Painted boarder help!?

Question

i painted a black boarder around my pink room. i measured it out and put up painting tape around it. When i took it down to dry, there were drip leaks through the tape and not a solid line. Now i am not sure what to do and i am not sure why this happened! please help!

Answer 1

It happened because the paint leaked under the tape.  I seldom get really good results with painter's tape, especially if I leave it on until the paint dries to the touch.  Then the tape always seems to tear some of the fresh paint away.  

You can do a couple of things - the easiest would be to just touch up the wall where the drips are, if you have that color.  

You could also make the stripe wider, to cover the drips, or add another color over the drips.  I would try to remove the drips first, as the bumps will stand out under the new paint.

There is also a new tape on the market called "Frogtape", which is supposed to prevent this problem.

Answer 2

You probably were applying too much of the black paint and it was able to run behind the tape.

Can you re-tape and paint the border lower down the wall? a wider, larger border to cover the runs and drips?

Masking tape is a type of crepe paper - it's crinkled and needs to be pressed down to make a uniform seal. But you should also not be laying on so much paint as to allow it to run. The tiny gaps in the wrinkles of the tape and the unevenness of the wall surface will create capillary action and even drawn the paint into those tiny gaps. Better to brush lightly with thin coats over the taped area.

At this point, to correct the situation, you might have better luck taping the black and then painting some pink paint over the black drips - at least gravity will not be working against you.

Answer 3

If the wall is textured the painter's tape doesn't always burnish well to the wall and the paint will seep under it.  Often painters will run a bead of clear, matte caulk or matte medium along the tape to keep that from happening. The only thing you can do now is mask off the border you just painted running a bead of caulk along the edge and repainting a straight line with the color underneath the border.  Since you used black, you may need to use a stain blocking primer so the black doesn't bleed through.

Answer 4

If you want a perfect line this is how you do it. Put the tape on the wall. Paint the edge of the tape with the existing wall color. Let it dry. Now paint your border. When you peel the tape off the wall you will have a perfect edge because when you painted the tape edge you prevented the next color from seeping under the tape.  Try it everyone will think you are a professional.