How do I paint wall edges/ corners at my house? A brush looks sloppy. How is it done professionally?

Question

I am painting my mom's house and obviously the ceiling is one color in each room, and the walls a different color. So, how do you paint EXACTLY to the edges? The roller doesn't completely go that high. Is this some sort of device I can buy that will make the painting job look professional?

Answer 1

I use a paint edger made by Shur-Line. It's available in most hardware and home centers. It is a small paint pad with two wheels that run along the ceiling while the pad applies the paint to the wall leaving a straight edge. If the pad leaves any marks at its lower edge, just take your brush and lightly brush it out.

Answer 2

My husband and I aren't professional painters, but we painted our entire house when we bought it. I LOVE colors, so we ran into this problem quite frequently.

We found that taping all trim and ceilings with the special blue trim tape you can get from Lowes worked very well to save the ceilings and wood trim-work. You can clearly tell where we used it and where we did not in the house.

Also, you might have to use a brush to get closest to the ceiling, but then I just take a roller and go over it with paint to make it look like the rest of the wall. The brush won't go to the very top, but it won't matter cause you can't tell. You are 150% right that if you just use a brush to do your edging and paint around window trims, it looks sloppy (even by professionals). Hitting it with a coat with the roller while it's still damp will clean that up (in my experience).

Answer 3

There are multiple PRODUCTS on the market. After applying thousands of gallons of paint, I have one valid suggestion.

Any painter worth their weight will KNOW that the wall color, especially if different from the ceiling color, will allow the wall color to NEVER attach immediately to where the walls meet the ceiling. 1/16th of an inch is common in keeping wall color aways from the JOINT,,,and here is why.

OUR eyes will find that our BRAIN records any obvious Wall color,,,IE,,,even Beige,,, where it happens to "slop" into a ceiling color. Opposite that, even using a paint pad device,,,if you haven't a good eye or steady arm as a DIY, the pad, roller wheels allow for that small difference.

Using any masking to accomplish anything other than windows or as I do all the time, base molding abutting wall color, is a useless waste of time.

Also with decent brushes and experience, and pain too, you can achieve brush strokes that can flow out, be less noticable, and be largely covered by roller strokes. NEVER go all the way into corners with a roller, expecting that without "Cutting" those corners, you won't have roller end issues.

As I said CUT the corners with brush, if you can, or fabric pad with a wheel, which can allow you as much as 4 inches of painted surface to ROLL UP TO.

As with so many similar things, trial and error might be a good teacher, but so too is the old saying measure twice cut once.

To repeat effort is wastefull. To do it in painting is as well.

Rev. Steven

Answer 4

You could tape the top of the wall w/ the blue painters tape. You dont want to use masking tape. It will take off the paint. You can paint w/ the roller and then paint the edges w/ a brush.

You can also buy special rollers that help you do a straight edge and not make a mess. You can go to Lowes for that. Any home store will have it. Heres some tips from Lowes.

Answer 5

Don't use masking tape, use masking paper. This is a roll of paper, normally brown, about 4" wide, with a low tack adhesive along one edge. If I am doing razor sharp lines, I usually warm mine in the microwave for around 30 seconds just to soften the glue a bit more. Paint your lighter coloured wall first, then when completely dry, apply your masking paper into the corner, making sure the adhesive edge is the one in the corner. Rub the edge down gently with a soft cloth to improve adhesion. Paint slightly off the paper onto the wall rather than towards the tape or just straight down.This will help to stop the paint seeping under the masking paper. Also, only apply light coats, this will help too. When the paint is almost dry, slowly peel the paper off. Alternatively, especially if your corner is not particularly sharp, spend the money on a really good paintbrush instead, maybe one of the new synthetic ones they sell for apply water based acrylic paints, and just paint carefully with no masking at all. This takes a bit of nerve, but with limited practice, you can get a cracking straight line with them.

Answer 6

Yeah, you can get an edger. It's a flat rectangular piece that has rollers on it. You can get them pretty much anywhere.

Answer 7

there isnt a easy button for cutting.spend $20.00 and buy a good 3 inch sash brush. perte makes a good one

Answer 8

Paint-Edger!
http://www20.shopping.com/xGS-Paint_Edger~NS-1~linkin
http://www.amazon.com/Accubrush-Professional-Paint-Edger-Jumbo/dp/B0009PMW3E
http://www.shopzilla.com/8B--Paint_Wall_Covering_Supplies_-_cat_id--25000200__keyword--paint%20edger__kw--paint%2Bedger__mkt_id--73624701__qcid--583962706540
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productList&N=0&Ntk=i_products&Ntt=paint%20edgers