHT!!! Paint over your top tape line with the LIGHT BROWN. This will "seal" the tape, and prevent the dark brown from seeping under the tape. Let this dry. Now paint over what you just painted at the tape line with the dark brown and remove the tape BEFORE IT DRIES and admire your chisel straight line.

Hope this saves you some headaches!!!

Be sure to check out my other WFMW posts:

How not to get a ticket...

Easy last minute meal...

Easy way to cut kids food...
Take a better group picture...
Taking better pictures...
How to keep holiday gift giving under control...
The best hair tie ever...
Keeping your linens organized in one easy step...
Turning lunch bags into diaper bags (are those raisins you're having?)...

Visit Shannon at Rocks In My Dryer for other great tips and ideas!!!