Last week I asked a question about how to paint circles on the wall well I have changed my mind an d am now doing stripes - Much easier =) I have checked out a bunch of links online for helpful hints and design ideas but I have conflicting tips on when to remove the tape off the wall. Half says to do it while the paint is still wet and the other half says to wait until its dry. What do you think?
Should I let the paint completely dry before removing the tape or should I try to carefully remove it while it is still wet?
Thanks in advance
So long as you didn't put it on heavy you should take it off while wet. The problem with dry is the paint gets stuck to the tape so when you pull the tape off you take the paint with it.
Get high quality tape and pull it off when the paint is about 1/2 way dry. We did stripes in our daughters' room and that's what we found worked. So... pull the strips off the first stripes when you're done with about half of the room. That way the paint will have dried for an hour or so.
Are you using a primer paint, before you apply your stripes?
With primer, the paint adheres better.
Thus, when taking off the tape, the paint may not pull off with the tape.
And, I assume you are using painter's tape, right? So that it is easier to pull off.
When pulling off the tape, if while still wet, do it slowly and carefully so that you don't get your fingers smudged, in it fresh paint.
If pulling off the tape while dry... again, pull it off slowly... and pull downward...while keeping close to the wall. So prevent the dried paint, from pulling off along with the tape.
The thing is: either way you do it... do NOT get too much paint, on the tape. If the paint gets on the tape and it is thickly covered, then you increase the chances of the paint, pulling off with the tape, as you pull off the tape.
Not dry.
But not completely wet - after the "drips" are done, but the rest of the paint is still wet looking.
Damn this IS confusing to type out....
Peel the tape after 10 minutes. :)
When I painted walls in our house during construction our builder told me to take the tape off while the paint is wet b/c if it dries the tape will take off some of the paint.
Hmmm...never done stripes but when my husband paints (I'm not allowed IN the house when he is!) he takes the painters tape off of the trim after it's dry.
If you wait until the paint is completely dry, 90% of the time you'll remove a small portion of the paint with the tape. Remove the tape while the paint is still wet, but not immediately after painting. The paint needs time to set or begin drying.
Dry or wet will work doesn't really matter what matters is the quality of the tape, get the good stuff , blue painting specific tape.
I was told to wait until the paint was dry and when I pulled the tape off the backsplash and window trim, it peeled the paint off too. I vote wet paint!
If you are still interested in doing circles, LOWES sells sheets of various size circles in the wallpaper dept. You just stick them on the wall where you want them, & can peel them off when you are ready to remove them or repaint the room. You can probably also find them at craft stores like Michael's.
