Painting, unable to get a straight edge!

[youvegottobekidding]

Painting a dark colour around the window, keeping inside the window (recess) white. At the top is proving particularly hard to get a neat sharp edge between the dark colour & white. What I did was use masking tape on the white (as I would if I was painting a dark colour on a wall in the corner that was adjoining a white wall) and paint the dark colour. Only 2 problems, the masking tape was peeling off some of the white paint underneath & the blue paint was seeping through the edging of the masking tape. It’s more of less the same problem along the sides of the window recess. I hope I’m making sense here!

I don’t really want to paint inside the recess dark as well. So I either put up with the not so great lines or paint it back to white. Unless someone can come up with a genius idea to get a straight line between the two? I don’t have a steady enough hand to not use masking tape & I did try it with a cheaper brand so it wasn’t as ‘tough’ But the same thing happened.

Picture please!

Can we see a pic?

Did you use regular or low-tack tape?

Frog tape!

Same idea as masking tape, but it actually works.

Frog tape is great.
I always overpaint in the lighter colour then once that's properly dry use the tape to get the edge in the darker colour.
If you use a thin brush and go along the masking tape, then wait for that to dry then paint as normal it help with the colour bleeding.

Masking tape never works for that job, OP. I've never tried Frog tape - sounds like it's worth looking into.

When I had this problem with the join between the ceiling and the walls (very uneven walls and an uneven join), I used a strip of stiff card pressed to the wall and drew a line along the top of it with a Sharpie which was about the same colour as the dark paint. I then painted a line fractionally under the Sharpie line with a small brush before I began the large-scale painting. It worked perfectly, and the result was great. Having a very clear Sharpie line to work to made it a lot easier than trying to see a pencil line, and it helped that I was able to keep just under the Sharpie line, rather than than trying to paint right over it, if you see what I mean.

Frog tape is your friend here

But don’t let the paint dry, that’s why it’s peeling off

You can also buy paint guards for this job

Okay so this is one of the worst parts, it doesn’t look that bad when you’re sat several feet away!

Frog tape looks good & the sharpie idea is a good one. It was some industrial strength masking tape that I used, it’s all I had to hand, otherwise I usually use Poundland stuff which does the job & doesn’t take the white paint off underneath.

I've seen your other thread and I get you have repainted the dark colour white instead, but it is possible to get a straight edge here. The trick is to try and 'bead' the paint on a thin or angled paintbrush (with white) to avoid the feathered edge of the white against the dark colour. You can use much smaller paintbrushes, designed for artistic use. Personally I find masking tape no good for this sort of edge, it's just helpful to avoid splashes but to get a good edge you need to take it slow with the right brush with the right amount of paint.

Agree about Frog Tape, it's excellent. I used it to protect my hardwood floor when I painted the new skirting. Also, like you trying to do, to get a straight edge with a darker colour. I did hit the ceiling by accident a couple of times though, and I cut a piece of thing cardboard and used that as a shield to quickly patch up a few small bits