9 Tips for Painting Corners and Edges
Corners and edges are two places in your home interior where paint damage is the most common. Even at our most careful, it’s hard not to bump or clip edges and corners in high-traffic areas of your home or HOA property.
Add in kids and pets, and the occasional moving of furniture and equipment, and it’s easy to see why corners and edges need extra attention.
Here are some of the most common problems when painting corners and edges, and our pro tips for getting the job done right.
What to Know About Painting Corners and Edges
Painting Edges and Corners: Common Problems
- Lack of Preparation: Before you start painting, gather all your tools, paint, primer, tape and drop cloths in the space. If you have to stop to complete a step you forgot or go get a missing tool, you run the risk of spreading or dripping paint outside of your project area.
- Leaving Floors or Furniture Exposed: We’ve heard lots of horror stories of paint dripping on a favorite rug, or a new piece of furniture. Leaving any flooring, furniture, or fixtures exposed to any degree increases the risk of paint drops, drips, and smears.
- Neglecting the Surface: If it’s been a while since your walls, trim, or ceilings were painted, the surface could be damaged. Painting or patching issues at corners and edges may improve how your room looks in the short term. But painting on a surface that hasn’t been properly smoothed and cleaned is only going to cause you more problems in the long run.
- Dripping: Dripping paint is one of the most tedious mishaps you can have when painting edges and corners. You have to add paint removal (or stain removal) depending on where it drips) to your growing list of DIY painting tasks.
- Painting in the Wrong Spots: As with dripping, it’s very common to spread or push paint into the wrong areas when trying to feather paint along corners and edges.
- Painting in the Wrong Order: Painting areas in the wrong order makes painting mistakes harder to cover up.
- Using the Wrong Tools: Relying on only one or two tools is likely insufficient for corner, edge, and other detail work.
- Rushing Project Steps: It’s tempting to move quickly to the next step of a corner or edge painting project to restore the look of your rooms sooner. But getting the finish you want for these tricky-to-paint areas takes time.
- Mismatching: If you’re patching corners, trim, or edges, you want to be sure any new paint and finishes match your existing ones. But it’s hard to get the colors right when adding new paint to an already painted surface. Furthermore, certain paint types work better when matched to certain surfaces, and mismatching in this way can also degrade the quality of your finishes.
Painting Edges and Corners: 9 Pro Tips
- Prepare for All Steps: Before starting a painting project, gather all the materials, products, and protective coverings you’ll need to get the job done in the same area where you plan to paint.
- Contain and Protect: Cover everything in the room you don’t intend to paint with drop cloths or plastic sheets. Tape along boundaries of trim or corners with painter’s tape. If the ceiling needs attention, light fixtures will need to be removed, and the area from where they were removed will require covering so as not to damage anything electrical during the painting project.
- Prep Your Surface: Now it’s time to see what condition your surface is in. Remove all paint from the area you’re planning to repaint. If walls are nicked or uneven, they will need to be smoothed before painting. If there are holes or other damage on wall corners and edges, that damage will need to be patched and leveled.
- Don’t Overload the Brush: Putting too much paint on the brush is a primary cause of drips. Load your brush over a covered area and test for any dripping before you begin.
- Paint in This Order: If you’re repainting a whole room, it’s easier to get the corners right. Start from the top with the ceiling trim. Then move to the walls. Then paint the baseboards. This will eliminate much of the problems of paint getting on to the walls from the trim, since you’ll be painting over it.
- Use Brushes of All Sizes: Rollers won’t do for the hard-to-reach areas in corners and edges. Use a variety of brush sizes to get the small, hard-to-reach spots.
- Leave Time for Drying: Every time you do something to the surface: cleaning, prepping, filling holes, priming, and painting, leave time for drying in between. Walls, baseboards, and trim have to be completely dry at each phase of the process in order to get the smoothest paint finish possible.
- Match Colors and Finishes: Matching paint colors and finishes to your existing walls keeps your property looking its best and makes a far better impression on visitors.
- Get Help from an Expert: If you need help, or if you feel overwhelmed from the get-go, call a painter you trust to help you through your project.
No-Stress Professional Painting by TRICO PAINTING
Edge and corner painting is one of those house painting projects that starts off with a simple idea, but can quickly get complicated, messy, and stressful. If you have to start over, remove old paint, or get paint off a surface you didn’t intend to paint, that’s time and money you can’t get back.
If you prefer a stress-free approach, TRICO PAINTING is ready to get to work. We provide full service home interior painting for homeowners, property managers, and HOAs because we know you already have a growing to-do list.
We’ll cover every surrounding surface completely, prep and paint the surface flawlessly, and allow time for drying and project cleanup.
Whether you need wall corner touchups, ceiling painting, or baseboard and trim painting, you can trust us to paint smooth, clean corners and edges every time.
Ready to transform your rooms? Call TRICO for your home interior painting estimate today!