help! my paint job looks messy
Reader Ginny is in the midst of an apartment re-do in Williamsburg, NY. She had a quick question for any painting experts out there. Can you help her?
So, I painted my room three walls of Whispering Peach and one accent wall of Tangerine Dream (Benjamin Moore). I had a lot of inspiration. I was inspired to do orange because of these jersey sheets that I have from Target. They brighten up the whole room and when the sun is shining, they cast an amazing glow. But I knew I didn’t want to do my whole room orange — overkill.
I rarely paint dark paint, and haven’t painted walls in years, so I’m not a pro. The orange is a little uneven near the ceiling (I stood on a table to do it — not the best method). So, to make it even do I have to retape the wall, go get a whole new can of paint (I have a little left from before), and redo the whole thing? Or can I just layer it where it looks uneven? Or will that end up looking worse??
My lines along the accent-wall corners are pretty straight (luckily) but the problem is I went so far over the tape-edges with the orange that I now need to reapply some Whispering Peach. Is there a good way to spot-paint and not let the edges show? What a mess! but painting is so worth it. It’s my little sanctuary now. — Ginny M.
August 19th, 2008 at 7:07 am
Touching up near the ceiling shouldn’t be a problem. Use your leftover paint and a really small paintbrush, like the kind you’d use for painting a picture or doing crafts. (If you don’t think your hand is steady enough, tape off the ceiling before you start.) It’s hard to be precise with a 2″ brush but you should have success using an art paintbrush. It will take a little time, but it’s worth it.
And don’t worry if it’s not insanely perfect. Chances are, you will never have anyone come over and stand an inch away from where your wall meets the ceiling, let alone stand that close to your paint job and call you on its quality. (And if someone does, well, that’s a good indication you don’t want to have that person around anymore!)
As for the Tangerine Dream on the Whispering Peach, that’s going to be tougher. I would try using a sponge brush to blot on the WP over the patches of TD. A sponge brush won’t show lines as much as a regular brush, and you can dab the paint on instead of using strokes, which will give you thicker coverage. But the TD looks so dark and the WP so light that I don’t know if it will work well.
Good luck!
August 19th, 2008 at 8:24 am
Did you do just one coat of each? Two is always better for maximum evenness, even for lighter colors. And for deeper colors (my son’s room is super-saturated orange and navy blue (Illini colors!), a primer, though more work, is always worth the extra effort.
A touch up might work if the paint job is fairly fresh, but after time colors change because of sunlight, dust in the air, etc., and future touchups will be obvious.
I like your colors!
August 19th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
Hi. I’m by no means an expert, and am only a so-so painter (at best), but I just wanted to echo what Daffodil said about the ceililngs: Most likely, unless someone specifically looks, they’ll never notice. We did most of our own painting & hired pros for a little, & truth be told, the pros had perfect edges. At first I was pretty upset about our failure to achieve clean lines–especially in our kitchen, which is a deep red–but over time I’ve relaxed. For a while, whenever I was in someone’s house, I did take a second to look a their paint jobs. And I noticed that many, if not most of them, were uneven–paint on the ceiling, or not enough paint up the wall. I would never have noticed if I hadn’t been looking, though–in many cases, these were rooms I had been in many times before. So, I’d just try to do the touchups & then just enjoy your nice bright room.