Interior painting help - stripes (janobonano)

I've seen on home improvement shows that you shouldn't paint against the tape, you should paint with it. And I would think making sure your brush isn't overloaded with paint and do several light coats instead of a few thick ones should help. And make sure the tape is pressed down all around. That's my "expert" advice. Good luck finding a rug. Do you have homegoods near you? That where I have gotten every rug in my house. They have really interesting ones and not grossly expensive.

ewin0210

Do you have homegoods near you?

I don't really have any advice on the painting, other than to say that it sounds like a nice idea. I did want say that I LOVE Homegoods! There's one about 1/2 mile from my house and every time I go in there, I wish I was starting from scratch and could buy all kinds of stuff.

Thanks for the tips! No, I've never heard of Homegoods. About an hour away from us there is a Bed, Bath and Beyond, Gordman's, and TJ Maxx. I'm planning on checking them out next time I'm down there.

If your walls have a texture then just taping probably won't work very well unless you really rub that tape down. The problem is that it can then lift the paint under it. What you can do it put the tape down and then with a straight edge placed right above the tape line you get a scoring tool and score a line. The score line will catch the paint and stop it from running under the tape. You can use a knife to score but I like to use the nib of a ball point pen that is out of ink. The nice thing about the pen is it does not break the surface of the paint but rather creates a dent. Be careful not to over load your brush with paint. 

An alternative is to use tape and do the best job possible to create your stripe. To cover up any imperfections you can go to the hardware store and buy very narrow wood trim, paint it and afix to each side of the stripe. This will also give you a little more interest to the wall. I have actually used ribbon in the same way and simply glued it on. 

I think teal and tan will be lovely! 

Can you guys get that base coat/primer stuff over there that is designed to remove texture from walls?  I'd just use that, then paint the colours you want over it, starting from scratch on a now-flat surface.

Unless you like the texture, of course, in which case others have given great suggestions.
 

Hmmm, if you can't get the paint like you want it, have you considered using wallpaper borders?  Or just wallpaper itself?  I'd think you could cut it to the width you want and put it up. 

I don't think I'd try a stripe on a textured wall without a trim (which is a great idea!). What I have done is sponge paint one wall or just paint one wall a lighter shade than the carpet. Another option is more free-flowing shapes that wouldn't require a hard edge.

the trim is an excellent suggestion. The thing I would do is use trim but for more interest/architectural detail make "rectangles" on the wall to mimic panels like you'd find inside a nice old european room.The bolder color would be inside the panel and the panel could be wall colored or white/off white.

Inside the rectangle you could hang shelves or pictures...and on one you could even use slateboard paint and be able to write fun things on it with chalk.

No painting advice other than calling HGTV to see if they'll send someone to do your room and maybe feature it on a TV show. If there's no Homegoods near you, try Home Depot or Lowes.  They both have some pretty decent area rugs at reasonable prices.  I got an 8X10 burgundy rug at Home Depot about a year ago for $119 - turned out to be not the best color choice for a yellow dog that sheds, but what the heck.

Joyce

the absolute best place to get rugs here, is Garden Ridge...hands down. ROOM SIZE rugs for around $100 We got a nice 5' x 7' finished edge carpet remnant for under Cleo's crate for $20!

Seriously...if you have one...do check it out. Their textiles are wonderful!

Bummer. They don't have online shopping, or any stores in WI. Thanks anyway Gina!

Thanks for the ideas everyone. I'll look at the prices of trim and wallpaper tonight... I'm not really into the decorative borders, but it might be cool to find a simple pattern wallpaper to trim down.

 If you are not into wallpaper borders, and your line between colors does not come out straight, you could get some molding to cover the line and stain or paint it a contrasting color.

My suggestion follow others...plain wallpaper in the color you want or even a borger...OR, paint the stripe you are talking about and border it with trim (my favorite idea and DH even mentioned this tonight after seeing hid friends nursery with a chair rail) AND since you don't have a lot of stores close to you I would look online at Ikea, World Market, Bed Bath and Beyond, Linens and Things and Target for rugs....there are probably more but those would be my top pics around here at least...

Janice, I'm late seeing this, and everyone else has had some excellent suggestions (I love Gina's idea about the rectangles - I'm going to remember that one!). 

We have textured walls (can you say, "ugly and annoying?";) and have painted most of them.  We also have rounded corners, so "stopping" a color at the edge of a wall is tricky.  Someone gave us an idea that worked pretty well.  After the tape is placed where you want it, you spread a very thin layer of caulking along the edge of it (with your finger) to create kind of a seal to prevent the paint from seeping beneath the tape.  You can paint right over the caulk.  Also, as someone else said, move your brush away from the tape, rather than into it. 

I absolutely LOVE HomeGoods and had been in withdrawl for years since there wasn't one in Oregon.  Now there's a huge new one about an hour or so away - well worth the drive.  It's owned by the same company as TJMaxx and Marshall's, I think, so the concept is the same (i.e., discount prices).  IKEA is also new here, and when I saw the amazing kids' rooms displayed, I thought, "My childhood would've been a lot happier if I had an adorable room like one of these!"  And very affordable!

You'll have to post some photos!