Bee's Knees Industries

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Tools & Supplies: Shur-Line Paint Edger

I thought it would be fun to share some information and tips about the tools and supplies I use for the different crafts I do. I have very diverse tastes when it comes to creating, and I've had so much trial and error with the tools I use, that it might be useful for me to share some of what I've learned.

Since I've been so busy working on my house lately, and, well, I figure that painting my house is a type of creative craft, I wanted to let you folks know about a nifty little tool I discovered recently, the Shur-Line paint edger.

It consists of a small spongy pad on a handle that you use to apply paint along trim or in a corner. The handle has little wheels that roll smoothly along the surface to help keep your paint aligned nicely. Below you can see how I load it with paint using a paintbrush.

In my bedroom, I decided to do a dark blue accent wall, which I hope to transform it into a dark blue mural background sometime soon. I cut in all the corners and trim of my studio using painters tape and an angled paintbrush, so I thought the same method would work for the bedroom.

I discovered after much frustration that getting a nice straight edge between the dark and light colors was darned near impossible. However, after some research, I found out about the paint edger tool. Below, you can see the difference the second pass with the Shur Line tool made. (I still need to do the same thing with the light blue color, to clean up that wall, but let's pretend we can't see that part, OK?)

I'm so much happier with the result now, and I'm newly inspired to paint accent walls in every room. Or, hey, why not accent walls on every wall! Oh, I'm going to have fun...

The First Updates

The home Tony and I moved into is about fifty years old, and, as such, needs a bit of updating. Some of the updates are Big Important Updates, like fixing the foundation under the tub, but most of them are small, personal preference updates, like removing the faux wood paneling pictured above.

The first set of photos shows what my art studio looked like when we received the keys to the house. The second set of photos shows what it looked like one hour later. It's Tony approved!

I decided to go with a nice shiny white paint (Behr Ultrawhite in semigloss) to give myself the big, bright art studio I've dreamed of for ages. Below you can see the room's progress the weekend after we closed on the house.

I just love my new space. This room is the first room I've ever been allowed to paint, and I couldn't be happier with it. I'll share more updates as I move along. My next steps will be to replace the copper light fixture and, well, finish unpacking my art supplies.

Oh, yeah, and that's what our socks looked like after painting all weekend.