Painting a less than perfect wall/cieling boundry

I’m about to prime and paint the ceiling of my bathroom (after skim coating it a bit). The walls and ceiling are less than perfectly straight; they’re “wavy”; and there’s even kind of thin channel in places where the ceiling and wall meet. How do I best achieve a visually straight wall/ceiling paint boundry? Ive taped the walls at the ceiling (should I have even done this?), but the tape is both unstraight due to the irregularity or the of the walls and ceiling, but also because my hands and eye are not perfect. Ideas? BC/Steven

BrooklynCouch

in Painters and Painting & Stripping 13 years and 11 months ago

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BrooklynCouch | 13 years and 10 months ago

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I just gave up, kind of, and painted the ceiling; and will repaint the walls, applying tape to the ceiling; given the paint drips down, this seems more sane.

brooklynjennie | 13 years and 11 months ago

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I second deboerarchitects. Drop down a couple of inches or you could extend the wall color to the ceiling a couple of inches.

jockdeboeraia | 13 years and 11 months ago

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Try dropping down x amount of inches on the wall. Tape that nice and straight, then paint the wall color below that line and the ceiling color above.

Rick | 13 years and 11 months ago

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If you have an edge, use a little painters caulk. That should help. You will get better results if you paint by hand , learn to “cut” with a brush. Tape often will show the edge in your situation.

slopegirl | 13 years and 11 months ago

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I think your best bet is to make the walls and ceiling close in color (maybe even the same color). One idea I read recently was bathroom ceiling a lighter tint of same wall color. The greater the contrast, the more you’ll notice the bumpy transition. As for technique, I’ve done a lot of painting in old houses and I’m not a big fan of tape. The overly-straight lines for one thing, the price, and the time it takes to put it on… Get a small angled 1″ or 1.5″ brush… or better yet, a short bristled artist’s paint brush. Just get your face as close as possible to the line and go slow. Carry a small wet rag for wiping up mistakes. I’ve done many ceiling lines this way and they work out great. An artist’s brush should run you $8-$10 and you can use it over and over. Much easier to clean than house paint brushes since they don’t hold a lot of paint. Any local art supply store will have them. Something like this one: http://www.artistpaintbrush.com/royal-aqualon-angular-brush-artist-paint-brush-size-38-p-95.html.