Lessons Learned

So, after much painting and ignoring my sweet family (thanks to my wonderful and extremely patient husband for filling in!), I have learned a few noteworthy items to pass along about painting stripes.  First off, I will never, ever, ever, EVER paint stripes without Frog Tape.  I know I mentioned this earlier, and I know it's a little more expensive, but I have tried the standard blue, a different green tape (supposedly SO much better) and both were AWFUL!!!  Here's some pics of my experience:

This one is with the Frog Tape:

This one is with the other tape:

Crazy, huh?

The other thing I learned is that walls aren't always straight, and neither are ceilings, unfortunately.  I actually knew this in my 1958 house, but in the 2004 one I thought it would be different . . . not so much!  As I'm taping ten different lines across the room, I noticed quite a bit of differences from one mark to the next!  I started eyeballing it instead of following the marks because they were so off from each other, even in a 12" linear space.  So, lesson #2 is to trust your gut!

Lesson #3:  Flat Enamel (Latex-based) paint is my new fave!  It is amazing because it is washable (as in easy clean-up), super-washable (as in scrubbing pencil drawings off quite easily without damaging the paint), and extraordinarily forgiving to amateur painters. ; )

I think I am done painting for a while . . . not because I don't want to, but because I am out of ideas and I don't want to have to paint twice! : )  So if anyone has a brilliant idea for what to do with my bedroom (besides calling David Bromstead), or the family room (I'm thinking about painting an accent wall behind the piano, and doing similar colors up the columns next to the fireplace--color? dark neutrals?), let me know!!!