Five Essentials You Need for Perfect Trim and Edges

If you are painting a room and want perfect trim and edges, achieving that may be easier than you think. You just need the right tools. Here are five essential tools for perfect trim and edges if you're painting by yourself and not employing professional house painters:

1. Sanding sponge

Ideally, you should paint the trim first. That way, you can cover the trim with paint, and it doesn't matter if you get some on the walls. When the trim is totally dry, you can apply tape to it and start working on your walls.

However, before attacking your trim with a brush, keep in mind that most trim has underlying colour and sheen. In order to hide it, you need to plan to use at least two layers of paint.

So that the paint looks smooth, grab a sanding sponge. These sponges are easier to use than sandpaper, and they also apply even pressure. Sand the trim prior to the first coat, and sand the paint in between coats as well.

2. Extra Dry Roller

Once you are working on the walls, you want to take steps so that the paint right next to the trim and the paint on your walls matches. Unfortunately, when many people paint, they divide the room into sections, and they get "lap" marks. Lap marks occur when you paint a new section next to a section that has already dried.

You can avoid lap marks by always having a wet edge. However, maintaining a wet edge next to trim can be tricky. Luckily, there is an alternative option — feathering.

Feathering (like wet edges) prevents streaks from occurring in your paint job. Once you finish the strip of paint closest to your trim, take a dry roller and "feather" the area. Just use the roller to rough up the paint until it looks textured.

3. Small Paint Brush

Once you have finished feathering, put down the dry roller, and reach for a small brush. You may want to experiment between an angled brush designed for edges and a straight one — every painter has his or her own favourite.

When you use a small brush instead of a roller, it allows you to get as close as possible to the tape on the trim. Unfortunately, rollers sometimes have so much paint on them that the paint splashes under or over the tape, creating a messy effect, but a small brush allows you to be more careful.

4. Small Roller

Even with feathering, if you have used a roller for most of your walls but a brush around the trim, you may be able to see an unattractive contrast between the brush strokes.

To help everything match, take a small roller and brush it gently over the area after you finish painting. That helps to make everything blend together.

5. Utility Knife

Finally, when everything is dry, you are ready to remove the tape. Unfortunately, removing painter's tape sometimes results in removing paint. To ensure the paint stays on the wall, score the tape with a utility knife before pulling it off.

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