Dado rail

[NOY20]

My grandparents want me paint a feature wall. The trouble is it is on textured wallpaper with a dado rail along the wall which is going in a different colour. What is the best way to paint with bleeding onto either surface. Saw frog tape which looks good. Should I paint the dado first and cut in the wall or the other way round remembering the wallpaper is textured. Thanks

 

[misterhelpful]

Masking tape often causes more problems than it's worth and the best way to get a straight edge is by doing it free hand - easier said than done for the novice but with a good quality brush and practice it can be mastered quite quickly. The rail should really be done after the walls.

The trick is to charge the brush well (work the paint into the bristles to about two thirds of their length) and then don't overload the brush when you are applying the paint. Start cutting in slightly away from the edge of the rail so that you get a nice amount of paint onto it and then drag the brush carefully along the joint of dado rail and paper, thus pulling the paint you have put onto the rail with it. It should follow the edge of the paper quite nicely but a quick tip that can give you a 'more even' edge to work with when painting textured paper is to run a very small amount of caulk along the top of the rail, smooth off in both directions with a wetted finger and allow to dry. Doing this before you start any painting will give you a relatively flat edge by even out the hollows in the paper and make the cutting in easier.

 

[NOY20]

Misterhelpful thanks for the advice again. I've just seen the demo videos for the frogtape which also can be used on textured surfaces with a particular method. I may choose this instead. Looks like it works a treat, but thanks again for your knowledge

 

[misterhelpful]

No probs. I'm just going by what others have said about the Frog tape, which hasn't been that good.

If you can, post back after you've used it with your results - it'll help anyone else in your situation to know if it worked.

Cheers
mrH

 

[NOY20]

No probs will do.

 

[bradleydecorating]

I have to say I agree with misterhelpful's advice. I'm a professional decorator and tried frogtape just out of interest - it's not different from any other masking tape, in my view. (Except that it's four times the price!) Plus, all masking tapes work best when both surfaces (protected and to-be painted) are 100% flat - and if applied to wallpaper, they can pull it off.

Are you just painting over existing wallpaper, or applying new feature wallpaper yourself? If the latter, then you could of course paint your dado rail first, allow to dry completely then put the paper on; it's the one time you will get the opportunity for a perfect rail/wall edge, if you are not confident about cutting in!

 

[NOY20]

I'll be painting over existing wall paper, all of which is textured including the feature wall to be, so not only will the dado rail have to be done, but I have to cut in the feature wall down textured paper, all be it it's not heavily textured. I'm pretty good free hand, but over textured, not sure if it would be a better result as apposed to tape, but from what your saying, maybe it's not worth the frog tape, which as you say, is fairly expensive.