How to Achieve Crisp, Straight Lines When Painting Walls

Lay the drop cloth over the floor beneath the walls you will paint to protect the surface.

Pour one paint color into the paint tray -- this may be a main wall color if you are painting stripes or it may be one of the wall colors if you are painting adjacent walls different colors. You will apply this paint color first in the area where you will make a straight edge of paint.

Load the trim brush and paint the perimeter of the wall normally to cut it in. Load the paint roller and fill in the inside area with paint. Allow this paint color to dry completely.

Apply a second coat of paint, if necessary, using the same process. Allow the second coat of paint to dry at least 24 hours before proceeding.

Mark the line using a tape measure, level and pencil, if you are making a line in the middle of a wall. Make small pencil marks along the line you desire to enable you to place the painter’s tape. If you are making a straight line at a corner, marking and measuring is not necessary.

Apply the painter’s tape along the marked line, placing the tape onto the color you just painted. Press the edge of the painter’s tape securely with the putty knife to create as tight a seal as possible.

Paint along the edge of the tape using the first color of paint again. Even though this is not the color you want on the other side of the line, painting along the tape with the first color seals the tape and ensures that any paint that bleeds under the tape will be the same color as the paint on this side of the line. Allow this painted edge to dry completely before proceeding.

Pour the second paint color into the paint tray. Load the trim brush and paint along the painter’s tape over the first paint color. Paint the wall with the trim brush and paint roller according to your painting plan. Allow the paint to dry completely.

Pull up the painter’s tape after the paint dries. The line should be crisp and straight.