Painting the inside of your home is one of the most manageable home improvement projects. The great thing about interior painting, especially on drywall surfaces, is that you don't really need any training to do most of the work. That being said, painting on drywall does require a little instruction if you want it to look truly professional. The hardest parts of any paint job is creating straight and clean edges. This article explains a special tip that will allow you to create the cleanest and straightest edges on the drywall surface.

Using Painter's Tape

For this job, you will definitely want painter's tape. To make it easy on yourself, try to find wider painter's tape. Usually, 1.5" or 2" tape is the most useful because it offers more protection. However, you cannot rely solely on the painters tape to create perfect lines. If you apply the tape, no matter how hard you push it down, and then paint over it, the paint is bound to bleed underneath it. There is actually a way you can prevent this by using a little bit of lightweight spackling paste.

Using Spackling Paste for Better Lines

After your tape is applied to your walls, you'll want to get out the spackling paste. To apply the paste, all you need is a pair of latex or rubber gloves. Just use your finger to spread a small amount of paste over the side of the tape that you are going to paint. The key is to spread the paste on as thinly as possible. You are more or less wiping the paste onto the wall and then wiping it off. You don't want to change the actual texture of your drywall. When you do this right over the tape line, it pushes the paste into the minuscule cracks and crevices underneath the tape.

Later, when you paint over your spackled tape line, you will not need to worry about paint bleeding underneath. In fact, you can even start to paint before the spackle is completely dry. This is a very basic extra step, but it will add a few hours to your paint job. In general, you will probably spend more time prepping, taping and masking off, than you will actually applying the paint. But, this is perfectly okay because you don't want to spend a lot of time after all the paint is applied cleaning up a mess.

If you don't feel you can achieve that professional look or don't want to deal with the hassle of using spackling paste, contact residential painting companies in your area, such as A-1 J C Painting & Drywall Inc.