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You’ve seen those cool paint jobs where there are nice clean lines painted on a wall or a sharp line of contrast between 2 colors in the middle of a wall. Sometimes it’s a thin diagonal line of a contrasting color intended to draw a viewer’s eye to something (or away from something else). These can be really dramatic and add a lot to an otherwise blank wall. If you’re reading this, then you probably want to know how you can paint lines like that for your own wall. Here’s everything you need to know.

Preparation

Before you can paint the lines you need to prepare the wall correctly or your results might end up looking sloppy or amateurish. Follow these instructions carefully.

Clean it

To get the best looking paint job of any kind you must clean the wall (or whatever surface you are painting) first. This helps the paint to stick properly and not bubble up, flake off, or let the previous color bleed through. If you will be painting over a dark or bright color, you may need to apply primer first to make sure the new paint will completely cover the old color without having to apply several coats of the new paint.

Sand it Down

If there are rough patches or bumps you will want to sand them down flat to make sure the tape will stick properly. If there’s a texture already applied to the surface, then see below for how to handle that. Make sure that you wipe the surface clean after sanding to remove any dust or debris created by sanding.

Tape it

Use a good quality painter’s tape. Don’t just buy the cheapest stuff out there. Saving a couple of bucks on tape can come back to haunt you later on if you realize you will have to re-do the whole job because paint leaked down behind the tape. Then follow these steps.

• Measure - Use a ruler or measuring tape to carefully measure, up from the floor to where your tape line will start and finish the line. No matter where you measure from, just make sure you measure from the same floor or wall or ceiling for each point. Because not all walls are always square, you’re better off measuring from the floor or ceiling. The floor is usually the easiest to reach.
• Tape - Now you can put your tape on the wall. Gently pull one end of the tape off the roll and stick it to the first mark and then pull it taut before sticking it to the next mark. Run a putty knife over it to make sure it is firmly attached to the wall with no bubbles or loose spots in the tape.
• Seal - Lightly brush the tape with a thin coat of your base color. This will seal the tape to the wall and if there’s any dripping behind the tape it will be the base color, not your new color. Once this dries, your tape is sealed to the wall and nothing can get behind it.
  • If you’re painting on a textured wall seal the tape with a bead of clear caulk. Paint quickly before the caulk dries.
• Paint it - Now you can put that new color on with a roller or brush and before it’s completely dried, you can carefully pull off the tape to reveal a perfectly clean line. If you wait until the paint dries then you need to carefully use a razor to cut a clean line, as you peel the tape off. If the paint has dried and you don’t use a razor, you may pull off some of the new paint leaving an ugly or imperfect line.

Hire Professionals 

Professionals who do this all the time can paint perfect lines in their sleep. We recommend Excellent Painters in Denver, Colorado, and the surrounding areas. They have plenty of expertise with these kinds of projects and will certainly do a perfect job for you. And as a bonus you don’t have to worry about cleaning the wall, measuring, taping, or caulking before you get around to painting because then professionals will do all of that for you. You can instead concentrate on what colors to use and exactly how you want that dramatic line to look. Life gets much easier when you hire the right people to do the things you don’t know who to do.