Ms Paint Tricks
Octavia Leithoff
We've teamed up with a host of color and design experts to bring you the most exciting paint trends for the year ahead. These paint tricks will inspire a whole new look for your home. Brushes at the ready...
The living room is the perfect place to experiment with paint tricks and techniques, as these living room paint ideas suggest. Working with a paint expert can be a wise move. Interior designer Brandon Schubert invited Lara Fiorentino from The Paint Effect to give a fireplace a faux-marble finish.
Subtly textured walls are clever choices when deciding on the best hallway paint ideas. Color pigment can be combined with different materials to create washes applied using brushes or sponges by various techniques. The project shown here is by designers Chan & Eayrs.
For this small room, interior designer Elnaz Namaki chose a completely bespoke plastered paint color solution, working with a plaster finish artisan. This was overlaid in the corners with bespoke paisley stencils around the spotlights.
Paint tricks for the modern era are all about bring interiors to life in a tailored way. 'We are embracing a new freedom of expression that has a beating heart of color,' says Marianne Shillingford, creative director, Dulux.
Jennifer is the Digital Editor at Homes & Gardens. Having worked in the interiors industry for a number of years, spanning many publications, she now hones her digital prowess on the 'best interiors website' in the world. Multi-skilled, Jennifer has worked in PR and marketing, and the occasional dabble in the social media, commercial and e-commerce space. Over the years, she has written about every area of the home, from compiling design houses from some of the best interior designers in the world to sourcing celebrity homes, reviewing appliances and even the odd news story or two.\n","contributorText":"With contributions from","contributors":["name":"Kate Burnett","role":"Contributing Editor","link":"href":"https:\/\/www.homesandgardens.com\/author\/kate-burnett"]}), " -0-10/js/authorBio.js"); } else console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); Jennifer EbertSocial Links NavigationEditor Jennifer is the Digital Editor at Homes & Gardens. Having worked in the interiors industry for a number of years, spanning many publications, she now hones her digital prowess on the 'best interiors website' in the world. Multi-skilled, Jennifer has worked in PR and marketing, and the occasional dabble in the social media, commercial and e-commerce space. Over the years, she has written about every area of the home, from compiling design houses from some of the best interior designers in the world to sourcing celebrity homes, reviewing appliances and even the odd news story or two.
Then, be sure to buy lots of plastic gloves. I bought a pack of 10 and ended up needing more because I kept getting my hands all dirty and full of paint. Even with all of this on, I still managed to get paint in my hair and on my face, so just know that this is a messy project!
In hindsight, maybe it would have been best to do the masking tape, carpet film, and then the rosin paper over that? It seems like a lot of excess work, but also it would be worthwhile to have peace of mind. Since I was already in the painting process, I ended up just taking drop cloths with me as I moved around the room. They got very wet with paint as I went, but they kept the floor under me free from paint.
I ended up doing three coats throughout the room, which may sound like a lot, but it gave me even coverage throughout. By the time I made it from start to finish in the basement, the beginning was dry again. So I was able to move through the entire basement pretty quickly.
I went through six gallons of paint and then had to open up a seventh for touch-ups with a brush after my paint spraying was complete. I think the paint sprayer uses a tad more paint than traditional painting methods, so keep that in mind.
Whenever I paint, I always try to remove the tape when things are still wet. This prevents the paint from peeling on the edges. Once I got my final coat on, I grabbed a contractor bag and started taking everything down, being careful not to get any wet paint on the carpet.
As mentioned, I got a small amount of paint on the carpet in that first area. For this, I ended up using this Resolve carpet cleaner and it worked great to get it out! I was very nervous that my carpet was ruined, but, thankfully, this worked well.
I also had a few areas on the ceiling and doors that needed touch-ups. For this, I just took a brush and went around, touching up the ceiling and trim paint. No matter how well you mask, this is bound to happen. So just prepare ahead of time and make sure you have your other paint colors ready to go!
