Painting between wall and Coving

Roaming

Hi All,

Been painting our living/dining rooms -white ceiling, white coving (polystyrene type?), and gentle fawn walls (like a pale mocha) but now have the wall paint on the coving. I can wipe the face of the coving to get it clean but the bit that lies perpendicular to the wall and meets it is not just hard to clean (suggestions on how to clean it would be much appreciated!!) but also ruin the wall paint.

I would like to know how to clean the underside of the coving without creating too much of a mess on the wall paint and then paint it white. Of course, I suspect I would have to paint wall along the coving edge again too.

Also, someone suggested decorators caulk to make a straight line between wall and coving... how do I do that, and what is the right product? Would I need to paint over the caulk, and why? If its white, shouldn't that be ok to leave as is?

Many Thanks!

kevinyork

Roaming wrote: »

Hi All,

Been painting our living/dining rooms -white ceiling, white coving (polystyrene type?), and gentle fawn walls (like a pale mocha) but now have the wall paint on the coving. I can wipe the face of the coving to get it clean but the bit that lies perpendicular to the wall and meets it is not just hard to clean (suggestions on how to clean it would be much appreciated!!) but also ruin the wall paint.

I would like to know how to clean the underside of the coving without creating too much of a mess on the wall paint and then paint it white. Of course, I suspect I would have to paint wall along the coving edge again too.

Also, someone suggested decorators caulk to make a straight line between wall and coving... how do I do that, and what is the right product? Would I need to paint over the caulk, and why? If its white, shouldn't that be ok to leave as is?

Many Thanks!

I would suggest using masking tap, a good quality one such as Frogtape delicate so it doesnt pull the paint off. You could mask your walls then paint your coving white leaving a nice clean edge.

Caulk can be left white but can be hard to get a perfect straight line and when you smooth it with your finger you tend to get a rounded edge rather than a crisp angle. I would go for the Frogtape.

OK_Sauce

Why dont you do what I've done, just paint the bottom edge of the coving using the wall paint? You can then get a very neat edge by just cleaning the curved surface off.

Roaming

Have been thinking about it but not sure how acceptable it is....

It would make life a lot more easier!

Leif

Learn how to paint along the bottom edge of the coving with white paint. You need a steady hand but it is not hard. I like the Purdy Elite Glide brush for such jobs, it has a good shape, and it does not shed hairs unlike cheap brushes. If it is just a bit of coloured paint on the coving edge, then get an artists brush and touch up with white paint. That is what I did with the first coving I painted (my work was not so good at the start).

keystone

Its easier to cut up into the horizontal surface (in your case the bottom edge of the coving) than it is to cut into the vertical one. So...

Paint your ceiling and coving first and it doesn't matter if a little bit gets on the walls.

You are totally wasting your time even considering using maskers.

When doing the walls cut into the angle using a 2½ or 3" brush but don't try and paint a staright line with it. Do it in slightly circular motions pushing the paint up into the angle. You'll get a nice straight line (well you would if the covinging /wall interface was straight) with wall paint on wall and no wall paint on the white coving.

Cheers