Keep Painter's Tape Straight With This Clever Trick

Painting your room can either be therapeutic or terribly stressful depending on your approach. Some people can take a brush and work magic; the majority, however, craft chaos. Enter painter's tape, a classic DIY paint hack for keeping things clean — although when used incorrectly, the outcome may not be what you hoped for. So it's vital to keep your tape straight and get the perfect pull for DIY homeowners and novices alike.

To begin, tape adheres better to a clean surface, so wipe down any molding before laying your tape. The best strategy from here is to take baby steps. Instead of attacking an entire wall, corner to corner, start small with manageable pieces of tape around 12 inches in length. Overlap the smaller pieces and slowly move across the wall with them, applying pressure as you go to make sure they adhere properly. When you reach the end of the wall, you can cut the tape with a razor knife to ensure the piece fits the corner. Corners or crevices may require even smaller sections to give you more control over each piece, and running the edge of an old credit card or putty knife over the tape before you start painting will help create a bubble-free seal. This will have you painting like a professional, instead of struggling to stay consistent.

Once you've mastered the adhesion process, your creative possibilities with painter's tape dramatically increase, as it can be useful in a wide array of projects. For starters, you can paint anything from walls to doors to furniture, or even art projects. Protect molding and ceilings, of course, and use it when adding accent colors. If you want to give a dresser some depth, for instance, paint your drawers a slightly different color than your base and use painter's tape to keep them separate. Painters tape can also be used as a sort of stencil to add a logo, crest, or design to a wall or piece of furniture. When it comes to art projects, painter's tape can be used as a boundary on canvas the same way it would on a wall.

Painter's tape is a variety of masking tape, meaning it has functions beyond painting. When it comes to organization, it can be used to label storage containers or as a makeshift sticky note — you can write on the tape or use it to hang a larger note somewhere you'll remember it. In the kitchen, it can hold a bag of chips closed when you can't find a clip, and it serves as a great date sticker to keep your food fresh. You can even use it to test out sizing when considering rug sizes or wall decor. Find the dimensions of the item you're interested in and use tape to mark where it would go on your wall or floor to see how it would fit your spot before ordering the product. Painter's tape can be extremely versatile once you know how to use it.