In hindsight, I should have waited to paint the doors and ceilings until after I did the walls. It all worked out in the end, but if I could re-order my operations, I would have done the walls, then the ceilings, then the doors.
In terms of painting the actual walls, I use a roller extension paired with the Handy Paint Tray. In a small bathroom like mine with zero counter space, I set the tray on the ground next to me and pivot in place to roller each of the four walls. The sturdy handles at each end of the tray make it easy to steadily scoot it, as needed, and the convenient magnetic brush holder turns the Handy Paint Tray into a great home-base for knocking out your paint job.
My mom painted the rooms in our house every other month while we were growing up! I joke now that we actually lost square footage because she painted so much! Haha! Where was this post 10-15 years ago when I was being roped into painting our living room for the 4843184th time!?
Good question! Do the first coat cut in and then roll into the wet edge, then the second coat the same way: cut in and then roll into the wet edge. You always want to roll into a wet portion of paint. If you roll into dry paint you risk the paint not matching when it dries. Which is a weird concept but true! Good luck!
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I was in Sherwin Williams a couple weeks ago, getting paint for the entry wall. When I was checking out, the clerk asked me if I needed any painter's tape for my project. The thing is, I have the worst time with painter's tape. In our last house, I remember getting the delicate surface stuff to use on our freshly painted walls when I wanted to "easily" paint our trim and it bled everywhere. From them I have relied on my steady hand--until the entry project. I thought, "I'll give it another try!" The paint bled. You can see it in this photo from the bench post:
This was an earlier coat of paint, before my trip to Sherwin Williams, and I ended up touching it up with my steady hand and 2" angled brush. I told the nice clerk a shortened version of my distaste of painter's tape and then she told me something that would change my life--we've been doing it wrong.
This isn't that tip to paint over all of your tape first in the current wall color, because that is not a time saver and it just hides the fact that it is bleeding everywhere. If I am spending money on painter's tape--I just want it to work. So first, Frog Tape is special. She told me it has a built-in powdered gel adhesive (or something) that is activated when wet and makes the tape seal to your walls so no paint can seep in! If you're lucky, while you're painting this will get activated as you go. That is never, never the case for me. The secret, she said, is running a damp rag over the tape before painting to activate the sealing gel. Here's a picture-esque demo!
Boom! The right one I didn't use the damp rag on and you can see in some places my paint did a good job activating that gel and in some spots...terrible! The left side I ran a damp rag over it quickly and then painted. I can't believe the difference. Frog Tape, I've been doing you wrong. Did you know this?
This is a great tip...wish I had seen it yesterday!
In addition to the slight bleeding that I had there was one other problem.... We have a knock down finish on walls and ceiling. I taped the ceiling and painted the walls. When I tried to remove the tape the paint started coming off as well. I used a razor to score the tape so it wouldn't keep happening.
What did I do wrong???
We got the same issue and found the trick.
peel the painter tape as soon as the paint work is done and while touching the paint if it doesn't come to your fingers, its time as its almost dry and peel the tape first.
I can't believe this... the last time I used Frog Tape it didn't even STICK to the wall! There may have been a lot of cursing. Dare I try again with a small project? The wetness didn't make it come off the wall? I'm nervous...
OMG! a damp rag! Seriously? Where has this information been all my life! Im our old house we had the new construction textured walls and I decided that a wall of stripes would be an AWESOME idea, well it was, but it took me FOREVAH because I was still using the paint over your tape in the base color trick. This would have saved me so so much time. You're the best for sharing this.
Genius!! My relatives hated frogtape when they rehabed their old home, and strongly recommended I use the 3M blue tape. I think they would change their minds if they had seen this. Thank you sooo much for this post, so glad I saw it before I started painting next week!
My husband and I ranted (ranted, NOT raved) about Frog Tape the last time we tried it. So much more money for the same shoddy results! We swore that from now on we'd save our money and never buy it again. If only we had known this tip! How do the Frog Tape makers NOT have this on the label? I bet they've missed out on a lot of fans and loyal customers due to that omission.
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