Great Tape Debate

When I decided to refresh our yellow bathroom with a striped paint job, I knew it was going to be challenging. I knew that in order to do it right it had to be done in numerous layers and I knew I was going to have to heavily rely on painter's tape to keep my lines straight and crisp.

I have painted so many times that by now I am comfortable cutting in without the use of tape. However, before we went tape-free, we used 3M Scotch Blue Painter's Tape and achieved acceptable results. Yet for this project, I wanted perfect results so I decided to match 3M's blue tape head to head with FrogTape's green tape. I planned on painting three layers so I decided to use each tape once and which ever one won, would be awarded with another round for the third layer.

First I tested 3M's blue tape.

It was easy to apply and while painting, held tight to the wall so I wasn't afraid of peeling.

But I wasn't too pleased with the results. Like I said, in the past the tape was acceptable but I did not want to see this much bleeding especially since I wanted the stripes to have crisp lines. The photo below is how it looked all over.

This photo shows a spot where the paint excessively seeped under the tape.

And this photo shows the same bleeding, but also how the tape peeled up the dry paint once I pulled the tape off. I wasn't pleased to say the least.

So, after that first layer of paint, I was super excited to try out the FrogTape.

It too was easy to apply, but if you touched the back of the tape too much, it lost its stickiness and didn't adhere to the wall. I had to make sure I was careful not to touch the back too much but also make sure it was adhering to the wall.

But the results were so worth it! When I started pulling the tape off the wall and saw these crisp lines with no bleeding, I called Justin into the room and showed him how frogging awesome the tape was.

There were no areas that I had to touch up. It was easy to declare FrogTape the winner of the challenge and used it on the third layer as well. See how sharp it worked!

I couldn't be happier with the results and can't wait to show it off to friends, family, and possible any solicitor who knocks on our door.

If you haven't yet taken the plunge into painting in a tape-free world, I highly recommend grabbing FrogTape the next time you run out (and not just because it's green). It worked beautifully for me and I'm already brainstorming other painting projects that require its use. (On a side note, Home Depot does not carry FrogTape because it is considered "out-of-their-price-range", as one associate explained to me, but  the lovely Menards does!)