Painting Trick

Meet my old friend from college, Matte Medium. I used to use this all the time on canvases to create straight lines. You tape off an area. Apply the matte medium along the tape line apply a layer of paint. Allow to dry. Remove the tape and voila, you have a straight line.

Well, as you know, I've been painting my house and needed a way to tape off straight lines, but because our walls are so textured, I needed a way to do it and still get a crisp edge. I'd heard of using glazes to do this, but didn't really know much about them. Then one day, I was watching some design show (wish I knew who to give credit to but I watch so many, there's no telling) and they mentioned using matte medium to do just that, create a crisp edge when painting interiors. You mean you can use matte medium on something other than canvases? You betcha! I followed the same steps that I did with acrylic paintings on canvas and it worked great!

Here's where I taped off a weird angle on our ceiling.

After

After

This is just to demonstrate that even a subtle change in paint color can make architectural details like moldings "pop".

I didn't want anything too bold because I don't want to have to repaint if/when we move. So I wanted something neutral. Plus, darker colors can tend to make spaces look smaller.

Here's an up close pic of where I taped off in our kitchen. I hadn't decided what color to do in the kitchen, so I stopped along the corner. I had some difficulties in deciding where to stop because I have rounded corners, but I decided to stop right before the corner. I don't think it really matters as long as you stop consistently on all the other corners.

Notice how textured the wall is.

Steps:

1. Tape off the area you want to paint.

2. Apply a thin layer of matte medium along the edge you want to be crisp.

3. Allow to dry.

4. Apply a layer of paint. Allow to dry. (apply another layer of paint if necessary)

5. Once paint has been allowed to dry (I waited at least 6 hours), remove the tape.

Just make sure that you don't apply the matte medium or paint to thick. Also, just use a back and forth motion along the edge of the tape.