A Painting Time Saver

Things are moving along with our bathroom reno planning. We've ordered a vanity and counter top, and are crossing our fingers they look awesome once they arrive (the counter is turning out to be the hardest thing, since no two slabs of marble are the same, and we really want one with lighter veining). We figured since there's a lot more of limited selection on the counter options in our price range, we'd nail that down first before we purchase our tile, since we can be a little more flexible with the tile selection. Good news though is that if this vanity and counter end up working out, we're already $500 under budget, whoo-hoo! But I'll share more details once they actually arrive.

But since we've been busy with bathroom planning, my other projects have slowed down in their progress. However, I wanted to share with you a cool time saving tool that was pretty helpful in my guest bedroom painting.

I first saw this edger tool on Lauren's blog, Oh Lordy! and had been intrigued ever since. And when I saw the tool while I was waiting for paint to be mixed, I knew I had to try it. Especially since it was less than $6, with one pad included.


This is what the guest bedroom was looking like before. Same grandma pink walls as was in almost every room of the house when we moved in, and the dreaded dark trim. Oh, and also all of my boxes of shoes that I still haven't unpacked!

Instead of following the same painting order and techniques that I did on the family room and my office, this time around I experimented by painting the trim first. And I didn't even painstakingly tape everything off like I usually do (except where the baseboards met the carpet and around the inside of the window), I just was careful not to get paint on the ceiling, but didn't make much of an effort to avoid the walls--after all, they were going to be covered with paint soon enough.

Then, once the trim was painted (with the two coats of primer and two coats of semi gloss that is needed to cover trim this dark), I was able to test out the new edger tool, again without having to tape things off. Overall, I would give this tool a B+. It did save me time, but it wasn't perfect.

To use the tool, you have to flip up the little black plastic guides, gently dip the paint pad in your paint, and scrap off the excess.

I found the best and cleanest way to approach your trim was to set the edger tool about a 1/4 to 1/2 inch away from the trim, and then slide it on the wall until the guides touch the trim.

Then you just slide the edger tool along your trim to apply the paint. It worked best to slide the edger over the same section of wall 2-3 times, to evenly apply the paint all the way along the edge of the trim.

There are some drawbacks to this tool though, as it didn't do a 100% perfect job, and there were some places that I either had to quickly wipe off with a damp paper towel, or go back and touch up with trim paint later. But that can be said when painting the traditional way with taping things off, usually there's still a few little spots that need touch up once the tape is removed.

One key thing that I found helped with minimizing the places that needed extra attention later was to use a paper towel to wipe two specific spots after every or every other pass with the edger tool. In the below picture you can see the spots, directly under where the plastic guides are. Paint would build up under the guides and squish out, leaving extra paint on my trim, so wiping these down frequently was a huge help. And yes, using this tool is messy, with all of this wiping off that was needed. But taking the time to remove the paint build up under the plastic guides made things so much cleaner, on the wall at least! Too bad I didn't figure this little tip out until about half way through the room.

So that's my little review of this edger tool. B+ because it does save time, allowing you to not have to tape off the trim or go super slowly by hand, but does take some extra attention to make sure it works properly. The price was great, at under $6, but then again, the plastic guides that you flip up every time you dip the tool into paint aren't going to last forever, as the construction is a little cheap/flimsy. But for such a low price, I feel OK replacing the tool every so often as needed.

I also picked up a second painting tool that I tried out at the same time, a corner painter.

I would grade this corner painter an A-. It was overall pretty great, since it made the corner painting so much quicker and cleaner than a regular old paint brush. And I liked that it had a hinge on the handle, so worked well close to the ground too. This corner painter was also under $6, which made me pretty happy, and the single pad that came with it definitely looked like it could be used several times after a good rinsing.

However I can't give it a perfect score, because it did drip a lot. I overcame this by just holding a paper towel under it as I worked down the wall, but there was definitely an "oh crap!" moment when it first dripped down the wall!

Neither of these tools allow you to get into the very bottom and top corners right next to the trim, so I still had to do those tiny sections by paint brush. But overall, I'd definitely use both of these again. Even with the downsides, I'll take a time saver any day! And no, I'm not being paid or anything for these reviews, I just wanted to share my experiences in case it's helpful to anyone else.

Last night I got the first coat of primer on the hall and closet doors, so I'm getting close to being done with all of the painting in our guest room. So much better than grandma pink walls and dark trim. And the fresh colors even make the brown and cream shag carpet look better!

The paint color is Shaker Gray by Benjamin Moore. I love the warm gray color with blue undertones, and I think it will look really great with all of the teal and white accessories I've already purchased for the room. This wall color is actually on the same paint chip strip as my office color, just two shades darker, so it looks really nice from the hallway when you can see the two rooms next to each other.

(Yep, my boxes of shoes are still in there. I really need to get on unpacking them, although with it being flip flop weather, there isn't much need for 5 inch heels at the moment!)

Have you come across any tools or tips to save time when painting? I'd love to hear them, since we still have like 70% of our house left to paint!