Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Day 935's experiment


My projects of late have involved painting lots of trim and windows. I'm not going to lie, this is not my favorite way to spend a weekend or evening, so I've been looking for ways to make it easier and faster. A good brush with angled bristles was a start, but my hand is not especially steady so I always use painters' tape.

When I heard about a new kind of tape that boasts PaintBlock Technology I had to have some. I tracked some Frog Tape down at Lowe's and got to work. The window above was painted with regular blue painters' tape, and you can see that I need to follow up with a straight-edge razor to remove the paint that bled under the tape.


And this window was taped with Frog Tape. As you can see, no bleed! It essentially eliminated the third step. On the whole, I am very pleased and will be buying it again, but it is worth noting that it is about a dollar more per roll than the blue tape. I think in the future I would only use it when I need a super crisp, clean edge.

Also, I like to get two uses out of my tape so I painted half the window then pulled off the tape and put it on the bottom half. I could tell that the adhesive wasn't as tight on the second half and there was some paint bleed, but it wasn't half as much as on the window taped with blue tape. Just something to think about.

Have you tried Frog Tape? What is your favorite time-saving product?

By the way, this was an unsolicited experiment.

12 comments:

Unknown said...

Wow! What a difference! I have not tried frog tape yet, although I've heard tons of good things about it. The next time I need a super-straight line I'm definitely going to use some, though! :)

Kelly@TearingUpHouses said...

I haven't tried it, but I've been hearing that it's great. Good to know, since I paint a lot of trim!

Kelly

Brooke @ Blueprint Bliss said...

That's a big difference. Have heard about frog tape- but haven't tried it.

My time saving- splurging to buy Ben Moore's Aura paint. Most colors cover in one coat---- so it's worth it to pay $50 for a gallon!

High-Heeled Foot in the door said...

I love frog tape! I talk about it all the time on my blog!

It always works wonders for me!

Danielle and Clint said...

I never knew of such a tape! And it works!!! That is such a pet peeve of mine when painting walls or ceilings. Thanks for sharing!

Tammy said...

I love frog tape and buy it all the time. Sad thing is once you use it you will not go back to the others as they are just irritating.
My time saver is I bought a roll of that plastic wrap that you push the edges and it sticks to things..I wrap it around paint brushes between coats and also seal the top of the paint can with it so I don't have to bang it back on and take it back off.

tammy

Christy said...

We tried it last weekend on the white baseboards in our bedroom and LOVED it!!! Leaps and bounds above regular painters tape. Our sanity is definitely worth the extra dollar!!

Unknown said...

Frog tape is the best! I use blue tape if I don't need super crisp edges, but I use frog take for anything that needs to be "perfect". I buy it at Lowes and at Sherwin Williams.

Grace @ Sense and Simplicity said...

I not only haven't tried frog tape, I hadn't even heard of it, until about 30 seconds ago. I wonder if it is available in Canada yet - I'll have to find out as it looks very useful.

michelle said...

we are in the sanding & scraping phase of painting some windows now. thanks for the tip! we're definitely going to try some frog tape.

Dreams of Perfection said...

I too have had a disasterous experience using blue tape :o( I have been told to use froggy tape. Definitely in the future for me.

Dreams of Perfection said...

I too have had a disasterous experience using blue tape :o( I have been told to use froggy tape. Definitely in the future for me.