How To Paint a Crisp Line on Textured Walls

Hello everyone! Today's post is a little different -- less of a project and more about sharing a triumph. :)

When we moved to Colorado, we encountered something different in the houses here than we had ever experienced back in the Midwest -- textured walls. Oh, I know we have textured walls back home, but not on the scale that we encountered as we were looking for houses out here. EVERY house had textured walls.

I have nothing against textured walls at all -- they look lovely, to be honest. But my first immediate thought was that it would be impossible to paint them. And I was right. In our house now, there are lots of walls with lots of paint seepage from the previous owners who had tried to tape the wall off but didn't quite succeed. Like this...

Ack! I hate how that looks. It drives me NUTS to see this. Like lay-in-my-bed-at-night-and-seethe-about-the-paint-seepage. I knew there had to be a way to paint these textured walls without paint seepage.

Thank goodness for Pinterest, collector of all things we ever need to know. I finally found this tutorial about painting crisp lines and I got up the courage to try it out. I figured I couldn't make it worse, right?

The technique is kind of labor-intensive, but so worth it if you obsess about crisp lines and paint seepage like I do. Here's what you do:

1. Paint over the bad paint line with your base color (the color that's staying on the wall). This just covers up the paint seepage, giving you a clean slate to start with.
2. Use green FrogTape. Period. It's the only paint tape that's worked for me on these textured walls. Tape down on the wall you want to leave as the color it already is (the same as the base color you painted in step 1).
3. Paint over the tape edge with your base color, sealing the tape. Now, any paint that will seep under the tape will the same color as the color that's staying there anyway.
4. Paint with your new paint color, however many coats you need.
5. Peel off the tape VERY CAREFULLY, pulling it at an angle to the wall. Be gentle here.
6. Voila. Stand back and admire your beautiful crisp paint lines.

No paint seepage! Feel completely satisfied with your work. :)

So all over my house, we have these little inset walls, where you would hang a picture or something. I have been working my way around the house, painting them in a dark grey color from the red that was there before.

Before...

And after...

So much better! (And you might recognize my Menu Board and Weekly Organizer too!)

I'm using Behr flat paint in Urbane, which is a dark, neutral grey more on the cool side than the warm side. I love it. It's just the right amount of modern while still being neutral. I do love red walls, but we have quite a few of them in our house -- and it's time for a change. And now that I know how to paint crisp lines on these textured walls, I'm ready to tackle more of the painting.

I hope this painting tip helps you -- no matter what kind of walls you have. Until next time,
Stay crafty!
Lissa :)