How to Paint Without Tape
I started painting my bedroom this past Sunday and I did not want to take the extra step of taping off edges. Taping did not work very well in my spare bedroom using flat black paint and avoiding issues with the white wood trim, so I wanted to go without the tape. After some research on the web and a nice YouTube video from HomeRenoVisionDIY, titled “DIY How to Paint like a Pro Series A to Z.” I was able to see that I could use an angled brush to get clean lines. The smaller edge helps to feed paint to the longer edge and the longer edge is what glides along the edge line. This has worked great for me. Yes, this detail work takes some time but I think it is worth it to avoid using tape. What I also found helpful was to have some paper towel and some rubbing alcohol in case I made a mistake and I could quickly fix it. You can’t see mistakes or bleeding through tape until you remove it and at that point, the paint is already dry.
I used Glidden’s Gray Frost in semi gloss for my bedroom. It has a green undertone but I think it looks blue on the wall. I plan to use blue tones to accent white and yellow fabrics in the room. The original paint color was yellow. I found out that too much yellow is not good for sleep. I do plan on hanging yellow and white curtains though. The Glidden paint has been able to cover the walls with two coats. I feel like the paint color and the all white trim fits nicely with the age of the late 1940’s house.
The Gray Frost color and the white trim takes me back to memories of Winhover, an old mansion on Lake Michigan in Racine that is owned by the Racine Dominican Sisters. After the mansion’s first owner, it was part of the Dominican’s property and was used for housing priests for Dominican College and later as a retreat center for the sisters. My aunt is the youngest of the sisters who unfortunately even in their more assimilated order, have not been able to attract younger women in the way that more cloistered orders have. For these sisters, becoming a nun meant that they were able to go to college and have more opportunities to serve the community than married women had at the time. I have many great memories of staying at Windhover for special events, as families of the nuns can stay there for certain events.
